Being a party queen is not easy. From the starters to the desserts, everything has to be well turned out. Even your fries should be crispy! Usually, thatâs served as a starter and you just cannot afford to start a party with soggy and oily fries. Being a party queen, itâs your responsibility to see that your guests are served healthy and crisp fries. Use the oven to make fries. Itâs healthier this way. Add to that the benefit of keeping the kitchen clean. Deep frying the fries will make your kitchen messy. So will shallow frying. Wrap your fries in a batter that will add crispiness to your fries. Also, between sweet potato and the regular potato, opt for the latter. Thatâs because regular potato contains less moisture content (about 48 percent) while the sweet potatoes can have as much as 76 percent water content! Browning (and not burning) also makes fries crispy. Read on to know about some tips to make your fries crispier.
1. Cut them thin
Cut the potatoes in thin slices. You can cut them in round shape or in julienne style. The logic is that water should evaporate as fast as possible. When you cut thin strips water reaches the surface area very fast and evaporates instantly. Thatâs how you get crispy fries.
2. Dehydrate them
When any food is completely stripped off moisture, it becomes crispy. Dehydrate your fries so that the moisture content is considerably reduced. A dehydrator is an obvious choice to treat your fries before cooking. Or keep them in the sun for a day. That will strip them off a lot of moisture. Or, just use your hair dryer over them. That should dehydrate them well enough. Remember not to dry them completely or theyâll come out as hard as stone. Potatoes will lose a little bit of moisture even in the oven so let them be a little moist before you put them in.
3. Uniform baking
Just like any other dish you are baking, allow your fries to bake on the other side too. That way not only will you have evenly baked fries youâll have them equally browned and crisp!
4. Soak them
You might be wondering how soaking the fries in water will help when actually we are working towards eliminating moisture from them altogether. Well, soaking fries in water encourages the release of starch from the potatoes. And in case you didnât know, starch restricts the release of moisture from the fries. So, now that the starch is done with, water will evaporate easily and faster. But, remember to place them in paper towels and dry them well before placing them in the oven. Otherwise youâll have excess moisture to deal with.
5. Wrap them in crust
If soft or soggy fries are your problem, create a crispy shell for them. Wrap them in a batter of egg white and flour or plain rice flour. Experiment with any local flour to add crispiness to your fries. Wrap them well before baking. That way youâll come up with an innovative variety of fries and you wonât have to worry about soggy fries.
6. Use paper instead of foil
An aluminum or metal foil will collect some amount of water when moisture is released while baking. Opt for a parchment paper or any other water absorbent paper. This will instantly absorb the released water and keep the fries dry.
7. Placement matters
Placing your baking tray at the right place can solve your problem to a great degree. Although heat is circulated evenly in an oven, itâs better to place your baking tray right at the bottom. This helps in âbrowningâ the fries better as the bottom of the baking tray receives maximum heat. Also, make sure that the upper shelves are empty so that the vapor has space to evaporate.
8. Donât steam
When something as starchy as potato fries are made, they tend to release a lot of moisture. This moisture needs an escape route otherwise youâll discover steamed fries instead of crispy ones. Open the oven door a couple of times to release the moisture within the oven.
9. Keep the numbers low
Even though you may have a lot of guests on your list and all of them might be great lovers of fries, cook fries only as much as your oven rack can accommodate at a time. No point in placing them one over the other. That way youâll end up with a clutter inside your oven. Moreover, the lower ones will remain soft and only those at the top will brown. So, donât allow the fries to touch each other.
10. Use the microwave
This is the fastest and possibly the fastest way to make fries. You can repeat the procedure several times as one cooking process involves only 3-4 minutes. Place them on a suitable paper in the microwave without crowding them. Remove them as soon as they start to brown. Avoid over cooking.