The best thing since, well, the potato….make your own frozen french fries! I’m sure I’m not alone in the desire to cut down on the amount of time spent in the kitchen during the day with little ones running around (or crying…), it helps a lot to be able to make these fries ahead of time and freeze them. The trick is to bake them just a LITTLE bit when you cut them up, and cool them before freezing….
Freeze and Bake French Fries:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
Slice potatoes into thin strips, use as many or as few potatoes as you want! (tip: If you will be cutting for a while before cooking these, have a bowl of water handy to place the cut up potato strips in until you are ready to bake them. This way they don’t get all grey and gross).
If you have soaked the potatoes, take them out of the water and dry them a bit on a kitchen towel. Take the potato strips, place them in a large bowl and toss with some olive oil (just enough to coat lightly). Place the strips in a single layer on a cookie sheet, and bake for 7 minutes. (They won’t look finished, but that’s ok! Just need to partly cook them before freezing). Let the strips cool a few minutes on the pan.
Open a large Ziploc bag, and place a single layer of the cooked strips into the bag. Put the bag into the refrigerator, and allow the strips to cool completely. Once cooled, you can put the strips into the freezer. TIP: When you are putting the strips into the freezer, they don’t have to be in a single layer, so you can consolidate the bags at this point if you want.
To heat up the fries: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Take out as many fries as desired, and toss them with a bit of olive oil in a bowl. Add salt if you wish.
Place the fries in a single layer on a baking sheet, and bake for about 15 minutes, turning once half way through the baking. Adjust the time according to your oven and preference…some like them crispy, some like them softer!
Enjoy; we use these at least 3 times a week since rice is still out of my diet…..
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