My 19-month old darling is finally starting to eat potatoes; in the form of baked fries. Previously, I have tried feeding him white, yellow sweet, orange sweet, blue potatoes steamed, mashed with butter, with cheese, baked in their jackets... nothing worked. He would take an occasional bite, but was definitely not fond of them. Then I came up with this simple recipe. Bingo!
Ingredients:-
1 medium sized sweet potato
1 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper for seasoning (optional)
Note: Different potatoes yield different results. My personal favourites to make baked fries with, are Aussie Gold potatoes and organic sweet potatoes (purple skin and peachy-coloured flesh). Both are so sweet and fragrant, and bake up to be crisp on the outside while soft and fluffy inside. Perfect! But they are a tad pricey; double the price of the more common Vietnamese/ Japanese yellow sweet potatoes. Although tasty, they are a little too dense in texture for baking; so they end up being too dry. I like to bake with blue potatoes from the USA too. They are a deep indigo colour (packed with antioxidants) and bake well. However, these (as with any white/ yellow potatoes) weep after you cut them, so be sure to dry them with a paper towel before dousing them with oil so that they crisp up nicely.
Method:-
1) Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
2) Peel and cut potatoes into batons about 1cm in width- I'm not talking about French cooking school precision here, just the general concept similarity in shape and size so that they cook in the same amount of time.
3) Coat the potato batons evenly with olive oil (and seasonings if desired).
4) Place onto a baking tray in one single layer, and some space between each fry.
5) Bake for 20-25min, or until golden and crisp on the outside.
Last night, Chubbs' doting Pseudo-Godpa, A, bought him a pair of training chopsticks for lefties (Chubbs is primarily left-handed). It has the penguin Pororo (Korean cartoon character) on it, and that thrills Chubbs to bits. He has recently started watching the cartoon, and it quite taken the dance moves of the characters (when the theme song comes on). Anyhow, he has been practising picking up biscuits and such with the chopsticks, and I must say he is coming along rather well. I'll see if he can pick up sweet potato nuggets next.
