Oven Fries with Tahini Yogurt and Smoky-Sweet Nuts

To make the loaded fries, there are three elements to consider. They are the fries, gooey cheesy sauce and bacon bites. The genius of this Ottolenghi’s recipe is his ability to replicate the flavor and texture of the crowd-pleasing elements — while making the dish guilt free and heathyish. There are a few wonderful crispy oven fries recipes in this space, but loading them with more goodies takes the fries to another level.

Ottolenghi’s approach to the crunchy oven fries is to coat the thinly-cut fries with rice flour, olive oil and salt. Cover them tightly with foil and put them in the 400°F oven for the first 15 minutes. Uncover, increase the oven temperature and roast for another 25 minutes. That’s it. The approach is like a simplified version of J. Kenji López-Alt’s The Food Lab’s best oven fries method.

In fact, I haven’t heard anyone explaining the concept of “fractals, panko, and bread-crumb coatings” better and more fully than J. Kenji López-Alt in The Food Lab (page 882). For a major crunch, it’s essential to enhance the irregular edges and surface area of the breaded food. Finally, I got it!

Bake fries under cover, uncover, raise oven temperature and bake some more

The Food Labs’ Crunchy Oven Fries  (pages 914-916):

• Toss the potatoes with a bit of buttermilk, which is just thick enough to coat them in a layer of liquid that forms a thin sheath all around. An egg-based batter forms the adhesive layer but would have a hard time sticking to the food without what comes next…
• The next step is to dredge the fries with a combination of flour and cornstarch. (Cornstarch is a pure starch that adds moisture-retention without adding excess protein). The idea with the two-flour combination is to dilute the flour’s protein content, thereby creating a thinner, more delicate crunch.
• Shake off the excess flour with a fine-mesh strainer.
• Finally, to best emulate frying in the oven, you need to add the potatoes to a fully preheated pan with a layer of oil in it, so that they sizzle upon contact.

This approach reminds me of Nigella’s recipe of perfect roasted potatoes which produces spectacular results. Her variations call for goose or duck fat and semolina flour. The crucial steps are applying high heat to small potatoes after parboiling and dredging them with semolina.

Whichever the flour used for dredging: rice flour, all-purpose flour and cornstarch combination, semolina or Wondra, the key to success lies in prepping the surface of the potatoes beforehand. Think applying a primer prior to painting a flat surface. Primer makes the difference. After that, the standard breading consists of three distinct layers: buttermilk/egg, flour, and bread crumbs.

In some cases, the potatoes are parboiled (soaking also works) in order to rough up and increase the surface area. That’s the reason Ottolenghi starts by roasting the potato fries covered for the initial 15 minutes. That in effect steams the potatoes.

Furthermore, I like the simplicity of one single step without having to boil the potatoes in a separate pan, drying and then dredging, before roasting them in the oven. In the end, I appreciate processes which work seamlessly within the small scale and constraint of our home kitchen. How come I didn’t think of doing that?

To say that I’m impressed with the methodology used in the recipe is an understatement. Equally impressive and mouthwatering are the tahini yogurt and the smoky-sweet nuts. The tahini yogurt, pickled herb, together with the spicy, smoky and crunchy nuts will sing in almost any dish — in salad, hummus, eggs or vegetables. Don’t be alarmed when you see the long lists of ingredients. They are easy to put together while the fries are in the oven without too much fuss. Certainly, keepers in my book.

Print Recipe

Oven Fries with Tahini Yogurt and Smoky Sweet Nuts

By Yotam Ottolenghi – Serves: 4

An alternative take on loaded fries, but the cheesy sauce is replaced with tahini yogurt and the bacon bits with smoky-sweet nuts.

Ingredients

• FOR THE POTATOES:
• 2 ¼ pounds/1 kilogram skin-on Yukon Gold (or King Edward) potatoes, cut lengthwise into roughly 1/2-inch/1 1/2-centimeter-thick sticks
• 2 teaspoons rice flour
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Kosher salt
• FOR THE PICKLED HERB STEMS:
• 1 heaping tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro (coriander) or parsley stems (or a mixture of both)
• 1 ½ tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• FOR THE SMOKY-SWEET NUTS:
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• ⅓ cup/40 grams pine nuts
• ¼ cup/30 grams roughly chopped blanched almonds
• 1 teaspoon light brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon nigella seeds (or black sesame seeds)
• 1 teaspoon Urfa chile flakes
• 1 teaspoon Aleppo chile flakes
• ½ teaspoon hot smoked paprika
• FOR THE TAHINI YOGURT:
• 3 tablespoons/60 grams Greek-style yogurt
• 2 ½ tablespoons/50 grams tahini
• 1 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 garlic cloves, minced

Instructions

1

Heat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit/200 degrees Celsius.

2

On a large parchment-lined baking sheet (tray), toss the potatoes with the rice flour, oil and 1 teaspoon salt. Spread them out in an even layer so they’re not overlapping. Cover the baking sheet tightly with foil and bake for 15 minutes, until the potatoes steam and soften slightly.

3

Meanwhile, make the pickled stems: Add the herb stems to a small bowl with the vinegar and set aside to gently pickle.

4

Prepare the nuts: Add the oil to a small frying pan and heat over medium-high. Once hot, add the pine nuts and almonds, and cook, stirring occasionally, until toasted and nicely browned, about 1 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and immediately stir in the sugar, nigella seeds, Urfa and Aleppo chile flakes, paprika, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Transfer to a bowl.

5

Make the tahini yogurt: Add all the ingredients to a bowl with 2 1/2 tablespoons water and 1/4 teaspoon salt; whisk until smooth. Add an additional 1 or 2 tablespoons of water, if needed, until the mixture is just pourable, since it tends to thicken as it sits.

6

Remove the foil from the potatoes, turn the heat up to 425 degrees Fahrenheit/220 degrees Celsius and return to the oven for 15 minutes. Use a spatula to gently flip the fries over, separating them if they stick together at all, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes more, until nicely golden and crispy. Set aside to cool for 5 minutes.

7

To serve, transfer the fries to a large serving platter and drizzle with the tahini yogurt. Spoon the nut mixture on top, followed by the pickled stems and their liquid. Serve immediately.

Notes

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1022187-oven-fries-with-tahini-yogurt-and-smoky-sweet-nuts?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article

Ottolenghi cookbooks