It has been a while since I had potatoes. I usually have potatoes at least once a week, but I haven’t picked up potatoes in over two months. I haven’t even picked up my favorite frozen fries and tater tots from the supermarket in weeks. I can’t believe I haven’t had potatoes in nearly two months considering potatoes are an absolute weakness of mine. My drought from eating potatoes changed this week. After my work out earlier this week, I was craving some starchy potato goodness. I ended up washing a few russet potatoes, cutting them up into wedges, drizzling on some olive oil, generously seasoning both sides of the wedges, and then roasting them in the oven. As the potatoes were roasting in the oven, the most wonderful smell filled my kitchen. Lately, I’ve noticed my winter coat smelling like food. I guess all of the flavors from the dishes I’ve been cooking have started to seep into my clothes. I’ve also been bundling up in multiple layers of clothes both inside and outside of my home. The polar vortex has directly affected the Midwest and we’ve been experiencing the effects of the polar vortex in Ohio over the last week. The temperature has stayed in the negatives for the last two days and we received a weather warning of more snow this weekend. While I do enjoy the snow, I’m not exactly a fan of driving on snowy roads. I have been driving more often this month ever since I started on two certificate programs. Going to work and going to classes have made it a bit more difficult to cook throughout the week. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been spending weekends cooking in large batches and then packing up the food for Kevin and I to eat throughout the week. We couldn’t finish all of the fries I made earlier this week and ended up packing some fries to munch on throughout the week. Even though these fries were well seasoned, I cannot help but to serve them with a side of sriracha ketchup.
Baked Seasoned Wedge Fries:
· 5-6 russet potatoes, washed and cut into wedges
· 2 tablespoons olive oil
· 1½ teaspoons kosher salt
· ½ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper
· 1½ teaspoons garlic powder
· ½ teaspoon chili powder
· ½ teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
· 1 teaspoon dried parsley
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
2) Lay the potato wedges facing down on one side on the parchment lined baking sheet. Drizzle the wedges with olive oil. Evenly sprinkle the wedges with salt, pepper, garlic powder, chili powder, cayenne pepper, and dried parsley.
3) Place the baking sheet in the oven. Bake the wedges for 25-30 minutes.
Takeaways: Depending on how crispy you want the wedges, you can continue to bake the potatoes for an additional 5-10 minutes. If baking beyond 30 minutes, check on the wedges every 2-3 minutes until the potatoes achieve your desired crispiness. The potatoes are delicious on their own, but can also be served with a side of sriracha ketchup. I usually make my sriracha ketchup with one part sriracha and two parts ketchup.