Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries with Lime and Chili Aioli

I don't own any sort of dedicated deep fryer, so when I want to fry something I have to bust our the ol dutch oven and do it that way. Frankly, I think dealing with all that oil is more of a pain in the ass than it's worth, especially for making a side dish.

Luckily, the Smitten Kitchen Cookbook has a great method for doing fries in the oven (well, a pot of water and then the oven). I decided to substitute the typical russets with sweet potatoes, and add a dipping sauce as well.

 

Fries:

Sweet potatoes

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Parsley, for garnish

Preheat your oven to 450°F.

Cut the sweet potatoes into matchsticks approximately 3/8” thick. They can be a little bigger (since sweet potatoes are more irregularly shaped than russets, I think it’s perfectly acceptable if they’re not all 100% the same size), but don’t make them too large.

Add the fries (are they fries before they’re cooked, or just potatoes?) to a pot filled with cold water, and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 5 minutes; the potatoes should offer just a bit of resistance to a fork piercing them.

Meanwhile, prepare a baking sheet (I use a silpat for this, parchment paper could work as well or you could just grease the sheet well) and add to the oven.

Remove the potatoes with a spider/slotted spoon and dry on paper towels.  Remove the baking sheet from the oven, and place the fries on it in one layer. Season with salt and pepper and pour some olive oil on top. Bake for 30 minutes, flipping after 10 and 20 minutes.

Aioli:

1 egg

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 clove garlic, chopped

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

½ cup canola oil

1 teaspoon ground aji panca, or other powdered chili

1 tablespoon lime juice

Salt

Add the egg, mustard and garlic to a small jar (or do it in a blender). Add the oils to a measuring cup so they can be easily poured. Hit the egg/mustard/garlic with an immersion blender for 10 seconds, then slowly add the pour in the oil with the blender going. Add just a few drops at a time at first to start the emulsion, then start pouring in a very slow stream. Once you have about half the oil emulsified, you can pour a little more quickly. This should take about 2 minutes.

After the aioli is emulsified, season with salt, chili powder and lime juice to taste.