Masala French Fries
September 7th, 2008 filed under Appetizers, Vegan
Masala French Fries are an exciting twist on french fries, and they are great to serve with cocktails or as an appetizer.
Recipe serves 2 to 4.
Ingredients:
- 2 medium russet potato
- 2 tablespoons corn starch
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon dry mint powder (sukha podina)
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper (kali mirch)
- 1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
- 1/8 teaspoon citric acid (tatri)
- Oil to fry
Method:
- Peel the potatoes wash and cut into French fries.
- Mix the salt with potato and let it sit for about ten minutes.
- Drain the salt water well and lightly pat dry.
- Mix cornstarch, salt, mint powder, citric acid, red and black pepper together.
- Sprinkle the spice mix over potatoes and mix well so all the fries are covered with spices.
- Heat the oil in frying pan on medium high heat.
- The frying pan should have at least 1 1/2 inch of oil. To check if the oil is ready, just put potato strip in frying pan. Potato should sizzle.
- Fry the fries till they become gold in color all around, turn the fries a few times while frying.
- Remove fries from oil and place on paper towel.
- Serve hot and enjoy!
Variations
- Replace dry mint with dry fenugreek leaves.
- Feel free to experiment.
Tips
You can make the fries few hours before serving. Heat the fries in oven at 350 degrees for seven to ten minutes before serving.
Dear Mam,
wonderful variety of receipes with good videos to explain for youngsters like us.
I would like to know if you have tried baked french fries?If so, pl share your tips. I did try ,but ended not very crispy and got a little stuck to the parchment paper?
Thanks Shuba
Namaste Manjula mam,
Is it okay to use the same oil used for frying the french fries for other dishes or we should simply discard the oil after use. Also in which occasions can we reuse the same oil used for deep frying?
Whether or not to re-use oil depends on what’s already been fried in it and if it has left a flavor in the oil that will affect the taste of other foods fried in the same oil.
If the oil is not affected from the first frying, strain it through a strainer if you need to clean it from particles that have dropped off from the earlier frying (after the oil is cool of course).
If you’re not going to use the oil the same day, keep it it a closed jar in the fridge. The oil usually is good to re-use one or two times after the initial time you first fried with it.
Hi
Can I use corn flour as a subsitute for sorn starch? if not, is there any other subsitute?
It MIGHT be fine to substitute. Depending on where you live, cornflour is the same thing as cornstarch – just different words for the same thing. If it’s a superfine white powder, then it’s probably the same thing.
Another substitute is arrorwroot.
hi,
my family loves fries so i tried this recipe yesterday, it was an instant superhit..thanks for this wonderful tasty version as compared to the bland american fries..
Manjulaji, i also made 2 more recipes out of this prior salt application technique…
THIN ROUND POTATO CHIPS (LIKE LAYS CHIPS)
wash, peel & slice a potato very thin in rounds on the slicer..add few pinches of salt (as would be required to season it) mix the salt & the slices very well to coat the entire batch of slices.
let it rest for 10 mins.
remove the excess water from the slices & spread the slices on a clean towel..let it air dry for 5 mins (the potato slices might turn red, but thats no problem)
on medium heat, fry the slices in batches (enough slices to make one layer on oil, too many would not cook properly)
since they are thin, as soon as they are dropped in oil, light as a feather they will rise to the top – turn them over & remove them from oil while they are still the natural potato color (no pink, brown or golden brown spots). repeat with all batches.
these are exactly the LAYS type thin potato chips – these potato chips already have a salt flavor as it was seasoned on it first in the beginning – so you can add an additional seasoning of onion / garlic / paprika powder & give them the flavor that you love to it..my family likes a mixture of all 3, so i mix all the 3 powders in equal parts & add them immediately on the fresh batch of fried potato chips.
**************************************
second recipe i made with this same technique is POTATO SHREDS (POTATO SALI as it is popularly called)
wash, peel & shred a long potato into long potato shreds (potato sali) i did this on a V slicer – makes slightly thicker shreds.
add few pinches of salt on the shreds (only as much as would be required for seasoning) let it rest for 10 mins
drain the excess salt water & spread the potato shreds (salis) on a clean towel & pat dry.
fry as is mentioned in the potato chip recipe above & add your favorite seasoning..
Thanks for the wonderful recipe, with a little bit of experiment, could even make market quality round potato chips & potato shreds..
try it..to believe it..
Deepika may be fry little longer or sometimes it depends on potatoes you are using.
Hey Aunty hi…ur masala french fry is great…but they were not crispy how to make them crispy…plz do reply!!!
Hi Manju Aunty,
How r u. u r tips is nice…. and yummy receipes and citric acid as u said it is difficult to buy this how come then………its is necessary to use this??? i loved ur reciepes.
hello aunty,can we use the vinegar instead of that dried citric powder? is it necessary to use that?
why is citric acid used ? is it just for lemony flavor?
`IT WAS NICE. I,L TRY THIS IMMEDIATLY.