Baked, But Not Fried Taters

French fries are a necessary evil. Back in the states, there is debate among which fast food chain has the best. Here in Tunisia, I rely on Ma Maison for fries, a la Ma Cuisine. For those of you who are non-Francophiles, I make them in my kitchen. You can get 'pommes frites' in restaurants locally, but most of the time they are by no means of the Mickey D's or Wendy's variety.

This one's easy, and a combination of a couple of recipes and a technique that I saw on the Food Network. Dust off your spices, people. If you can get potatoes, you can make this recipe. And the best part, they aren't fried.

Baked Fries
3 Medium Potatoes (This will make about 1 cookie sheet of fries. If you can find potatoes that are longer, you can make long 'steak' type fries.)
1-2 TBsp of olive oil
1/2 tsp of garlic powder
1/4 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp paprika
Salt to taste

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Peel and cut potatoes. I'd suggest cutting them in longer, thicker pieces to accommodate the heat and baking time (more like a steak fry). After cutting, throw cut pieces into a bowl and rinse/soak 2X with cold water. Pat fries dry. The rinsing/soaking gets rid of the starch'on the fries and drying the fries allows the olive oil to stick better. Though I have read this is a technique to get better fried results, I believe it helped with this batch of baked ones.

Mix olive olive with all the spices. Drizzle onto fries in a bowl and toss, being sure to coat all the fries. Lay in single layer onto cookie sheets and sprinkle on a little salt.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, turning fries 1/2 through baking time. Fries are done when they have a deep golden color.

If you are like me and are looking for a healthier way to make fries, try this out. Your family won't know the difference except for the golden arches packaging.