Absolutely no pretense at healthy or gourmet food here, just good old fashioned junk food. Nothing green at all on the plate. Girl is at a birthday sleepover tonight, so it’s just me and the boys. I thought (correctly) that this would be a crowd-pleaser.
Oven-Baked French Fries
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Cut your potatoes into thick planks (fry-shaped, maybe 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch wide). Sprinkle the fries lightly with sugar (about 1 Tbsp. per 6 small-to-medium-sized potatoes) and your choice of seasoning. BBQ seasoning would be good, or Baby Bam, but I used this No-Salt Substitute Seasoning, because I like to have a little control over the amount of salt on my fries; I like to be able to taste them after they’re cooked and add the salt, at that point, so that I can be more sure of the correct amount.
Toss the fries with a generous coating of canola oil. Pour them out onto a very large baking sheet and bake until golden, about 30 minutes, but you’ll need to keep an eye on them. They will stick to the baking sheet, so you won’t be able to turn them during cooking, but, if you have put enough oil on them, they will toast on the bottom side, too, and will “release” from the pan when they are done.
When they’re done, remove the pan from the oven and let them cool for about 1 minute, then use a large spatula to remove them to a large plate lined with paper towels to absorb any excess grease. Salt liberally with salt or Fleur de Sel.
While the fries are baking….
Patty Melt Sandwiches
serves 4
for the patties:
1 lb hamburger meat
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup finely chopped white onion
1 medium-sized garlic clove, minced or pressed
1 to 2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh Italian parsley, to taste
1/4 tsp ground mustard
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
butter or margarine
4 slices of your choice of cheese – Swiss would have been great, but we only had ‘Murrican on hand, so we used that.
8 slices bread of your choice – it should be fairly hearty, dense bread and shouldn’t be sliced too thinly – We used a round sourdough loaf.
Blend together all patty ingredients (kinda gross, but really best to do it with your hands). Heat up your grill or a grill pan. I usually spray our grill lightly with Pam and then fire it up on high heat until I’m ready to put the meat on, then I’ll turn it down to low while the meat actually cooks. Cook the patties until done, turning as little as little as possible. When the patties are done, pull them off the heat and assemble the sandwiches.
Top each patty with a slice of cheese and place it in between two slices of bread. Lightly butter the outside of each sandwich. Put the assembled sandwiches back on the grill (or grill pan or griddle or whatever you’re using), over low heat, and cook until the bread is toasted and the cheese has melted, turning only once, if possible.
The fries should be about done by this point, so pull them out, pour the Zinfandel (or maybe one of these?) and ketchup and dig in.
