Mashed Potato French fries is handshake between the classic mashed potatoes and French Fries – a delectable crunchy treat to make with your leftover mashed potatoes.
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Mashed Potato French Fries
Mashed Potato French fries are a golden mash delight where a classic mashed potato meets the crispy allure of French fries. You get the best of both worlds in a single bite.
If you have leftover mashed potatoes, or cooked too many potatoes and didn’t know what to do with them, this is the best way to use them up.
Truthfully, I prefer these French fries to the normal fries because there’s more potato in the fries. And I love symmetry, they are so appealing to the eyes as well, when I eat them.
Ingredients for Mashed Potato French Fries
You will need 4 large potatoes for this recipe. Double or triple the quantity depending on your needs.
The next key ingredient will be cornstarch. This will help bind the potatoes and remove any moisture from the potatoes. You may also use potato starch or all purpose flour instead. Be sure not to confuse between corn flour and cornstarch. Corn flour is the ingredient used for making tortillas or makki rotti and might not be a great binding agent for this recipe.
The seasonings are totally your choice. In this recipe I have used – onion powder, salt and pepper. But can use oregano, red chilli flakes, paprika powder and even cheese powder.
I prefer to use refined sunflower oil/ groundnut oil to fry the mashed potato french fries, but you can use any oil/fat that you prefer.
How to make Mashed Potato French Fries
Making the Mashed Potatoes
The first step is to make the mashed potatoes. I always use my trust pressure cooker to boil the potatoes – it is the most convenient and fast way to cook it without watching a pot of boiling water. Wash the potatoes, cut them into halves and put them in a small pressure cooker with an inch of water. Let 2-3 whistles out and turn off the flame. Let the pressure come down naturally. Remove the potatoes and allow them to cool down. Remove the peel and crush them with your hand and add to another bowl.
If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can always boil the potatoes in a pot of boiling water. Peel the potatoes, dice them into big chunks and add them to a pot of salted boiling water. Around the 15 minute mark, check the potatoes. If they are soft all the way to the center, turn off the flame and drain the water.
Allow the potatoes to cool down before mashing. This step will ensure that there is less moisture in the mashed potatoes – which is exactly how you want it.
Mash the potatoes in a bowl and you can now add the cornstarch and seasonings. Mix all the ingredients well and by the end of it you should have a potato dough good enough to roll flat. Add more cornstarch if needed to reduce the moisture completely.
Take this potato mixture and roll it out on a clean surface to about an inch thick. With the use of the side of your hand, bring the dough together to form a rectangle with equal thickness.
Freezing the Mashed potato sticks
Cut the dough lengthwise and the width wise, forming equal sized “French Fries”. Take the individual fry and place it on an oiled or a parchment paper lined tray. Place the tray or plate in the freezer for a minimum of 1 hour. Remove from the freezer and check if the potatoes have set.
(At this stage, if you want to store some of them for later, you can add the required quantity to a zip lock back and put the bag in the freezer. )
Frying the French Fries
Place a pan on medium flame and add cooking oil. Once the oil is warm, slowly add the mashed potato French fry one by one. Do not crowd the oil, you will need space between them.
Let the fries be in the oil for 30-45 seconds without disturbing with your spatula or slotted spoon.
Now, turn the spud fries until all the sides are golden brown. Remove from the oil and drain excess oil on a tissue paper.
Sprinkle sea salt on top of the fries and serve your delicious Mashed Potato French fries with ketchup of a dip of your choice.
Frying in the air fryer
You can fry them in the air frier too, but it won’t be the same, let me warn you.
Start off by applying a generous coat of oil on the frozen french fries. Place them in the tray and air fry them for 20 minutes on 170 C. At the ten-minute mark, pause the fryer and flip them to make sure to fry them evenly all around.
Remove from the air frier and season with sea salt.
Shelf Life and Storage
Mashed potato french fries are best eaten when hot out of the oil. But you can keep them on the counter for up to 3 hours – although at that point the crunch will be gone.
You can, however, make the mashed potatoes and store them in the fridge overnight before cutting up the pieces and frying them the next day.
To make your like even easier – you can make a bulk batch of these spud sticks and store them in the freezer. The process is pretty simple.
Once you have prepared the mashed potato with all the seasonings, roll the mashed potato and cut it up into thick French fries. Place them flat on a tray or a plate and freeze them for an hour to two. Remove the tray from the freezer and pick the frozen fries and store them all in a zip lock or silicone bag.
When you want to serve it as a snack, just take out as many as you want and put the rest back in the freezer.
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Recipe
Mashed Potato French Fries
Ingredients
- 4 Potatoes large
- 2 tbsp Cornstarch (not corn flour)
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 1/ tsp Pepper Powder
- 250 ml Cooking Oil
- ¼ tsp Sea Salt for seasoning after frying
Instructions
- The first step is to boil the potatoes. I mostly use the pressure cooker. Wash and halve the potatoes and add them to a small pressure cooker with an inch of water. Let out 2-3 whistles, switch off and allow the pressure to go down naturally. If you are boiling the potatoes on open pan – peel the potatoes, dice them into thick chunks and add them to a pot of salted boiling water. Test the potatoes around the 15 minute mark, if they soft all the way to the center, turn off the flame and drain the water. Allow the potatoes to cool down before mashing them.
- Once the potatoes have been mashes, add it to a bowl and the rest of the ingredients – corn starch, onion powder, salt and pepper. Mix well and adjust seasoning according to your taste. You can also modify the taste your mashed potato French fries with other spices like oregano and red chilli flakes, or paprika powder or onion and garlic powder.
- Once you've prepared the mixture, there should be no moisture left in the potato dough.
- Roll it out to about 1 inch thickness. With a knife cut the rolled out potato mixture vertically. Then cut them horizontally to get you thick French fries that are 3 inches in length.
- Place all the cut strips of potato mash on an oiled or parchment paper lined plate and store it in the freezer for a minimum of one hour. This will help the potato mixture bind well.
Frying the Mashed Potato French fries
- Place a pan on medium flame and add oil. Remove the frozen potato sticks and keep aside.
- Once the oil has warmed up, add them French fries one by one to the oil without over crowding them,Let it be for 30-45 seconds before using a spatula or slotted spoon to move them in the oil.
- Fry them until all sides are golden brown. Remove from the oil and drain the excess oil on a kitchen tissue paper.
- Serve your Mashed Potato French fries with ketchup or a dip of your choice.
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