Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Guilt-free French Fries for the Food Revolution

If you happened to watch any of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution show last Friday, you were probably alarmed by many things you saw. The disgusting presentation on how chicken nuggets are made and the fact that the elementary school classroom he visited was still willing to eat nuggets anyway, or the fact that these children didn’t even know what a potato was but could immediately identify French fries was troubling.


After watching the Oprah episode on Food Inc., I was interested in reading a book she highlighted on her show. Food Rules by Michael Pollan gives some pretty basic eating guidelines, but after watching Food Revolution, I realized that many people don’t have a basic understanding of the importance of eating real food.

There are 64 Food Rules listed. These are some of my favorites:

#13 Eat only foods that will eventually rot. Does a Twinkie ever rot?
#19 If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.
#20 It’s not food if it arrived through the window of your car.
#21 It’s not food if it’s called by the same name in every language. (Think Big Mac.)
#57 Don’t get your fuel from the same place your car does.

And in honor of rule #39 - Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself, I thought I would blog my favorite home-made fry recipe.


Oven Baked French Fries

3 large russet potatoes and one medium sized yam, scrubbed, unpeeled & cut into ¼ inch strips.
4 cups cold water
2 Tbls apple cider vinegar
¾ tsp salt
1 tsp chili powder
½ tsp paprika
2 Tbls canola oil

As potatoes are sliced, immediately drop them into a large bowl containing the water, vinegar, and ½ tsp salt. Let soak for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Drain potatoes very well. Lay potatoes on dish cloth and place another on top. In a clean, dry bowl toss potatoes with remaining salt, chili powder, and paprika, and then stir in oil. Arrange potatoes in a single layer on an oiled baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, turn and bake 5 minutes more.

Now if only I could find great tasting guilt-free fry sauce!

1 comment:

cathy said...

You must read Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and In Defense of Food. They are both excellent books. I never considered myself much of a hippie food snob but I definitely am making better decisions about my food and what I buy/eat.