D.I.Y Yam Fries!

Have you ever crave for something for more than two weeks? Sweet potato fries flies across my mind lately. Instead of dinning outside at burger places or restaurants, I decided to try making some by myself. I went on grocery shopping and got myself some yam since I could not find sweet potatoes around. Yam and sweet potato are not only being refer to different things, but to Americans they seemed to be the same. Although they are similar root vegetables, there are some difference between them. The difference between sweet potato and yam is their species and color. Sweet potato tends to have an orange interior color and larger in size, while yam is has a light yellow interior color and smaller than sweet potato. The nutrion benefits of yam is listed here. According to some bloggers, they find that yam is slightly sweeter than sweet potato too.

I did try to search some recipes before I started the process. Most of them use Paprika and Cumin, which are used as food coloring and herbs respectively on the fries. Since I do not have them at my apartment, I just skip them and start making my own version oven baked yam fries.

Ingredients:
5 pieces of yam
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon corn starch
 3 tablespoon olive oil

Other materials:
1 baking pan
parchment paper or aluminum foil

*Preheat oven to 400F.

Here are the steps:

 1) Rinse the yam under running water throughly.

2) Use a knife to cut off the head and ends of the yam followed by peeling off their skin.

Tip: You may use a peeler or a knife to do so, but I found that using a knife is faster and easier to handle.

3) Rinse them again after peeling off the skin. Then, cut them into small chunks or desirable sizes.

4) Take out the baking pan or tra. Place a parchment paper or aluminum foil on top. Spread 2 tablespoon of olive oil on it and put aside.

5) Take a ziploc bag and place the sliced yam in it.

 6) Add 1 to 2 tablespoon of olive oil in it and mix well. 

7) Add salt, pepper and corn starch into the bag and mix well.

8) Line the sliced yam pieces onto the baking tray.

Tip: Remember to leave some space in between each piece of yam in order to make them fully cooked.  

9) Bake fore 12-15 minutes then flip the fries to the other side. Turn down the oven temperature to 300F and bake for another 5-10 minutes.

Here comes the final product. Serve it hot with your favorite dipping sauce. Mine is ketchup!

This is an easy and healthy snack to treat yourself or share with friends. Everything is done and ready to serve within 40 minutes. This is kind of an untypical baked yam fries (without the orange color), but it tastes good! Who said that doing something alone cannot be fun? This is how I spent my Saturday evening. I wish you all a happy weekend!