One of the unintended consequences of the new furnace is that the basement is warmer and drier during the winter months due to some slight changes in the duct work. From a home improvement view point, this is great. From a potato storage stand point, it took a marginal spot for potato storage and turned into a poor spot – ideal potato storage aims for 40 degrees and 95 percent relative humidity. The basement was never close to that, but now it’s even further away.
Why is that an issue? Over the last month many of the potatoes from the garden that were stored in the basement had started to sprout. After making a few potato dishes for Christmas gatherings, we still had way too many sprouted potatoes to use up in the next few weeks. Now that there’s room in the freezer, looking at ways to freeze some of the potatoes was an option. Last year, we tried to freeze mashed potatoes. (They weren’t bad – just be certain they go straight from the freezer to the oven to be warmed back up.) This year, we thought we’d try something a little different and try freezing homemade fries.
So, early one morning when it was too cold to do anything else, Lulu and I sat down and sorted through roughly 40 pounds of potatoes. Anything starting to sprout was scrubbed clean, sliced, and soaked in cold water.
The fries were removed from the water, placed between two dish clothes to remove excess water, and then fried for about eight minutes – just long enough that they were about half done.
Once the fries spent their time in the frier, they were placed on a paper towel to remove any excess oil and then moved to a cookie sheet and placed in the freezer. (Freezing them on a cookie sheet before bagging them insures you don’t end up with a giant frozen ball of fries when you’re ready to use them.)
Once they were frozen, they were placed in a large freezer bag and then back into the freezer. We filled three large freezer bags in all.
Now when we’re ready to use them, we can either finish the fries in the frier or simply bake them on a cookie sheet.
