I love how aioli is the fancy end-all be-all name for mayonnaise+lemon juice +you-name-it. Oooo my Mom and I went to lunch a few months ago at this girly lunch place where they serve their french fries with Kalamata olive aioli. Life will certainly never be the same. I really feel a connection to someone who serves me a common menu item like french fries or toast or something and a dip that I could have SWORN I came up with.  Like the time I had oatmeal pancakes with blueberry applesauce and SERIOUSLY thought the chef must have pecked through my mental legal pad of sauce ideas. Back to that kalamata aioli. Ah, salt.

These fries come from the wonderful Sarah Britton’s MyNewRoots blog and can be found here! I love her pictures and I really wish I could travel to cool places!!!! Every time I make sweet potato fries, I’m with all of you in the struggle to get to the appropriate crispyness level. I’m actually not opposed to the softer ones especially if they’ve got a good spice blend on the sweeter side, but when serving others, I feel like I should reach the definition of “fries.”

So Sarah’s recommendation to douse them in cornmeal was brilliant. These came out with a crusty layer (these CRUSTY CRUSTS I GOT, see Glozell for explanation) and really need very little seasoning. I followed her instructions closely, finding it very helpful to soak the cut strips in water. I have heard of that trick for potatoes before but never really saw it in action. Let me tell ya, after taking those potatoes out after 10 ish minutes and seeing the silt in the bottom of the bowl, I’m following the rules again next time.

Toss these guys in cornmeal, olive oil (we dont have any other ones although I heard coconut is good!), salt and pepp, and some garlic powder

There was supposed to be a yogurt sauce, but I only had mayo. So I went with it. To make the aioli, I chopped up some chives, basil, green onions, squeezed half a lemon, a clove of garlic, and some black pepper with the mayo. It was DELISH.

Oooo I thought I’d share this just for kicks. Made some dijon/balsamic roasted brussel sprouts too 🙂