The coating on these fries is built in three light passes rather than one heavy one: starch, a mist of water, starch again, until every strip carries an even jacket. The two stage fry, one long bath to cook the interior and two short blasts to crisp the surface, is what lets the strips hold their shape when the yolk sauce goes on.
Home-style · Snack
Salted Egg Yolk Sweet Potato Fries, Double Fried
Blanched sweet potato strips are starch coated in three passes, fried twice for a crisp jacket, then tumbled through foaming salted egg yolk with a snow of sugar.
- Prep30 min
- Cook20 min
- Serves4
- LevelMedium
Ingredients
| 4 | sweet potatoes , peeled and cut into long thin strips |
| 2 tbsp | salted egg yolk sauce , or 3 cooked salted egg yolks, mashed |
| 15 g | sugar |
| cornstarch | enough for three light coats |
| oil | for deep frying |
Method
- Peel the sweet potatoes, rinse them and cut into long thin strips, trimming the ends.
- Blanch the strips in boiling water for 90 seconds, then shock them in cold water and drain well.
- Put the strips in a bowl and toss with a light coat of cornstarch.
- Mist or sprinkle on a little water, add another coat of starch and toss again, then repeat once more. Every strip should be evenly covered with no dry patches.
- Fry the strips at medium heat, leaving them untouched for the first minute so the coating sets, then cook for three more minutes, nudging them so they color evenly. Lift and drain.
- Raise the oil temperature, return the strips for 30 seconds, lift again, then give them a final 10 second blast until the surface takes on a deep reddish gold.
- Wipe out the pan, add a little fresh oil and the yolk sauce, or the mashed salted yolks, and cook on the lowest heat until the yolk foams completely.
- Add the fries and toss to coat, then sprinkle the sugar over them while tossing so it melts and sticks. Serve hot.
Notes
- The water mist between starch passes is the trick; dry starch shakes off, dampened starch stays put.
- Watch the color on the final 10 second fry, which is enough time to go from golden to dark.
- If using whole salted yolks instead of sauce, mash them fine before they hit the oil or they will not foam.
Ratios and technique checked against 固执的山茶油很奇怪 on Douguo (蛋黄焗地瓜). The method here is written by Stellaok; the photograph is the source kitchen's, credited on the image above and linked back to the page it came from. No recipe text is reproduced.