Five-Spice Sweet Potato Fries

[DesertRose]

So here's the recipe for the sweet potato fries I was cooking during early chat this evening.

Five-Spice Sweet Potato Fries

INGREDIENTS:

1½ lb/0.68 kg sweet potatoes, cut in 1"/2.5 cm cubes
1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil
½ tsp (2.5 mL) salt
1½ tsp (7.5 mL) Chinese five spice powder
1 tbsp (15 mL) unsalted butter

INSTRUCTIONS:
Place the sweet potato cubes in a large bowl; drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle salt over them.  Toss gently with hands to coat, then add Chinese five-spice powder and toss again to distribute the five-spice powder.
In a large skillet over medium heat, melt butter, then add sweet potato cubes. Distribute the sweet potato cubes as evenly as possible in the pan and toss gently to coat with butter.  Cook, stirring occasionally, until sweet potatoes are tender and browned.
If you like, you can cut the sweet potatoes in larger pieces; if you do, you may need to cover the pan after you've coated your sweet potatoes in the butter and seasonings, reduce heat to medium, and allow to steam a few more minutes to get the sweet potatoes thoroughly cooked.

[Kareina]

That sounds interesting. May I ask why you coai them in oil if you ate cooking them in butter? Wouldn't it make sense to use melted in that first step?

[DesertRose]

Just so they crisp up well.  Sweet potatoes are pretty dense.

That being said, I don't see any reason you couldn't skip the butter and roast them in the oven rather than pan-frying them.  I just already had my oven occupied.

ETA: It also registered on me that the salt and five-spice powder would be hard to distribute on dry sweet potato pieces, so that's another reason for the oil.

[JediMatt1000]

This sounds delicious! Thank you for posting the recipe.

[Kareina]

Clearly I had a typo in my comment above. My suggestion was meant to be toss the sweet potatoes in melted butter to make the spice stick, rather than olive oil, especially if you are cooking them in butter. Why? Because I am one of those people who loves the taste of butter, but doesn't care for Oliver oil.  But I did wonder if the oil confers any benifit that one couldn't get from butter, which is why I asked.

[DesertRose]

Clearly I had a typo in my comment above. My suggestion was meant to be toss the sweet potatoes in melted butter to make the spice stick, rather than olive oil, especially if you are cooking them in butter. Why? Because I am one of those people who loves the taste of butter, but doesn't care for Oliver oil.  But I did wonder if the oil confers any benifit that one couldn't get from butter, which is why I asked.

Oh, sorry, I misunderstood.  I don't see any reason why you couldn't use melted butter for that step.