Can someone tell me where the summer has gone? Clearly I had a busy month because it’s been so long since I have had a chance to share a new recipe with you all. I promise, this is a good one.

Ever since I can remember I have always liked Mexican food and Chinese food. You know, the kind of tacos your mom can make at home, or favorite dishes from your local Chinese restaurant (beef and broccoli has been high on my ‘love list’ since…forever). But it wasn’t until I went to visit my sister in Istanbul, back in 2013, that my palate opened and my stomach started craving more.

I would definitely point to that week in Istanbul, as a 23 year old, as my turning point in loving all flavors of the world. No, I didn’t like everything I tried on my trip, but that’s where I got the hunger for more International fare.

I think my first experience after that trip to Istanbul, was Indian cuisine. A coworker of mine was leaving and a group of us went out to lunch. Fortunately for me, this restaurant at lunchtime, is family/buffet style. So I had an opportunity to try a lot of things and see what I liked…Tikka Masala, YASS!! But that’s not what this recipe is…we are making Curry Fries with Sriracha Garlic Aioli.

Curry is really a term for varying dishes of Indian cuisine. Most commonly, it’s the style of preparing a dish in a sauce made up of complex spices. Curry Seasoning, as purchased in your local grocery store, is not used in India, it is a Western creation of pre-mixing the complex spices together. The seasoning may or may not be noted with Yellow or Red, this will indicate heat levels.

Like I said, today’s recipe is Curry Fries and Sriracha Garlic Aioli, using frozen shoestring fries and some simple ingredients. So let’s get started!

The Process:

The hardest part of this dish is frying it. If you have an air fryer or you want to bake them in the oven, that’s fine, but you won’t get peak level of crispiness and deliciousness, like you will in a deep fryer.

Fill a deep fryer or heavy bottomed Dutch oven with oil, approximately 2/3^rdsthe way up. You want to leave room for the oil to bubble without boiling over. Heat the oil to 350 degrees.

While your oil is heating up, make your dipping sauce and place in the fridge. This can also be done earlier in the day or the night before.

Back to the fries! Working in batches, gently lower the fries into the hot oil, they will start boiling immediately. The more batches, the quicker the fries will cook. I cooked approx. 20 oz of shoestring fries in two batches.

Cook for 3-4 minutes until they start turning golden in color, remove from the oil onto paper-towel lined plate and pat the excess oil off. Then, put the fries back into the fryer. Double fried fries…double the crispy. You can fry them just once, but may need to go longer initially.

When your fries reach that peak golden color, remove from the oil and back onto the paper-towel lined plate. This is just to get the excess oil off, you don’t want to pat them dry. Now put them in a large bowl, season heavily with salt and toss, then curry seasoning and toss again to coat.

Heavily seasoned fries are the best fries, in my opinion, so go crazy with the salt and curry. Shake the seasoning while you are tossing the fries in the large bowl for the best dispersement.

The oil allows for the seasoning to adhere to the hot fries. This may not be achieved as easily in an air fryer or baked.

Now, if you’re anything like me you are snacking on batch one, while you cook batch two.

Repeat the frying process and seasoning process until all of your fries are cooked. Serve with the aioli dipping sauce.

Enjoy!

Recipe: