Since high school days, one of my favourite places to visit is Stillwater, MN. As teens we would sit alongside the river and people watch. In my 20’s, I would scour the plentiful antique shops and people watch. As an adult, I enjoy the fantastic restaurants, car shows, and boutiques — and people watch.
My daughter seems to have caught the “Stillwater bug” from her mother. Every time she comes home for a visit, we do everything possible to squeeze in a visit to this beautiful and historic city along the St. Croix river. This past visit was no exception. We walked thru boutiques, bought candy, ate a fantastic meal, and watched all the other people enjoy their day. đŸ™‚
As much as I like trying new things, I think savory foods should be savory and sweet foods should be sweet. I probably wouldn’t like rosemary and garlic ice cream, and I definitely don’t care for marshmallow-covered yams.
The food trend in Stillwater is SWEET sweet potato fries. Seriously sweet. Like curl-your-teeth kind of sweet. Several restaurants along the river offer sweet potato fries on their menu – one dusts them with powdered sugar, one with cinnamon and sugar, and one restaurant actually serves the fries with a dipping sauce that tastes like vanilla frosting. NO KIDDING!!!
It was a happy coincidence that caused me to dunk my sweet potato fries into the spicy mayo that should have been spread on my grilled chicken sandwich. And now I’m hooked!
Even though you can certainly make this with good quality store-bought mayonnaise, you will never regret the 5 minutes you spent making it from scratch. Find the recipe for farm-fresh mayo here.
For spicy dipping mayo for 4 people, use 1/2 cup mayo and stir in paprika, garlic, and sriracha sauce. Let it stand while you make the sweet potato fries.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
Selecting long, straight, and slender sweet potatoes makes cutting them into fries simpler. I like leaving the skin on – extra texture, colour, and nutrition. Cut the potatoes into fries and spread on a rimmed baking sheet. Don’t over crowd them, or the fries just get soggy.
Drizzle olive oil over the sweet potatoes, and with your hands, rub every single one of them with the oil. (Great moisturizer for your hands – heehee) Sprinkle the fries with whatever seasoning you like. I used garlic powder, onion powder, salt, and black pepper.
Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes, or until they are as soft or crisp as you like. Shake the pan every 10 minutes to move them around and prevent the fries from sticking to the pan.
PrintSpicy Mayonnaise & Sweet Potato Fries
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup homemade (or good quality store-bought) mayonnaise
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 2 tsp sriracha sauce
- 4 sweet potatoes
- Additional garlic powder, onion powder, or seasoning salt for fries
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees
- Stir together mayo, paprika, galic powder and sriracha sauce, then allow it to stand while making sweet potato fries
- Scrub (or peel) sweet potatoes, and cut into skinny fries
- Put fries on a deep baking dish, making sure they are not crowded, and rub every fry with olive oil, and season as desired
- Bake for 25 minutes, shaking the pan a couple times to prevent fries from sticking
- Check for doneness, and bake another couple minutes, if you want them crispier
- Remove fries from oven, sprinkle with salt immediately, and let stand on the pan for a couple minutes before serving with spicy mayo
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
If you have any extra dipping sauce – yeah, right!!! – you can always spread it on sandwiches. Yummmm!
