Coarse or kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
4sweet potatoespeeled and cut into sticks about ¼ in wide in each direction (see Cooking Tip)
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 425°F.
In a clean jar with a lid (see Note) combine the celery salt, paprika, dry mustard, cinnamon, allspice, cayenne, black pepper, ginger and cloves. Shake well to thoroughly combine.
Place the sweet potatoes on two separate rimmed baking sheets (line the baking sheet with parchment of you have it). Make sure there is enough room so that the fries can all have space between them as they cook (this is why you need two baking sheets). Drizzle the oil evenly over the sweet potatoes, and toss to coat the potatoes with the oil. Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of the seasoning blend over the fries on each of the baking sheets, and toss again to make sure the sweet potato fries are evenly coated with the spice mixture. Spread out the potatoes so there is a little bit of pan visible between each of the fries.
Bake for 10 minutes, then use a spatula to flip the fries around and switch the baking sheets so that the bottom one ends up baking on top. Bake for another 8 to 12 minutes until they are lightly browned in spots and very tender. They won’t get super crispy; sweet potato fries have a hard time doing that. Serve hot.
Notes
I keep old empty dried herb and spice jars to store various blends and rubs that I make. Just use a jar that contained one of the seasonings that you are including in your blend, and make sure to label the jar. I had a very strange incident with a taco blend that was hanging out in a cumin jar, unidentified. Let’s just say it was a very unusual curry.
Cooking Tip:
Do not worry about perfect sticks. You are not entering a French fry making contest. The easiest way to get nice long fries, however, is to peel the potatoes, cut them lengthwise into ¼-inch slabs, then stack up a few of those at a time and cut them into ¼-inch thick sticks.