Layla Fries (Za'atar Fries)

A local restaurant, Layla's, serving middle eastern food is where I first encountered a za'atar seasoned french fry.  On the menu, they're referred to as Layla Fries. There's a number of recipes for a za'atar fry on the net and it's not really a complicated thing to do. At Layla's, the potatoes are fried a little darker than is common for a french fry and the fries are served with a fabulous harissa-spiked toum.

Some definitions:

Za'atar A blend of herbs and spices common throughout the Levant. Wild variants of thyme, marjoram, sesame seed and savory and often some sumac. It varies some by region and even by household.

Harissa A hot chile paste of North Eastern Africa. You can find jars or cans at most middle eastern grocers even though its not traditional to those cuisines.

Toum A form of aioli from the Levant.

One of the things I do differently is to bake the "fries". It's lower fat, and less hassle for home cooks generally. This method works pretty well with Extra Virgin Olive Oil so you get some of that flavor if you want. Because the oil is applied to the potato, which is full of water, the olive oil is buffered from the high heat and doesn't lose all of its flavor.

Another is for the toum. To make toum from scratch, which is certainly the best toum, makes quite a bit, most of which I end up wasting. Regular commercial mayonnaise substitutes very poorly as the base for toum. It's too tangy, too sweet, too whipped. But being an Asian focused food blog, I have Kewpie Mayonnaise in my refrigerator too. And Kewpie Mayonnaise is denser, less whipped and not as acidic. It works pretty well as a stand in for the mayo-like component of toum with a little doctoring. Allegedly, Kewpie is made with rice vinegar. Toum is made with fresh lemon juice and  a little splash of fresh lemon juice brings Kewpie Mayonnaise into the right flavor profile.

Specific amounts for the fries will vary with the size of potatoes you use and how you cut them. So the recipe will include lots of "as needed" and "to taste". For the photos show here, I used three medium-large potatoes and two sheet pans for baking them. Russets are my preference in a french fry though Yukon Golds are good for this too.

Peel and slice your potatoes into french fry shapes, lengthwise.  3/16" on a side and as long as you can get them is what works best.  Thinner potatoes crisp up on the surface and are soft inside. Larger fries are harder to bake evenly and often end up mushy and limp.

Heat the oven to 425. Arrange racks to the center. If you're using two baking sheets, arrange racks as close low center and upper center as you can. Swap the pans on the racks halfway through cooking.

Rinse and drain the potatoes to remove excess surface starch. I like to spin the rinsed potatoes in my salad spinner to dry them well.

In a large bowl, toss the fries with oil, about 2 teaspoons per potato. If you cut your fries larger, it will take less oil as there's less surface area to coat.  I used a Spanish Extra Virgin olive oil, but canola or plain vegetable oil  will work fine.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone liner. Using a parchment sheet or silicone liner guarantees good release and you can use a little less oil as well.  Arrange the potatoes on the baking sheet so they don't touch. This helps them cook evenly.

Bake them 15-20 minutes, then toss them to move the bottom side to the top as much as possible for even cooking. Switch the pan positions if baking two pans.

Bake another 10 - 15 minutes. if using two pans, combine fries on to one pan. Set the oven to broil. Broil the fries until they have brown spots, and toss to expose less cooked areas of the potatoes. Repeat until the potatoes are to you liking.

Season with za'atar, sumac generously and some salt. Toss the potatoes to coat evenly, repeating the seasoning as needed. Be generous with the za'atar and sumac.

While the potatoes are baking, prepare the harissa accented toum.

1/4 cup Kewpie Mayonnaise
1 large clove of garlic minced to a paste
1-2 teaspoons  fresh lemon juice.
1/2-1 teaspoon harissa using more or less to taste

Mix in the lemon juice and harissa in small additions tasting between each addition. In the photo, I'm adding the first dose of harissa to the Kewpie Mayonaisse.

If you're reading this from Utah, it will look like a pale fry sauce when you're done.

At the table. I grant you that sauted zuchinni, hot dog and fries is a little bit odd for a combination, but it was a birthday meal request. The toum is in the small ramekin for dipping.