Air fryer french fries are easy to make but really tasty. Simply salted with ketchup is of course the best to eat. However, I sometimes enjoy fries seasoned with truffle oil, garlic, or rosemary. This time, I made umami seasoned fries!!! The seasoning is made with konbucha(昆布茶) and aonori(青のり) which contains a lot of umami. So that’s why I named it umami seasoning. It’s my No.1 favorite flavored french fries now.
How to Make French Fries in Air Fryer
Before I owned an air fryer, I used to make french fries in the oven. (I rarely do deep frying in the house. )For air fry french fries, the preparation is the same as oven fries, but the air fryer version comes out crispier and is cooked faster.
Step by Step
- Peel the skins. Remove any eyes they may have grown out.
- Cut the potatoes (Try to cut the same size as possible).
- Soak the potatoes in the water
- Drain potatoes and pat dry with a paper towel.
- Toss with oil and salt.
- Place the potatoes in the air fryer basket. (Preheat air fryer before adding)
- Cook for 20 minutes. Shake potatoes a couple of times cooking until it gets golden brown outside.
- Add seasoning, and shake.
Btw Are Japanese Seasoning Lovers?
Japan is widely known for so many varieties of flavored potato chips. Calbee, Japan’s leading potato chips maker, has 50 to 100 flavors of chips every year. I guess this is a weird yet interesting part of Japanese food culture. The chips flavors stimulate the french fries flavors as well.
McDonald’s in Japan offers fries called “shaka shaka fries”. It comes with a paper bag with flavored powder that you sprinkle in the bag with fries and shakes briskly. “Shaka shaka” is the sound translation of Japanese onomatopeia for shaking something. The flavored powder changes every season, such as BBQ, umami wasabi, shrimp tempura, tomato cream, butter soy sauce, flavors, etc. They are offering teriyaki flavor today as of June 2021.
Homemade Umami Seasoning
The flavored powder which we get at McDonald’s in Japan is not easy to re-create. So, I used konbucha(昆布茶) powder and mixed it with aonori(青のり). It became the perfect umami powder for the french fries.
What is Konbucha?
Konbucha
Ume Konbucha (with plum flavor)
Konbucha(昆布茶) is not Kombucha, a fermented drink. Konbucha is an infusion of kelp (konbu) seaweed. We consume this as tea or seasoning for cooking dishes. Because kelp contains a lot of umami, konbucha is almost tasted like drinking umami broth. Normally the kombucha is blended with some salt and a small amount of sugar, which makes the taste more enjoyable. The plum-flavored kombucha is also popular in Japan. If you like lemon pepper seasoned fries, you will like this.
What is Aonori?
Aonori
Aosa
Aonori ( 青のり) is green seaweed that is dried and powdered. It has a distinctive pleasant aroma. It is commonly used as a sprinkle for many dishes, such as Okonomiyaki (Japanese cabbage pancake) or Yakisoba (Japanese stir fry noodles.) Aosa (あおさ) is very similar to Aonori but made out of different generic seaweed.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Peel potatoes. Remove any eyes they may have grown out.
- Cut the potatoes into the desired size fries. (or 4 inch x 1 inch)
- Soak them in the water for 30 min.
- Take out the potatoes from the water, dry them with paper towels.
- Place potatoes in a dry mixing bowl and pour oil over, add salt, and mix until potatoes are coated thoroughly.
- Preheat the air fryer. Place potatoes in an air fryer basket and cook for 17 - 20 minutes at 370 degrees. Gently shake the fries a few times in order to cook evenly.
- Remove fries into clean paper bags, and add aonori and kombucha seasoning, then shake well.
Air Fryer I Use
