How to make awesome butternut squash fries

My two favorite foods are sweet potatoes and butternut squash. I typically cut them up like french fries and put them in a roasting pan with a lot of coconut oil and salt, then bake them at 425 degrees for about 40 minutes. I wanted to actually deep fry them, so a few days ago I bought a FryDaddy deep fryer. It costs just $21 on Amazon, and is very highly rated by reviewers there. After making sweet potato fries and butternut squash fries, I agree with the reviewers. This is a terrific tool, especially for the price.

It couldn't be easier to use. You just add oil up the the fill line and plug it in. (I use Carrington Farms organic cold-pressed, unrefined coconut oil.) After the oil heats up, you add the chopped up potatoes or squash and fry them for about 10 minutes. Put them in a colander so the oil drips off (there's not a lot of oil) and shake a bunch of salt on it. The more salt the better.

I learned how to prep the sweet potatoes after listening to Adam Savage describe how he makes them. He skins and cuts the potatoes, then soaks them in water for an hour, which gets some of the starch out (the water becomes very cloudy). Then drain the water and pat the potato pieces with paper towels until they are damp. Next, put a tablespoon of corn starch in a paper bag, dump in the pieces and shake them in the bag. The pieces should be coated with a fine layer of corn starch. I don't know why you are supposed to get rid of the potatoes' natural starch and then add corn starch, but if it is good enough for Adam, it's good enough for me.

For butternut squash, you can skip the soaking part, and just shake the pieces in a bag with some corn starch. The butternut squash fries I made are nicely crispy on the outside, and tender on the inside. My family and kids' friends inhaled them.

I save the used coconut oil in the FryDaddy. It's lasted for the last few days. I will replace it as soon as it smells funny.