French fries prepared the traditional way, deep fried in two sessions, first at a lower temperature to cook the potato, here the gourd, and second, after allowing to cool, deep-fried again at higher temperature to dehydrate and crisp.
First at 225℉ - 250℉, and second at 350℉ or thereabout.
Conclusion: These are the best fries I have ever tasted. They were not crisp as I had hoped. I believe the temperature was too low for the second deep-frying session. I'm not giving up, though, there's still hope for a crispy butternut fry. If not, then oh well, soft fries will just have to do. This is were a tempura type coating might come to the rescue but that has its own problems, namely, the crispiness doesn't last for long, or perhaps a cornmeal type coating and then baked.
They cooked faster than I had imagined. Faster than potatoes do. They appear to release a sugary liquid while cooling, I was counting on that to crisp and also afraid it would splatter but neither of those two things happened, and so I'm left confounded as to why. I think I might try giving them a start by roasting on low temperature and cut them into fry shapes before they're entirely done, then finish roasting at high temperature with the help of a little spray, or possibly brushed with oil.
They're tricky to cut and there's a bit of waste because of the shape of the gourd and the hollowed out area were the seeds are cleared but they are totally worth the trouble.
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