French Fry Diary 412: Ian's Alphatots

Now I've talked about Ian's Natural Foods before, specifically their wonderful Panko Onion Rings. This time I'm looking at another of their products - Alphatots.

Alphatots are one of those potato products that are shaped, sort of a hybrid of extruded or formed potato mash, but with a crisp shell. In the case of the Alphatots from Ian's, they are formed into small letters.

Allergen free alphabet shaped Potato Fries. No wheat or gluten, no milk or casein, no eggs, nuts or soy. Ian's has no artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives... ever. And yeah, that's their trademark after that snazzy but true slogan.

This is a fun way to eat your fries, and maybe a fun way to teach young kids their letters, but much like alphabet soup or Alpha-Bits cereal, it's almost impossible to find enough, or the right, letters to spell anything specific for a cute effect. I'm sure it would have taken several bags to spell out 'French Fry Diary' if I wanted to.

They cook at a very high heat, 475 degrees, the highest I've ever seen for a frozen fries product, and they actually cooked quite quickly, some overdone by the time suggested in the directions. Crispy on the outside and soft and hot on the inside, they were very good. Eat 'em while they're hot though, they're not so great when cold or reheated.

Like Ian's Onion Rings they definitely required seasoning and were good for dipping. As usual I did barbecue sauce. They are a nice change of pace for fries from a quality company.

French Fry Diary 386: Ian's Onion Rings

I saw these at the Whole Foods recently. Ian's Onion Rings? I had never heard of them before, so into the basket they went. Sure, why not?

As it turns out that Ian's Natural Foods in Massachusetts also makes gluten-free chicken nuggets, fish sticks, and something more in line with our obsession here, potatoey Alphatots. I'll have to track that last one down for a future blog entry.

The bag made a lot of promises. No wheat or gluten, no milk or casein (whatever casein was), no eggs, no nuts, and no soy. These "Gluten-Free Crispy Golden Battered Onion Rings" had a lot to live up to, and I hadn't even gotten them home yet.

Soon as I got home I couldn't wait to try them. First they are sliced thinner than standard onion rings, which is good, I like that. Second, their coating is neither wonderful Panko nor yucky beer batter, but corn flakes. That rocks. That makes for an extra crunch, always a good thing.

The coating that I love so much will become a problem if you choose to deep fry these babies however. They will crisp very quickly. Burn is more like it, giving you delicious onion, once you bite through that rock hard shell of course. What doesn't burn will fall off and fill your deep fryer with debris that will be a pain in the butt to scoop out. Deep frying - not recommended.

For the record, there are no microwave instructions, despite it saying 'microwave' under the cooking directions. On closer inspection, what it says is microwaving is inadvisable. In mad scientist mode I tried it anyway, so you won't have to. It was a disaster with soggy way too chewy onions. Baked is the way to go 100%.

Very quickly, test it out to get the right time as it's variable to the oven and thickness of the rings, you will have very tasty and crispy onion rings. Unlike most freezer rings, these might need a bit more seasoning however, I dipped mine in barbecue sauce. You can add what or dip with whatever you like. These are really terrific. Recommended. Can't wait to try Ian's fries.