Baked Sweet Potato "Fries" and A Wusthof Cook's Knife Giveaway

Do you know what my favorite and most essential tool is in my kitchen? A chef's knife!! I've never wanted a big knife set. All I've ever wanted was a solid, sharp, and well balanced chef's knife.

I've had my last chef's knife for over 6 years. I bought it when I was a culinary school assistant at Sur La Table and it has served me well. But it's no longer as awesome as it used to be. It has been my great kitchen assistant through multiple private knife skills classes I've taught, several cooking demonstrations, and of course all the recipes I've made for this blog.

But it was time to get a better one. And what is it? It's this GORGEOUS Wusthof Cook's Knife (8").

Let me tell you just a few things I ♥ about this knife:

1) it has a gorgeous red handle!
2) it is very sharp
3) it feels solid, but is not too heavy
4) it feels balanced when I'm holding it and when I use it
5) it's made in Germany {when it comes to certain things, I prefer they are made in Germany}
6) it makes my time in the kitchen more efficient

If you don't trust my judgment, see what Wusthof experts have to say {by the way, make sure to check out their bad ass website!!!}:

• No kitchen should be without this manual food processor.
• It is the most essential of all knives used in the kitchen.
• Slicing, mincing, dicing of all kind of food.
• Perfectly balanced, an extension of your hand.
• GRAND PRIX II Colour fulfills the HACCP requirements.
• No bacterial cross-contamination.
• No transfer of flavours or odours.
• Greater safety and exemplary hygiene.
• Coloured, ergonomic and non-slip handle.
• Caution: cook´s knives purposely have been ground extra thin for the ultimate cutting performance. Chopping through bones will damage the fine edge.

To show you just how well this knife works, I decided to make Baked Sweet Potato "Fries."
Why? First, sweet potatoes are pretty hard to cut. Second, they have to be cut very evenly so that they'll cook evenly: this would be a great test for my new knife.

Baked Sweet Potato "Fries"

Ingredients

1 sweet potato, ends cut off and peeled

olive oil

1 tablespoon Southwestern spice

salt

1/2 cup full fat Greek yogurt

1 garlic clove, microplane'd

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 tablespoons chopped cilantro 










Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 425F.

2. Cut the sweet potato into thin planks. Stack a few planks at a time and cut across to make fries.

3. Place the fries into a bowl and drizzle with enough olive oil to lightly coat. Mix with the Southwestern spice and salt.

4. Oil a cooling rack and place on a cookie sheet. {Thanks, Anna for the idea.}

5. Place the fries in a single layer and bake for 20-25 minutes and then put under a broiler for a few minutes. Immediately sprinkle with a bit of salt.

6. Meanwhile, make a quick dip by mixing Greek yogurt, garlic, lime juice and chopped cilantro.

7. Serve dip with fries as soon as they are ready.

These "fries" were really good but they weren't crispy...just wanted to fess up :) But hey, I still liked them. Of course you can play with other spices.

And now for the giveaway:

Rules:
To win, leave a comment below with why you would like to win this knife and your current favorite kitchen tool/utensil. You must have a proper US address to win.

For additional chances to win, do one of the following and leave a comment for each:

1) Like MangoTomato on FB 
2) Like Wusthof on FB 3) Tweet about this giveaway with my @MangoTomato and a link to this post 
4) Follow @MangoTomato
5) Follow @Wusthof
I will announce one winner on Tuesday, October 2nd: And the winner is Emily R!!! Congratulations!!!

Disclosure: Wusthof provided me with one Cook's knife for a review and will send the same knife to one winner. I was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.