Sunday, September 20, 2009

RECIPE: Potato Chips

What do you do when you have an abundance of potatoes? Especially, beautiful purple potatoes delivered to your door?

You can make the BEST and PRETTIEST potato chips ever. This was inspired by our fair food affair.

Start with a pot of vegetable oil.

Most people would use a skillet but I like to use a smaller pot and do more batches because you use less oil to deep fry. Or at least I think you do. In either case, have at least a couple inches of oil heating up in a pot.

To test the frying temperature of the oil, most people use a thermometer but I end up burning things because I can never get it right. Instead, I use a small piece of bread.

The correct temperature would turn this piece of bread golden in 1 minute. AND the trick to a good potato chip--or any fried goody--is the temperature of the oil. If it's too cold, the food will soak up the oil and taste greasy. If it's too hot, the food will burn and taste like @ss.
So, please pay attention to your bread and pull it out after one minute and judge the color.


As the oil is heating, slice your potatoes as thin as you can and please watch your fingers, people! I use one of these gadgets:

A great buy for $9.99--look how thin I can slice these beauties!


You can use a mandoline, a food processor, a vegetable peeler, or a regular knife.

Potatoes have water in them. Water and oil do not mix. Water and HOT oil will hurt you. So I put the potatoes on papertowels to absorb some of the water.

I tested whether it would matter if I skipped this step. The only difference is that the ones without the papertowel rest were more vibrant in color and spattered a great deal more--which if you have high pain tolerance and are lazy like me--go for it.


Pay attention to your chips--you don't want to burn it! Think of it as an exercise in mindfulness. When they are golden brown, pull it out of the oil and drain on paper towels. I used a fish spatula to fish them out. *hahhaaaaa*

Fancy tv shows say to use kosher salt because it's very "in".

The grains are too big. Use regular table salt or finishing salt instead. Garlic salt is particularly yummy.

Or you could make up your own flavoring.

This was BBQ flavor. Paprika, Onion powder, Garlic powder, pepper, Garlic Salt, and Cayenne for kick. All to taste. Try powdered ranch dip/dressing!



It was sooo yummy (if I do say so myself) that I had to shove an apple in my mouth to keep me from eating the chips as they came out.


Enjoy! Try with any kind of potato!
Sugar*mama

1 comment:

  1. Those looks absolutely amazing. That color. That texture! Simply, wow. How can something so simple look so good? Some of the best pasta & food I ate this past week was the simplest. Like good cheese and fresh bread. Spaghetti with tomato sauce and basil. My favorite was maccheroni con funghi. It wasn't crudded up (yes, I made up that term) with just salt, cream, and additives -- it was made with fresh porcini mushrooms, fresh herbs, a bit of cream, just enough salt, some potato to thicken (I think), broth, and tossed over fresh fresh homemade pasta that was al dente with just the right amount of chewiness. OK, maybe it's not so simple to make b/c I think such cooking requires the perfect touch, or the technique. In Thai, that quality is literally translated as "work of the hand" when referring to cooking or craft. I believe you have such "work of the hand!" =)

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