Today I woke up early to bring the kids to school, only to find out a few minutes before we headed out that classes were suspended due to the continuous rains overnight (floods everywhere). Wow. Since I was already wide awake, I decided to attend a yoga class. I can tell you though, after that 90 minute sweat-out, it was proven that I was in poor yogini form. It was really embarrassing (I sat through most of the positions!). And my nasty back and that injured thumb hampered my performance further (not like I was in good shape in the first place but yes, it worsened my ahem, form :D).
When I got home (it's really pouring out here), I decided to make potato chips from scratch. For sure this would be better than opening another bag of Lay's, no? So I want to share with you all this really simple recipe so that you can do this at home too for yourself, or for your kids :)
All you need is one big potato. (Or if you plan to make a lot more, then add one or two more).
Now, the key to a crunchy chip is to slice the potato really thin. There are some slicers available in the market to get that consistently thin slice. I obviously don't have those haha. So I had to use a very sharp knife to get the thickness (or thinness) right.
After you've sliced the potato, season with salt and pepper. (You can also substitute plain salt with herb or garlic salt). But don't overseason the slices please! You will probably also want to dip your chips in some kind of sauce once fried, so keep the base taste minimal so you can still taste the potato in each chip :)
Prepare a plate lined with thick paper towel. Keep it close by for use once you start frying.
Now, prepare your deep fryer. I have a 1.5L oil pan which I filled about 0.5L with vegetable oil. Medium heat only. After a few minutes of letting the oil heat, I tried to fry a piece of the potato (use the "end" cuts). If it deep- fries properly (it doesn't get burnt right away), you may start frying your chips. 4 slices at a time is good so you can make sure they fry evenly.
Once each chip is a nice golden brown, use a strainer to scoop up the chips and place it on the paper towel- lined plate for the oils to be absorbed. You need to make sure the oils get absorbed fast since the oil could make the chips soggy.
Just keep frying until all are golden brown.
My children love Ranch Dressing, so I used this as their dip for the chips :)
Now since I couldn't perfect each potato slice, I set aside the thicker ones, and coated each one with breading (the kind you can buy in your local grocery). You can choose the already seasoned one, or the plain one which you need to season yourself, according to your taste preference.
Potatoes get watery/ starchy as they "sit", so this will be perfect for the breading to coat each slice through. Same procedure was used-- deep fried them 4 at a time until golden brown, then used a strainer and allowed the paper towel to absorb the oils.
And voila, here's the breaded potato chips with Ranch dressing :) *They taste more like potato skins/ potato wedges that you can order as appetizers in restaurants or in fast food chains*
Hope you peeps enjoyed these 2 simple recipes! This makes the perfect afternoon munchies on a gloomy, rainy day like this :) What I did was to include some romaine lettuce slices with the potatoes (haha I had to add an element of "healthy" in it :D).
Oh and one word of advice (and this is a good one): Do Not attempt to touch the chips immediately after transferring them from the fryer. I did exactly that and I burned my pointer finger. Eeeeyooooouch!!
Enjoy the afternoon, everyone :)
P.S. Sorry for these low- res photos. I used my iPhone for the shots since I didn't want to accidentally deep-fry my camera haha...
x
TheBagHag