Monday, July 25, 2011

Homemade Potato Chips with Rosemary and Sea Salt


When our closest friends were in town recently, my daughter and I wanted to provide a real San Diego experience.  We decided upon Belmont Park.  The park includes many amusement style rides including an antique wooden roller coaster.  As well, the adjacent boardwalk overlooks Mission Beach and features restaurants, surf shops and souvenir huts.  Of course there are the requisite ice cream, snow cone and hot dogs stands.

We came home happy, tired and ”sun kissed”.  Yet dinner still needed my attention.  I had pre-shopped for a basic hamburger cook out, but wanted to add a special touch.  I have a new, good quality mandolin, so I took on homemade potato chips.

Preparing homemade chips actually goes against the grain of this blog.  I encourage people to take shortcuts and buy good quality prepared food.  However, these potato chips were worth the added effort.  The preparation is simple, but the deep fry process takes time.  One suggestion if you are making dinner - appoint an extra person to simply take on this task.
Susan and Zoe step in to finish deep frying
I used a 3 quart pot to cook the potatoes, since I don’t own a deep fryer.  The juicy barbecued burger and crisp salty chips were definitely the perfect ending to our San Diego day.

Homemade Potato Chips with Sea Salt and Rosemary
serves 4
Ingredients:
4 Russet potatoes, cleaned skin left on
4 cups Canola oil
Coarse sea salt to taste
Sprigs of fresh rosemary to taste
Directions:
1. Slice cleaned potatoes on the mandolin in paper thin slices.  Place sliced potatoes in a bowl of ice water for 5-10 minutes.  Lay potatoes out on paper towels and blot dry.
2. Finely chop rosemary.
3. Heat oil on stovetop - I do not have an oil thermometer so I just test the temperature by adding one potato slice  (If you do have a deep fat thermometer oil should consistently remain at 380 degrees). If it starts bubbling and browning right away, it’s ready.  
4. Cook potatoes to desired crispness and lightly browned, about 2-3 minutes.  Remove with slotted spoon.
5. Drain on paper towel and sprinkle with salt and rosemary.

Virtually Homemade




4 comments:

  1. Ummmmmm.....Delicious. This reminds me of the old days when my mother used to prepare such delicious stuffs and I used to have such a great time then. Awesome those days were.

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  2. These look good..I need to get the cutter but then I'll give them a go!

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  3. Thanks for the comments! These are really delicious and addicting like potato chips can be. Hope you are able to make them!

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  4. Salt is often demonized by the health industry, but is this another case of health problems being blamed on a natural food because of its modern refined counterpart? When it comes to salt, I certainly think so

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