QA Forum
Question & Answer
We are discussing Cooking for life
With Kurma Dasa, Sue Dengate, Dave Tuff, Jacinta Dugbaza, Roger Bayley
Question:
I want to make healthy home made chips, we do not have a deep fryer? How do I do it?
Answer:
Dave -
Home made healthy chips
The best way to do this is to use a heavy based deep saucepan, a tight fitting lid (just in case it all goes wrong and goes up in flames), a good thermometer (one that clips on the side of the pan and will read up to 200c), a cheap spider (they are the metal vegetable lifters you can get from any Asian grocery shop for a few dollars).Also a good quality canola oil or other low trans fat oil. Olive oils are not very good for frying as they break down at a much lower temperature than other oils.
Use fresh, good quality potatoes such as Pontiacs. Peel them and cut into round 10mm to 12 mm thick chips--the thicker they are the less oil they will absorb. Lay them out on kitchen paper and let it absorb the excess moisture from the chips, meanwhile heat the oil in the pan.
If you are only cooking a few serves you will only need about 6 or 7 cm of oil in the pan. Bring the temperature up to a constant 160c and lower the dried chips into the oil. The idea is to just blanch them as you do with green vegetables. They only need to go in for 2 to 3 minutes and half cook, do not brown them. Then take them out and drain them on kitchen paper again. Increase the oil temperature to 180c and cook till golden brown. This should give you fresh crisp chips in a flash.
NOTE: Do not put salt on the potato before putting it in the oil.
You can buy ready made chips from the supermarket but you will find that they are already coated with beef talon (fat) to keep them crisp.
View answer to: 
prev question | next question 
