Chips (French Fries)

This is really two recipes in one. First there are some tips for cooking potato chips and then there are wholewheat chips.

Ingredients:

Potato recipe:

• Potatoes;
• Corn Oil for frying

Macrobiotic recipe:

• 2 cups Plain Wholewheat Flour
• ½ teaspoon Salt
• ½ Baking Powder (omit if using self raising flour)
• Corn Oil for frying

Method:

Potato recipe:

Peel and then slice the potatoes into chip shaped pieces (as if you didn't know that bit already) that are of uniform thickness (this means that they will cook evenly and you will not end up with raw chips and burned chips in the same batch) and then dry them.

Lower the chips into cool to moderate oil and cook until soft (squeeze one between your fingers to check that it is cooked all of the way through) - they should not have started to brown on the outside. Take them out of the oil and warm the oil up until it just starts to smoke (keep an eye on it as if it gets much hotter it will catch fire) and then carefully lower the chips into it until they are as brown on the outside as you want. Place on some kitchen towel to drain.

Macrobiotic recipe:

Mix the flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Add a couple of teaspoons of oil and then just enough water to make a dough. Roll this out to a thickness of around a quarter on an inch and then cut into the shape and size that you want (they are already the same thickness so, unless you cut them thinner, they should all cook at the same rate).

Put the chips into hot oil (no need to cook them internally first as there is with potato chips) and leave them until they are as brown on the outside as you want. Place on some kitchen towel to drain. Treat these chips in exactly the same way that you would potato chips - they will take salt and vinegar in exactly the same way. No problems with oil at different temperatures or having to peel them - flour will keep longer than potatoes as well.

Variations:

For the potato chips, all that you can really do is put different things on them after they are cooked.

Macrobiotic chips are far more versatile. Try mixing the flour with:

1. A little chilli powder;
2. Buckwheat flour;
3. Maize flour;
4. Add some poppy seeds;
5. Sesame seeds; and so on.

Storage:

Potato chips will go horrible if left to go cold.

Macrobiotic chips will warm up in a microwave and you can eat them like many of the potato/maize snacks.

Serving suggestions:

Serve with buckwheat burgers, with tomato sauce and so on.