Wednesday, September 23, 2009

M. Y. O. P. C. (Make Your Own Potato Chips)

Craving the salty crunch of potato chips but don't want a fingertip trail across your shirt mid-workday? Well, here I come with your solution: potato chips that aren't fried. That you made yourself. From a potato you bought from a local farmer or grew in your back yard (OK, that last one was mostly wishful thinking). Turns out you can toss lots of thinly sliced produce into the microwave and come out with "chips" on the other end. (Yet another way to use all your zucchini and squash!)

There are only three important items you'll need, aside from the potato of course: 1) a microwave, 2) a big knife, and 3) the patience, ability, or some sort of gadget to cut exceedingly thin slices of raw spud. It is doable. Just go slow and don't slice a fingertip.

Here's the way it works:
  • Scrub and dry your potato real good. Take your large, sharp knife and cut the thinnest slices you possibly can. It may help to take a thin slice off the long side of your tater, giving you a flat surface to rest on -- for stability purposes.
  • Spray a microwave-safe plate with a little Pam and lay the slices out then sprinkle with salt. May take a couple of batches; I did one small potato and it took two. Nuke plate for 3 minutes, then take out (with a hotpad!) and flip potato slices. Cook for 3 more minutes, adding on a minute at a time if potatoes need longer. Let cool a bit, then crunch on.
So I haven't tried but I have heard tell that this practice does, indeed, work on other vegetables. If I were to try it, I'd be sure to scrape out any seeds if a veggie has them, like zucchini or squash. Otherwise, I don't see why any root vegetable (carrots, parsnips, turnips, rutabegas, beets, etc.) couldn't undergo a similar transformation. Also, if you are concerned about my donut-shaped chips, pictured here, it's because I had a little fungus problem in the middle of my potato. Nothing to worry about; just scraped it out and went along my merry way.

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