Covid comfort cooking: crispy potatoes

Hey friends, how are you all hanging in there? Okay I do hope. We are trucking along well Ngaio. The cats remain delighted with having their humans on tap. The husband remains delighted with our hard-working craft beer industry and its willingness to home-deliver. And I remain delighted that I have all I need right here in my bubble. I am a lucky person indeed.

If I had to pick one treat only to eat for the rest of my life, it would probably be hot chips. I love all things potato. Mounds of buttery mash, crisply goose-fat roasted potatoes, boiled spuds scattered with a little fresh mint. Mmmm.

I love chips and other deep-fried goodies so much that there is absolutely no way I would ever own a deep frier. There is just too much potential for severe and unstoppable weight gain and frankly a whole lot of experimentation in frying things that were never meant to be fried.

So, lucky for me I have devised the following method of preparing potatoes in the oven which produces a very chip-like result and is very tasty, if I do say so myself. The key here is to get the oil nice and hot before you pop the potato in, so take good note of that part of the method even if you don’t want to follow the rest too closely.

Keep on taking care everyone and I will back with more Covid comfort cooking as time allows.

Oven chips (serves 2 or 4 if a side)

Ingredients:

• 4 medium to large potatoes
• 4 tablespoons of oil
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• Seasonings if you wish – choose from whatever you have. I am using a teaspoon of fresh chopped rosemary in this batch of chips depicted. Some other tasty suggestions – paprika, chilli powder, ground black pepper, dusting of turmeric

Method:

• Preheat the oven to 220 degrees centigrade.
• Prepare the potatoes – peel and slice into chip shapes as pictured. I find this easiest to do by halving the potato lengthways, cutting each half lengthways again, and then slicing each portion into lengths. Mind your fingers. Season the chips with the salt and any other flavours if using.
• When the oven is heated, pour the oil into a large metal roasting pan. Place in the oven for five minutes.
• Remove the pan and quickly add the chips. Do use tongs to save your fingers and watch out for splashing oil.
• Don’t stir. Place back in the oven and cook at 220 for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 200.
• This will feel scary, but do not stir the chips at all. The oil will stop them from sticking and by leaving them, you get a lovely browned top and crisped bottom where the chips sit on the roasting pan.
• Once the tops of the potatoes are nicely browned, about another 20 minutes, they are ready to eat. Remove from the oven and serve.