Sunday 7 March 2010

Potato Chips

A few years back I read a book about food and psychology. It was about how you are able to tell a person's personality from the food they like. So there was a chapter on snack personality. So here is how it goes;

Forget about diet and if all the choices are equally beneficial to your body, pick your favorite snack from the list below:

1) Potato chips
2) Tortilla chips
3) Snack Crackers 
4) Pretzels
5) Cheese curls
6) Meat snacks 

According to Alan Hirsch, a researcher at the Smell and Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, the following are snack food personality profiles:

1) Potato Chips: Potato chip lovers are successful, high achievers who enjoy the rewards and trimmings of their success- both in business and in family life

2) Tortilla Chips: Perfectionist in regards to their own actions and to the community at large, people who crave tortilla chips are humanitarians who are often distressed by the inequities and injustices of society 

3) Snack Crackers: Contemplative and thoughtful, people who prefer snack crackers base their decisions on logic rather than emotions 

4) Pretzels: Lively and energetic, pretzel fans seek novelty and thrive in the world of abstract concepts. They often lose interest in mundane, day-to-day routines 

5) Cheese curls; Formal, conscientious and always proper, the cheese curl lover can be described with one word - Integrity. They will always maintain moral high ground with their family, work and romantic partners. 

6) Meat Snacks: Gregarious and social, those who reach for a savory bag of pork rinds or crave beek jerky and other meat snacks are often the life of the party. They are loyal and true friends who can always be trusted. 

Needless to say, from the dish of the day, one could tell whats my favorite snack. Well I would really like to believe what the test says its true! ha! 

Oh well so I have been wanting to try this for a while now, I love potatoes in all forms btw! So today I tried this for the first time and I have to say its not as simple as it looks! This try is an experiment rather then the final product! The science of baking potato chips is tough. I am not joking. I tried three batches! Still I have not gotten it right. Well I know the basic steps now. So the rest is just fine tuning the right temperature and thickness of the oven and the potato slices I suppose. 

Ingredients (serves 2)
2 Potatoes 
Salt 
Pepper 
Oil 
Rosemary

1) Preheat oven to 180 Degree Celsius 

2) Scrub potatoes and slice with a mandoline to desired thickness. ( to prevent potatoes from turing brown put them in water while slicing the rest of the potatoes)

3) Dry the potato slices if soaked in water and line up the slices potato slices on a baking sheet and brush each slice with oil. ( I added a pinch of rosemary into the oil)

4) Sprinkle with salt and pepper or which every herbs and seasoning you like. ( I tired garlic too, and it turned out alright.)


5) Place in hot oven and bake for 10mins. Then, rotate the pan and bake for another 5-6mins more. The chips will darken a bit as they bake but don't let them burn. Its very important that the thickness of the potato slices are constant so that the baking process will even. 

6) Remove pan from oven and transfer chips to a layer of paper towels. Allow them to cool and the oil to be absorbed by the towels. They will crisp up slightly as they cool. 


My chips turned out crispy along the edges and still soft in the middle. I tried baking it at a lower temperature, for eg. 170 Degree and for a longer period of time, which was slightly better but the burnt part were still burnt. Then I tried baking the second batch, that were still soft in the middle the second time (meaning baking it ones, letting it cool and baking it again) which turn out slightly harder but not as crispy as I would like it to be. So I am still trying out and will definitely try to figure the right timing and temperature! In the mean time if anyone has tried baking potato chips and know how to do it! Let me know! 

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