Potato Crisps: with sage, rosemary and thyme

Potato Crisps: with sage, rosemary and thyme

These are so moreish at Christmas time, and beat shop bough crisps (chips) any day of the week! I used a good organic white potato (King Edward)



You can turn any variety of potato into crisps, but red organic potatoes yield particularly good results. Young specimens at the beginning of the season produce light-coloured crisps because their sugar level is low. After they go into storage, the sugar level increases, so as the season progresses you will end up with darker, more caramelised crisps. Rather a lot of oil is left on the finished crisps, and this is what makes them so tasty. The seasoning for the crisps should be ground down quite fine for an even coating. These crisps can be stored in an airtight container for a month or two if you don't open the lid.

For this recipe you will need a deep-fat fryer or pan and a thermometer. A kitchen mandolin will also come in handy - you need the crisps to be about 1mm thick.

INGREDIENTS:

organic sunflower oil
potatoes, cleaned but not peeled
1 tsp dried sage
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried thyme
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

METHOD:
Heat the oil to 140°C, checking the temperature with your thermometer. Thinly slice the potatoes with a mandolin. Fry them in small batches, no more than 15 at a time. They will fry vigorously at first and then slow down.

Only remove them from the pan when they have completely stopped bubbling, otherwise they may go soft. Extract them with a slotted implement, place them on kitchen paper and pat them dry. Then transfer them to an airtight container.

Crush the dried sage, rosemary, thyme, the black pepper and 1½ teaspoons salt as finely as possible using a pestle and mortar or a spice grinder.

Take a few pinches of this mix and sprinkle onto the crisps. Gently move them around and turn them over to ensure an even distribution. When you are happy with the level of seasoning, you can store the rest of it either to use for a future batch of crisps, or use it to rub on meat prior to cooking.

Cookie