Crisp Days!

Who doesn't enjoy an autumnal walk, splitting conker shells to reveal their polished wooden jewels, feeling beech nuts pop beneath your feet and kicking mounds of golden, bronze and copper leaves with the inner thrill of a five year old?

This has been a particularly good Autumn with mild and dry days. Everything around us is crisp from the aforementioned leaves to the apples picked or scrumped from the trees.

Speaking of all things crisp(!) I provided friends with some bought vegetable crisps this week. Tasty shrivelled bits of beetroot, parsnip, carrot and sweet potato, they do look remarkably like eighties pot pourri! Actually in the eighties I had my first potato skins with sour cream and yes, they were actual deep fried potato peelings! Why not? All the goodness is there in the skin although now I think we would oven cook them. My mother in law used to have a crisp maker which was a slotted rack to use in the microwave and now lurks at the back of the gadget graveyard (sorry, kitchen cupboard!)

A gadget is not required. Apparently you need to slice a potato as thinly as possible (using a mandolin) then rinse and soak in water for half an hour to get rid of the starch. Pat dry with a clean cloth or kitchen roll. Deep fry in batches and drain on kitchen paper, seasoning whilst warm OR spritz with oil and bake in the oven, again adding flavour whilst warm. If using root vegetables treat the same way, omitting the destarching stage.

We have come a long way since the little blue bag of salt packets and the flavours, textures, cuts and shapes vary greatly. Bizarrely for a vegetarian, I am partial to beef and onion flavour. A good job it is only flavouring! 

 

Spot the similarity!