Early last fall, our good friends Nick & Liz friends had heard about the Beyond Burger from Beyond Meat and were very curious to try it. Having tried the Impossible Burger, they wanted to see how the Beyond Burger compared. We happily told them to come over for a Burger Brunch. This coincided with their needing a dog sitter to watch their sweet little Sandy while they went away for the night. As Sandy is one of the few dogs that our Riley likes, we were more than happy to host her for the night.
Riley and Sandy
With that all settled, Ethan and I needed to figure out what to serve with the burgers. In stead of making French Fries, I thought potato chips would be a better a idea. Sure, we could have just run to the grocery store and picked up a bag of any one of a wide variety of chips, homemade potato chips are so much better and they are not hard to make all. Also, making them at home allows us to experiment with different seasonings. For this go around, I decided to make two flavors of potato chips: salted and rosemary-truffle.
The Beyond Burger, chips and pickles.
When making potato chips, you wan to make sure the potatoes are thinly sliced so they get crispy. Also, they should all be the same thickness to ensure even cooking time. The slicing disk on a food processor, or a mandoline are the best tools for the job. If you are using a mandoline, watch your fingers when you get to the end of your potato. It is better to not use the last inch of the potato than to slice your fingers on the blade. I am speaking from personal experience here. And a word about the potato to use for making chips. You want to use a higher starch, low water content potato, like a russet, for making potato chips. Even though you will be soaking them in water to remove some of the starch, they will cook up nice a crispy for perfect chips. Potatoes with high water content like red potatoes, will not crisp up the same way.
One final note before getting to the recipe, whether you peel the potatoes is completely up to you. I like to leave the skin on as I think it lends to the homemade look of the chips. If you are going to leave the skins on, be sure to scrub the potatoes well before slicing them.
Ingredients
4 medium size russet potatoes, sliced very thin
3 tablespoons salt, plus more for sprinkling
2 cups canola oil or other neutral oil
1 cup olive oil
To make Rosemary-Truffle Chips:
1 teaspoon truffle salt
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
Directions
1. As you slice the potatoes, place the slices in a large bowl of cold water. Once all the potato slices are in the water, drain the water, refill the bowl with water and add the salt. Let the potatoes soak in the salt water for at least 30 minutes. When you are ready to cook the potatoes, drain the water, rinse the potato slices thoroughly, put them onto a clean kitchen towel, and pat them dry.
2. Pour the canola oil and olive oil in to a large pot and heat to 360°F. Carefully add some potato slices to the oil. Once they start turning golden brown, about 2 minutes, remove them from the oil and transfer to a paper towel lined plate to drain. Sprinkle them with a little salt.
Thanks to our friend Liz Dee who got a photo me as I was frying up the chips
3. Continue frying the potato slices in small batches until they are all fried.
Yes, I could have eaten this entire bowl. Photo by Liz Dee
4. If you want to make Rosemary-Truffle chips, as the chips are draining, sprinkle them with some of the truffle salt and rosemary. Before serving, transfer them to a large serving bowl and give them a gentle toss to make sure all the chips have some of the truffle salt and rosemary on them.
