Let the chips fall where they may

When you have lemons, the saying goes, you make lemonade. And when you have potatoes — and lots of them due to a clerical error in ordering online (5 bags vs. 5 potatoes) — you start to get creative.

Potato chips — or crisps if you are British — had always been on my bucket list. So with an abundance of spuds and copious amounts of time (thanks to the lockdown), I journeyed forth.

I had happened to buy a little manual food processor type device a few months ago. After a few tests, I found the right setting to produce a very thin potato slice.

I decided to bake rather than boil in oil. Here, what I did was take the slices and put them in a bowl and coat them with olive oil. I wanted saltless, so for spices I used a Mexican concoction I bought at Whole Foods awhile back. Essentially, it is paprika, onion and garlic powders, so you could easily whip this up yourself.

Now, the trick in baking, I believe, is to ensure there is adequate air flow underneath the chips. I had just recently purchased stainless steel baking pans that came with your standard racks. But the racks alone would be difficult to use, since it would be too easy for the chips to fall through the cracks.

The pans also came with silicone mats. So I placed them on these mats, on top of the racks and in the pans. Voila. Worked like a charm. I baked on 400F for about 20-25 minutes.

The chips were light and crispy.

After they cooled, however, I placed them in a plastic bag. I only discovered the day after that this was a mistake. The chips we had for lunch on Day 2 were soggy. There was still too much moisture in the potatoes to dry to a proverbial crisp.

No matter. I threw them back in the oven on “dehydrate” for 30 minutes and the chips are back to a 10 on the crunch-ometer.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.