best potato chips with garlic & rosemary

vintage pictures are just fun to have and to look at. Andrew has these hanging up in his house out here. stretched [and very loose] burlap on old wood backdrops of butcher charts.



This is where my nerdy chef comes out. He told me he found them in an old package house in the meatpacking district.

homemade chips is a great option for a proper summer BBQ. very easy to assemble and you look pretty cool when you get nods of satisfaction among a sea of crunching on the warmed chips with thin slices of fried garlic and rosemary.  I like the purple potato which fry up very clean and crisp. The purple is the original potato from Peru. Russets or Yukon Golds are good as well. you'll need a mandolin. if you don't have one, you can find a good mandolin slicer with or without a julienne attachment for under $20. you'll also need a bath of ice water next to you to be able to hold 3 pounds of sliced potatoes. 

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purple potato chips with rosemary and garlic

your list

3 lbs purple potatoes. washed, scrubbed and pat dried

peanut oil. enough to fill half a heavy saucepan

sea salt. Maldons good

a bunch rosemary leaves picked

1 bulb garlic. sliced super thin or whole roughly bashed

yesterdays newspaper

mis-en-place

set your stove to 250. now slice your potatoes into thin disks about the width of a quarter and drop in ice water. watch your fingers! I like to do a few lengthwise to change it up a little. after they're cut place in the oven on 2 sheet trays with raised wire racks for 30 minutes to get the rest of the moisture out. have tongs and a mesh colander handy [to scoop out the chips]. set a large saucepan on a stove and fill up halfway with the oil. turn it up till it reaches a steady 350 degrees. this is your cooking point. You'll be doing them in batches. Throw in a handful for each batch so theres no overcrowding.  Let it fry, turning with tongs, a few times on both sides. after 3 minutes toss a small handful of garlic and rosemary in. give it a few more minutes to crisp up. poke with your tongs. When its crispy and hard to the touch, they're done. pull them out with your colander & place them on wire racks. salt generously. keep them in the oven to stay warm & crispy till serving.  I like to serve them on newspaper. its a cheap alternative to paper towels and it looks like you picked them up right off the fish and chips man. try a bite with the garlic and rosemary. they season the oil with each batch which makes the chips all aromatic and lovely. tuck in!

chips from the Bar3BQ event