Crisps And Chips.

I bet you thought crisps were invented in the west. Wrong, they were invented in India, where they have for a long time sliced up potatoes (and other vegetables,) fried them and sprinkled with spices. These are served as snacks. Chips are arguably from India too, but I'm not a hundred percent on that one. However, they are popular in everyday cooking and it is quite common to have curry and chips at home. So next time you're down at your favourite take-away curry house, you can at least feel reasonably safe when you order Beef Curry and Chips. Potatoes for chips and crisps must be the right type. New potatoes are no good to you. Look for the bags of tatties in the supermarket that proclaim themselves suitable for chipping.After having nearly burnt downa flat with a chip pan, I cannot emphasise how careful you should be. For preference, buy a deep fat fryer. They take away most of the risk

Ingredients

• Potatoes.
• Garam Masala - Hot Spice blend.
• Salt.
• Vegetable oil for deep frying.

Method

1. Wash and peel potatoes.
2. Cut potatoes into chips (1/2 inch/1cm square section.) or very thin slices if doing crisps.
3. Put cut potato into cold water to soak and remove starch.
4. Heat the oil, which for preference should be fresh or reasonably new. If using a deep fat fryer, this will indicate when oil is ready. If using a conventional fryer, test heat by putting in a piece of bread which should sizzle immediately when oil is hot enough. Oil is too hot if its smokes, (Note that if oil is old, it can smoke at a lower temperature also.)
5. Dry the potato in a clean tea towel and put into hot fat. Don't overfill the container and be careful at first as oil level will rise. Allow to cook until light golden and then lift from oil. Allow oil to re-heat and plunge potatoes back in. If doing crisps, give them no more than 15 seconds and remove. For chips, wait until they turn a darker golden. Test a chip by carefully removing from oil and biting.
6. Put cooked potato into a bowl lined with kitchen paper and shake to remove surplus oil. Whilst still hot, sprinkle liberal amount of garam masala and some salt onto them and shake again to distribute the flavouring.
7. Serve.