Homemade Potato Chips

Last Christmas a good friend of mine, without her even knowing, fulfilled one of my Christmas wishes -- a Mandolin Slicer.  This kitchen tool works wonder!  It can slice vegetables and fruits paper thin.  This means I can make chips at home.  Although this isn't too healthy, I would rather eat and give my kids homemade chips than buying processed one.

I bought big big potatoes from the Supermarket and used the blade for thin slices.  While the the potato is still big i did not mind using the protective holder but the blade is seriously sharp and I would not want to have portion of my finger sliced.

My mandolin slicer comes with a stainless bowl that fits the slicer.  Since potato had water or juices when sliced I lined the bowl inside with paper towel to absorb it.  While slicing the potato, I heated a pan fryer about 1.5 inch deep and fill it with canola oil past half the pan.  I read somewhere that thinly sliced potato does not need to be deef fried, the key is the consistency of the heat.  

I fried the potato immediately upon slicing.  The natural juice of the potato creates bubble during frying.  When it is nearly cooked the bubbles disappears.  Since I did not use a deep fryer i turned the potato slices when one side turned slightly brown.  Fried chips is cooled using a stainless streamer.  A cooling rack for cookies would be great but i don't have one.  The streamer does the job, excess oil is removed. 

After draining the potato chips a placed them in a bowl line with paper towels.  I sprinkled a little salt to the chips and it was perfectly crisp, a lot better than potato chips in foil.  I could taste the freshness of the potatoes.  

To complete the snack, i made my own sour cream dip which is perfect match with potato chips.  I have been dipping Lay, Ruffles, Farmer Jack's and Oishi Gourmet Picks' plain potato chips since I found this onion dip seasoning from South Supermarket.  I rarely see this brand from the other big supermarket.  The pack requires 2 cups of Nestle Sour cream in 240 grams but instead of buying two cups of sour cream, i just use 1 cup and divide the seasoning into half using a digital weighing food scale. 

I also found a good substitute to sour cream which is quite expensive.  A cup of Nestle fresh yogurt taste perfectly fine with the seasoning.  It's a bit more sour but it goes well with the plainly salted chips.  The dip made from yogurt is slightly thiner in consistency compared to sour cream.  

I know this is one sinful indulgence, substituting sour cream with yogurt at least lessens the calories that goes with this comfort snack.  When I was younger, I used to make fried potatoes sliced as thinly as I can with the hope that it will at least taste like the potato chips bought from foil packs.  Now, the mandolin slicer made it possible for potato chips to be homemade.  Two thumbs up for the mandolin slicer.