Food; Idiots Guide to Cooking Oven Chips from Raw Potatoes

Well this is a surprise.  I didn’t expect to be writing a post about cooking.  I’ve never been much of a cook in the past, but recently have become more interested, particularly as my appetite has expanded since I have grown older.  It’s hard to imagine that in my younger days I used to absolutely dread going out to a restaurant because the fear of how much food appeared on my plate used to put paid to my appetite, and, hence I wouldn’t be able to eat anything.  How things have changed.

So the dish I am blogging about today is in fact probably the simplest one of all – chips!  Due to being a novice, these chips are going to be cooked in the oven from a raw potato.  The reason I needed chips was that I had bought some ham and pineapple on special offer from Asda in a packet, which had been reduced to around fifty pence.  Keeping with the economy theme I didn’t want to buy a bag of oven chips, so decided to make my own.  There are a lot of recipes for oven chips on the internet, but I thought I would just put together my experiences, hopefully filling in some gaps that other recipes take for granted.

The recipe steps are as follows:-

-    Take a baking potato weighing about 260g, peel it, and, cut it into chip like strips.  This is enough for a portion for one person.

-    Put the chips into a pan of water with a pinch of salt (the salt is to increase the boiling point).  Bring the water to the boil, and, then let it simmer for two minutes, before turning off the heat.  Although the potato chips are still hard to stab with a fork, don’t let this fact fool you in to simmering them for a greater amount of time in the pan.  The cooking process in the oven softens the chips, and, simmering them even longer will only make them too soft.

-    Take a metal tray and add some cooking oil to it.  Now take each chip in turn and roll it in the oil so all sides are covered.  This will form the basis of their nice brown crispy coating.

-    At this point you can add seasoning of your choice to the chips.  I sprinkled with salt, hot chilli powder, and, paprika.  I would have added garlic powder, but I was due to go out that night, so thought it best to avoid.

-    When all the chips have been rolled in the cooking oil, seasoned, and, left in the tray, place them into a pre-heated oven at 200^oC. 

-    After 20 minutes of cooking in the oven turn the chips over.

-    After a further 25 minutes (making a total of 45 minutes), the chips are ready to eat.

-    Use a sieve to drain the excess oil from the chips, and, place on a warm plate to consume.

I cooked the ham and pineapple, and, a tin of marrowfat peas (emptied into a covered dish) in the oven at the same time as the chips.

And there you have it.  I hope you enjoy your chips.