Harvest season is in full swing at the moment. The weather is dry and fine now, perfect for our local farmers to get the crops in. As they say ” Make hay while the sun shines “. For us little farmers the time is right now for digging up our root vegetables. We grew Home guard potatoes in bags on the allotment this year, to save on space. I chose this variety because of its hardiness. Personally I wouldn’t recommend this way of growing as the spuds tend to be quite small in size. In the past I have tried growing potatoes before in car tyres, plastic barrels and boxes. All with the intention of saving on garden space and the results were always the same. You tend to get disappointingly small little malteeser like spuds. As soon as I get enough space I am going to grow long furrows of potatoes with the freedom to flourish naturally. But all is not lost. I still have a nice little batch to make use of. As I said before if God gives you lemons, you make lemonade. But unless you have water and sugar then that lemonade is going to taste like piss. I’m sorry Mr Tayto but the game is up.

The Ingredients:

Uncooked potatoes

Sea salt

Cider vinegar

Ground chilli

Smoked paprika

Sugar

Sunflower oil for frying

The Make:

First slice your potatoes. You can use a mandolin if you like for slicing but I chose to use my food processor with the slicing apparatus in place. Once sliced dry off the potatoes on some kitchen towel. Heat up oil. Deep fry potatoes until they golden. Remove these chips and let them drain a new piece of kitchen towel. Heat up your oven to 160C. Place chips onto an oven tray. Cook in oven until they are dry and crispy.

Now you can become as brave as you like with different flavours. I chose two flavours, Maldon sea salt with Cider vinegar and a Sweet chilli paprika. I separated the crisps into two batches in large bowls. For the sea salt and cider vinegar I sprinkled a generous pinch of salt over the crisps and tossed it in the bowl. I then used a household spray bottle, hygienically cleaned, and spritzed the vinegar over the crisps. For the second I gave generous pinches of Ground chilli, smoked paprika and sugar. Remember to season to your own taste. Enjoy.

Sweet chilli paprika