When Push Comes To Shove.

Do you remember the first time you ever tasted something, had your mind instantly blown and wondered how you lived your life having never tasted it before?

Well, I do- and it involved me and a small plastic bottle of chips my baby sister had lugged all the way back from Malaysia a couple of Chinese New Years ago.

Now, to grasp the enormity of the situation (and also because I’m a bit of a drama queen), you have to first understand that up till that very day, the only form of chips my palate was well acquainted with were that of the regular potatoes, vegetables, sweet potatoes and apples. So when I first chanced upon that bottle of golden brown chips, I naturally assumed they were the good old potato chips as I reached into the bottle and grabbed a handful.

So imagine my astonishment when I discovered that while what I was snacking on looked like potato chips, crunched like potato chips, they were definitely not potato chips. These were much lighter, tastier and way more addictive than potato chips; something I really didn’t think could be possible. And then I questioned how fully and fulfilling I could have been living my life having never known such a delicious snack in all my years of existence for about two seconds before reaching into the bottle to grab another handful.

Needless to say, that bottle was completely emptied, right down to the last tiny crisp, by the end of the day.

And that, my friends, was my very first taste of arrowroot chips.

So since that Chinese New Year, arrowroot chips have been the one thing I really look forward to whenever Chinese New Year rolls around. I would snack myself silly on them any chance I got to both make up for lost time and get my fill before they disappeared all too soon with the end of the festive period.

But things all changed this year when I was told  I had to fork out fourteen dollars for a bottle of arrowroot chips. I mean seriously? Fourteen bucks for a bottle of chips? There are a lot of things I would pay good money for but a small bottle of crisps was certainly not one of them, however addictive they might be.

And that only meant there was only one other route I could take to get my fill of these delicious chips; get over my fear of spluttering oil and fry them myself.

Making these paper-thin arrowroots crisps thankfully proved a lot easier and effortless than I thought with the aid of a mandoline (one of my best and cheapest kitchen investments!). A quick shave of these onion-like bulbs through the mandoline and a soak in lightly salted water to rid the slices of starch and I was all set to conquer my fear of deep frying.

The wimp that I am when it comes to hot oil, I have to admit that I stood as far from the frying pan as my pair of metal tongs would allow me to, gingerly placing each slice into the hot oil with the pair of tongs, all poised to leap back in case of any spluttering.

With no major oil spluttering or burns, I soon found myself standing a little closer to the pan, tossing slices in and fishing the golden brown ones out like I was made to do this all my life. I was surprisingly having such much fun deep frying that it didn’t take long before I was staring down at an empty strainer that once held raw arrowroots slices and a whole tray of crisp, golden brown arrowroot chips.

And for all that time it took me to slice, soak and then fry them, these freshly fried arrowroot chips sure disappeared quickly- not that I’m complaining. With fries as easy to slice and fry as they are addictive to polish off, I think it was safe to say it was a win-win situation for all.

So it might have taken a little nudge to get me to start making these myself but I’m sure glad I did. For I may not know what any of the future Chinese New Year festive periods might hold but I’m pretty sure they won’t be involving bottles of arrowroot chips that cost fourteen bucks a pop.

Arrowroot Chips

Note: I pretty much winged this recipe; doing the same steps I would take with potato chips, just with arrowroot bulbs. The two things I found that really made all the difference is making it all easier is one, a mandoline- paper thin slices guaranteed with minimal effort- and two, a Chinese strainer- this will help you fish those golden brown chips out quickly as soon as they are done cooking and you won’t end up with burnt chips. Oh, one other thing, because the chips are fairly thin, small slices, they will cook rather quickly so keep a close eye on them and take them out once they turn light golden brown. That’s about it. All that aside, if you’re lucky enough to live near a supermarket or wet market that still have plenty of these in stock, take it from me, buy more than you think you might need. They seriously will disappear in no time.

Ingredients
500g arrowroot (about medium-sized 6 bulbs)
Sea salt, to season
Vegetable oil, for deep frying

1. Peel and thinly sliced the arrowroots into paper-thin sizes, using a mandoline, if you have one. Place the sliced arrowroots in a large bowl of lightly salted water and let them soak for about half an hour to remove the starch.
2. Strain the arrowroot slices, discarding the salted water and making sure to give the slices a good shake in the sieve to get rid of any excess moisture or the oil will splatter as you fry the chips.
3. Line a baking tray with baking paper or clean newspapers and set a wire rack over the baking tray and set aside.
4. Pour enough vegetable oil into a wide, shallow frying pan so that it comes up to about 2cm. Heat the oil over high heat until the oil starts to move gently across the base of the pan.
5. Lower the heat to medium heat and using a pair of tongs or wooden chopsticks, place a small handful of arrowroot slices into the pan, one at a time. Set aside a Chinese strainer.
6. Fry the chips until light golden brown and remove immediately from the pan using the tongs or chopsticks and Chinese strainer. Keep going with the rest of the arrowroot slices and let the fried chips drain on the prepared wire rack. When you’re almost done frying, preheat the oven at 120C.
7. Bake the chips in the oven for about ten minutes to allow any excess oil to drip off. Toss with sea salt, if desired, and let the chips cool completely before storing in an air tight container. Makes about 2 medium size jars’ worth of chips

Posted by thecoffeesnob on January 21, 2012

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