When a recipe is wrong, and how to fix it: homemade potato chips

I have written before, about how few recipes are actually tested, and how this in turn, results in people thinking they cannot cook. After all, the recipe HAS to be right, right? If the recipe is in a revered cooking magazine, and was written by a revered chef, well... if you can't get it right?

Listen up folks. IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT. No, it's not. It frustrates me to no end when a recipe is written badly, or is incomplete, or is just plain, well, WRONG. Annalena is pretty handy in the kitchen. Yet, there are times when a recipe just cannot be made to work for her. Even chefs or cooks who are meticulous - I cite Ina Garten in this regard - have bloopers. They happen.

Some time ago, this happened with another recipe: one for homemade potato chips. Now, who could resist the idea, especially when the recipe calls for BAKING them instead of frying them? Potato chips, BAKED? In a good cooking magazine, by a great chef.

Before I made them, the first time, I read the reviews by other cooks. They were not uniformly positive. In fact they were more than a bit negative. (the website I found this on, has people review the recipes they make). I , in typical fashion, ignored them.

WRONG. There is a lot that is wrong with this recipe. A LOT wrong. But the principles are good, and you should make these.

Incidentally, do not fool yourself into thinking they are diet food. They're potato chips. They are fattening. They are not good for you. But they are GOOD. Proportion is all.

The ingredients are good. You need 2 potatoes, weighing in at about 3/4 of a pound (the recipe only says '2 medium yukon gold or idaho potatoes). You also need 3 tablespoons of oil. Yes, you need it all. Also, salt and pepper, or some other spices. Cayenne pepper, for example, or something like that. Start with just salt, though.

You start by preheating the oven to 400. While this is happening, peel and slice the potatoes REALLY thin. The recipe calls for 1/8 inch slices. You really do have to go close to that thickness, and if you don't have a mandoline, or a benriner, or something like that, you will need to get a sharp knife, and work SLOWLY. It wouldn't be a bad idea to take a measurement with a ruler or tape measure. Cut a slice 1/2 inch thick, and then think of cutting four slices of equal thickness from it . That's what you need.

Peel the potatoes and then slice them that thinly. You'll get a LOT of them. Toss them with the oil and the spices. You'll have enough.

Now, this is where the recipe screws up, badly. It tells you to put them directly on baking sheets, and to bake for 12-15 minutes.

If you do this, you will ruin your baking sheets, burn the potatoes, and be convinced you screwed up.. The last is NOT true. What you SHOULD do is line the baking sheets with parchment. You should lay out the potatoes in one layer, and if you have two sheets, use two. And if you have too many potatoes, do them in batches. Check them after as little as six minutes. They do not cook evenly, like commercial potato chips, so expect some brown ones, some lighter ones, and some that are mottled. You can let them go for as much as ten minutes, if you like them really dark, but they will get REALLY dark. Think of your audience.

Take them out, get them off the paper, and let them cool on a baking sheet. This, too, is important. They get much crisper this way.

The thing the recipe also does not tell you is that, if you enclose these in ANY kind of container, ANY kind, including the classic metal tin, they will lose their crispness. So, what I suggest is that you make them just before you're going to serve them (because you don't really want them around now, do you?) and serve them with a little dip or sour cream or something.

Make these. They're good, and always remember: if a recipe doesn't work, it's probably not your fault.

Our next few recipes are going to be a tribute to improvisation on things I have eaten at one of my favorite restaurants: Cookshop. We're going to make cauliflower with tahini, we're going to stuff cabbage with duck, and we're gonna make vanilla lime ice cream. They're all terrific.