NICK'S CHIPS & DIPS






A word about potatoes...
Potatoes come from the Moon!  Not really… potatoes originally came from South America (probably Darkest Peru, like Paddington Bear) but are now grown around the world.  There are hundreds of different varieties of potato: these have different colours and slightly different flavours.  

There are two main types of potato: floury and waxy.  Floury potatoes are best for chips, while waxy are best for boiling.  In the supermarket, look for “baking” potatoes, as these are great for chips.

How we made our chips and dips

We were shown how to prepare and slice the potatoes for making chips.  Remember that thick slices take longer to cook (these are called “chunky” chips) but thinner slices will cook more quickly (these are more like French Fries).  Choose whichever you like but be careful not to burn thin chips!

We put a small amount (about 2 dessert spoons) of oil in a bowl.  Then we chose our seasoning (salt, pepper, spices) and put that in the bowl as well.  We then put the potato slices in the bowl and gave it all a good stir.

We then put the potato slices (they’re not chips yet!) into the oven at a high temperature (about 200 degrees).  We set our timer for 15 minutes.

While the potatoes were cooking, we made dips.  We put about two dessert spoons of mayonnaise into a small pot.  We then chose our flavourings: tomato sauce, mustard sauce, chip seasoning, jerk seasoning, pepper, chives (or whatever we liked, really!) and gave the pot a good stir.

At about 15 minutes (when the timer went off) we took the potatoes (they’re not quite chips yet!) out of the oven and turned them with a fish slice.  This was to make sure that the slices all got the same amount of heat from the oven.  We then put them back in the oven and set the timer for 10 minutes.

When the timer went off again, we had a look at our potatoes.  If they looked nice and cooked, we removed them from the oven and left them to cool for a few minutes.  Then… we ate our chips!  With our dips!  Hooray!

Things we learnt today

Skills we practised today were: slicing potatoes, choosing flavourings, mixing, tasting and “being observant”!  Most of all, we had fun!

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