Sweet Potato Chips

Potato chips are not hard to make at home as long as you’re comfortable deep frying. I’ve had success making chips in a cast-iron pan with around one to two inches of oil, but I think I usually get better results with a larger vat of oil – you can cook more chips at a time, and you don’t need to worry about the oil temperature dropping quite so much. If you have a digital candy/oil thermometer that can clip on to the side of the pot, watching the temperature drop can be surprising!

Ingredients:

• Sweet potatoes
• Salt (roughly 1 tsp per large potato)
• Rosemary powder (roughly 1/4 tsp per large potato)
• Mushroom powder (roughly 1/4 tsp per large potato)
• Neutral oil for deep frying (I use about a gallon)

Peel the potatoes, trim the ends, and then slice in to 1/8″ discs with a mandoline. Heat the oil to 375 F. Working in batches, deep fry the chips – they are done when the rapid bubbling subsides and the color has uniformly darkened. Drain on a wire rack set in a sheet tray. Allow the oil to rebound back to 375 F before adding the next batch of chips.

While the chips are still warm, toss with a mixture of salt, rosemary powder, and mushroom powder. Let cool completely before serving.

Stuffins

Stuffing muffins – stuffins? Muffings? Whatever. Pick ’em up and pop ’em in your mouth. This is a little freeform, since any stuffing recipe can easily be adapted to muffin form by increasing the amount of eggs and liquid used. This is a basic recipe from which to customize.

Ingredients:

• One (18 ounces or so) loaf of Italian bread
• One large onion, diced
• One stalk celery, diced
• One large carrot, diced
• About 12 sage leaves, in chiffonade
• One to two large sprigs of thyme, leaves removed and roughly chopped
• Turkey or chicken stock (2-4 cups depending on how dry the bread is and how wet you like stuffing)
• 3 eggs
• Salt and pepper
• 4 tbsp Unsalted butter plus extra for pan preparation
• Optional – anything else you like in stuffing. Dried fruit, nuts, etc.

Preheat the oven to 325 F. Cut or tear the bread in to small cubes (1/2″ or so – small pieces will let everything hold together better). Put the bread pieces in a sheet tray and toast in the oven until dried and lightly crispy.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. Add the aromatics and herbs and sweat until the vegetables are tender, 5 minutes or so. In a small bowl, beat the eggs.

Combine the toasted bread, aromatics, and about half the stock in a large bowl and work together. Add the eggs to thoroughly combine (I usually add the eggs second here to allow the aromatics to cool in the stock so as not to scramble the eggs). Continue adding stock in small amounts and working it in to the mixture until a ball of it will hold together in your hand when you lightly squeeze it. (More stock can be added here if you like a denser mixture, it will just take longer to cook.)

Generously butter a muffin tin. Fill the tins by pressing the bread mixture in to each cup and then pressing a mound on top. Place in the oven at 325 F until the interior temperature reaches 160 F, roughly 40 minutes.

Let cool, then carefully unmold from the muffin tin.