Real Chips!

I bought some "Beets and Sweets" chips.  They are made with sweet potatoes and beets.  They were pretty good - except for the oil in which they were cooked - canola and/or safflower and/or sunflower.  Liquid vegetable oils are not stable for frying.  When they are heated they produce toxic compounds and by products.  So obviously anything fried is going to have heated vegetable oils, unless.... you don't cook them in vegetable oil!
That's why I decided to make some chips the old fashined way - the way that is good for you.



So I used lard I rendered myself!  Over a month ago I got a big chunk of back fat from the local farmers' market.  If you don't have all natural non-hydrogenated lard, you could try non-hydrogenated palm oil. (Probably won't taste as good...)

I rendered it and stored it in a glass jar in the fridge. 

I used my handy mandolin for slicing. (this thing saves so much time) Just watch your fingertips!

Then I fried them in small batches in a deep cast iron skillet.

The beets were tricky.  There is a fine line between still soggy and burnt.  I think next time I will lay the beet slices out to dry for a while before frying.

I used a spinkle of Real Salt when they were done and Voila!

They are delicious - and beautiful.

I gave Ben a taste test last night and he said my chips taste so much better than the ones from the store. Duh!