Chips

So Wallace McCain is dead. Who was Wallace McCain? Well, he's the man responsible for selling milliions of bags of oven-ready chips. He started the company that made them, turned it into a million dollar enterprise, became a billionaire before he was forced out of office by his brother - never mind why. The point is that he and afterwards his brother is responsible for flooding the markets with inferior goods. They are not chips at all. I think they must be made of reconstituted potatoes mashed up and fried. O yes, they're easy to cook; all you do is heat up the over and stick them in. You don't have to peel potatoes then chop them into chips then fry them, you just open the bag that's been in the freezer, tip out a quantity onto a tray and bung them in the oven. Easy for the harrassed housewife over the hot stove all day.... Rather the harrassed wife over a desk all day, coming home to get some ready-made food for dinner and simply opening the bag etc.
I don't like them. I think they are just dreadful. They don't taste like chips at all. They don't even taste like potatoe. They taste like cardboard. OK like I imagine cardboard tastes.
Chips are fine foods. They may not be what Jamie Oliver and his ilk think are fine foods but that's because they dabble in trivialities, make what's simple difficult. i.e show off.
I have come across two methods of cooking chips well. Fist from one of the Hairy Bikers. You fry the potatoe chips at about 140 degrees until they are cooked through but not brown; you then take them out of the pan and let them stand and dry. You then turn the heat up to 190 degrees and cook until they are brown. Another way, from the internet: boil the chips for about ten minutes, remove and dry, then fry at a high temperatuure until they are brown.
I've tried the second mothod and it works well.
But tonight I did my usual thing: just fried them once. Maybe not quite so good but certainly far better than McCain's hash.
There's a certain chef who fries them 3 times. He says they taste as good as lobster.
Good chef there; not one of your prima donnas.