To be Mrs. Marv…

Mmmmm… munchies. Once you start deep frying things at home, baby, you’ll never go back. I know the fat police are commin’ to get me now. Eh, whatever. I genuinely wonder if spending your life avoiding certain foods and not enjoying what you eat is really better for you than just trying to have a balanced diet. Seems to me that the best thing to do is serve something bad with something good so that it all works itself out in the wash, or the digestive system.

Theoretically, sweet potatoes are supposed to be good for you. But if you slice them thin and then fry them in hot oil – these health benefits are probably pretty well gone. However, because of the health benefits, there are now new kinds of sweet potatoes being marketed in grocery stores. In the interest of being scientific I felt the need to run some tests on all of the kinds I could lay my hand on. This is my gift to you. Taking one for the team as it were.

The three experiments I have chosen are to make sweet potato chips, Pommes Anna Orange & Bleu and sweet potato salad using Asian sweet potatoes (a sort of light yellow color, top of the picture), New Jersey Garnet Yams (a vibrant orangy-red, middle) and just “yams.”*

Sweet Potato Chips

1 yam or sweet potato
peanut oil
salt

Slice sweet potato very thinly, very thinly – thinly enough that you can almost see through them. Heat oil in a wide pan to 325°f to 370°f. Slide potato slices into oil in small batches. Skim off with bamboo skimmer when potatoes are browned and curly. Drain chips on brown paper bag and sprinkle some salt on them.

* As far as my experiment goes the Asian and the New Jersey Garnet Yams made the most interesting potato chips. The Asian chips were light in flavor but still distinguished themselves from potato chips made with regular russets by being a little bit sweeter and kinda appley. The New Jersey Garnet Yams were stronger in sweet potato flavor than the regular yams.

While, they’re probably not particularly good for you, they are tasty and very worthwhile to play with. Be a good kid. Eat responsibly. Serve atop a nice bean or vegetable soup. (Fortunately, those are pretty darn yummy too. Yea!)