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Making Raw Garnet Yam Chips with Simple Guacamole Today
Simple recipe for truly healthy version of my old favorite junk food -- chips. What do they call those in Britain? Crisps! And a very simple guacamole to dip them in.
Date: 1/22/2010 1:03:20 PM ( 14 y ) ... viewed 3805 times I've made these chips quite a few times over the years. They are amazingly good to eat and once I got over the idea that chips HAD to be fragile like junk-style potato chips, I realized these garnet yam chips are really quite superior as dip chips as they do not hardly ever break -- and yet they get just crispy enough and "chippy" enough to truly enjoy as chips.
Update: Hold the phone!! I was lost in the ozone when I wrote this recipe -- HOLD THE OIL until AFTER you dehydrate the chips -- then you can spray or light brush the oil on and then put them in the bag to shake and coat them with onion powder and cayenne powder if you want to -- and this way you will get crispier chips AND much, much FASTER...!
GARNET YAM CHIPS
1 large organic garnet (or other) yam
Peel with potato peeling and then slice very thin. I use a mandolin slicer but this could be done if you are skilled with slicing very thinly with a knife. I don't think it is too often to mention it that I mention it every time I use a mandolin slicer in a recipe (see below note about mandolins).
This yam sliced very nicely -- enough to cover 2-3 sheets of a 5-tray Excalibur dehydrator.
There are different ways to approach the "raw cooking" of yam chips. You can "go purist" with it easily -- and that is the easiest way to fix them. Just slice them and put them in the dehydrator, set the thermostat to about 110 and in about 4 hours (depending on where you live it may be sooner or even a little longer due to humidity, etc.) you will have crispy yam chips!
Being a Junk Food Junky type from way back, I often like to go for something that has some extra stuff added. This time what I did was poured a little bit of olive oil in a bowl (maybe 1/8 cup but honestly I did not measure so it may have been more) and then sprinkled into the oil some Celtic sea salt, cayenne powder and garlic powder and kind of stirred it up. (See UPDATE below for note on dehydrating with oil...!)
Then I touched just one side of each yam chip to the oil mixture before placing, dry side down, the yam chips on a Teflex sheet of a dehydrator tray. I thought these looked too highly greased, so once I filled the tray in this way I touched one side of each yam chip for the second tray against the oiled side of the pre-oiled chips.
Thus I continue in my search to find the best way to oil -- but not over-oil -- my yam chips. I have tried brushing on the oil in the past and that still seemed too oily, so will let you know it it comes out this time!
I would have used onion powder rather than garlic powder, but it was all I had in the kitchen. In the past I have found that if I want a truly barbecue-flavored kind of chip I can put a tablespoon or more of onion powder in a plastic bag along with maybe a 1/2 tsp. of cayenne powder and drop the dehydrated chips into the bag and SHAKE. This gets the chips (especially the oiled ones) well covered in that barbecue chip kind of flavor, which was a real favorite of mine when I was a kid!
******UPDATE: Fixing this again today I am reminded: putting ANY oil on these chips before dehydrating these chips increases the dehydrating time GREATLY! Mine are going on 6 hours and I'll probably be dehydrating them all night -- whereas the times I gave (of 4 hours plus or minus for dehydrating) really only apply to yam chips dehydrating WITHOUT oil. Sorry about that! Anyhow, I need to do a lot more experimenting with this. On the one hand it's kind of nice running the dehydrator for many hours in the winter -- but when I would just as soon save the electricity I might want to dehydrate the PLAIN yam chips FIRST, then paint or spray them with a little oil and do the bag trick I mentioned with onion powder, salt, etc. -- which is probably really the best way to go!!
Once the chips are ready, I plan to dip them in a very simple
SIMPLE GUACAMOLE
1 avocado, peeled, pitted and smashed
juice of 1/4 fresh juicy organic lime
Celtic sea salt to taste
The above is enough for a super-simple guacamole, but I'm a big lover of garlic and hot stuff so no doubt I will add a little bit of fresh jalapeno or habanero (just a tiny bit if habanero, that stuff is so powerful the fumes sometimes have made me feel I could not BREATHE...seriously!!!) and a clove or 2 of garlic, pressed.
When tomatoes are in season I also love to add diced organic tomatoes and chopped organic cilantro for a sort of Guacamole de Gallo (i.e., a cross between guacamole and pico de gallo).
*Note on using Mandolin Slicers: ONLY USE IF YOU ARE WILLING TO BE PATIENT AND CAREFUL...! And definitely keep out of the reach of children!! I learned the hard way when one day I was either in a hurry or feeling anxious or probably both and was slicing small mushrooms (which I no longer eat those kinds of mushrooms by the way but back then I did). In a tiny fraction of a second I put a good slice into one of my middle fingers and was "just this side" of having to get stitches or some such. It was painful but mostly scary and preparing food should be a JOYFUL thing and never scary, so please take proper care when using anything with such sharp and dangerous blades -- or find a super-safety one and pay the extra price or find an alternative method. No one likes getting bloodied in the kitchen!!
***
Just doing the recipes for today as I anxiously await to see if my new Saladmaster 316 Ti stainless steel pot (which does not outgas at all) will arrive today! It's already a bit late so it looks like maybe it will not get here until tomorrow. Can't wait to try out my new pot! I am such a clutz about dropping things in the kitchen and am SO excited to get something non-breakable for making my ever-brewing winter teas...!!!
Until later, wishing you the Best Day EVER...!
Michele / Avocadess
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