Home cooked chips

Here's to British Cuisine!

Chips

Around the world people wonder at what we British eat with our obese bodies and NHS induced crooked teeth. Shepherds Pie, Cottage Pie, Pork Pie, Gravy, Yorkshire Pudding, Sunday Roast, Cornish Pasty to name but a few. The humble British cuisine is nothing if not, brown, with brown covered in brown. However, one simple creation seems to resonate above all others. The humble British 'chip'. 

Yes that's right, I said chip. Not fries. No. Fries are something else altogether. I know people in the USA get confused - we say 'crisps', they say 'chips'. We say 'chips', they say 'fries', we say aluminium (al-u-min-eum), they say Aluminum (alu-min-um), We say motorway, they say high-way... the list is a long one.

Great Coates Church (Dad bottom left near tree!)

However, (and I hate to pull historic rank) I might just say that we were not only on the global map (and creating them) earlier, we also sent Pilgrims TO the USA to settle there. Indeed, there are two churches within 1 mile of our house that are older than probably most of the buildings in the entire US... 

Why this sudden and somewhat unwarranted patriotism? Because the chip has become a much berated item. Especially internationally - where people now seem to scoff (and not in a good way) at this staple classic. "Chips... bleugh... how could anyone eat something so filthy." "EEEWWWWW Dirty horrible chips, who could eat something FRIED... EWWWWW... we hates it... we HATES IT FOREVER..."

Ahem. 

Bag of Chips please

Yes, it's a peeled and deep fried potato. Yes its fried in oil. That is what frying means! And what of it? Don't be scared by fried food. It's not so bad.... There are of course 'healthy chips' but this is both an oxymoron and a paradox. 'Oven Chips' come into this category. No good chip was ever cooked in an oven. A Microwave? Forget it. Cooking anything with Microwaves is not cooking! If you are going to eat proper chips - peel some potatoes and chop them, get a pan of cooking oil, heat up the oil and then put the chopped up potatoes in it. Wait... when golden brown remove from oil, remove surplus oil with kitchen roll (no idea what this product is called elsewhere in the world) and eat. Note, you don't HAVE to remove excess oil. Greasy chips are sometimes awesome!

No.Whether from a chip shop (or chippy) or cooked at home, chips are not 100% healthy because... 

1) Who wants a healthy chip? 

2) Anyone who likes chips KNOWS they are not totally healthy... that's the appeal! 

It also depends heavily on your idea of healthy food. We have all been duped for years thinking that FAT in food was the problem - when it was (and still is) sugar. Don't believe me? Read a book called Sugar Blues by William Dufty. Want more proof - eat lots of chocolates, sweets and drink lots of fizzy drinks (Coke, Pepsi etc)... see how your teeth rot and your waistline expands. It ain't the fat doing that! Empty sugars... that's the problem. 

Anyway - I made some home cooked chips today for Stephie and I. They were oily slices of deep fried potato and we both really enjoyed them. For anyone reading this blog I would suggest you try them. They are satisfying and filling, and above all tasty. Would I eat them every day?  No. But every now and again? - YES. Plus, we have one of the best chippies in Grimsby near us (Wybers Chippy FTW). Who would live near that and NOT have chips from there now and again? 

Everyone in the world is paranoid about the food they eat and the way they live. There is a billion pound industry that lives off this low self esteem driven dystopia. I say, don't worry about every bit of food. I say, eat without paranoia. I say, live a little and eat a little bit of what harms you now and again. This is from a country where we all unknowingly have been eating horse burgers!

You know, my Dad once said "Everyone wants to die healthy" and he was right! I am not advocating eating bad food all the time or living a bad lifestyle and not caring about what you do and eat - whatever that might be. All I am saying is, don't dismiss the British chip!

Now... To your potato peeler's!!