What are we about here at Bakeroose?

Chef Stephanie Petersen is know as Chef Tess Bakeresse. She is joined in her cooking adventures here on the Bakeroose blog by her two sons, Little Man and Face. We also have regular posts from other Little Chefs who share their cooking adventures. Our kid's blog is a help to moms, grandmas, grandpas and caregivers. We want to help a whole new generation of cooks get excited about the culinary world. If you cook together and have the desire to join our Bakeroose, feel free to send an email to Chef Stephanie Petersen (chef-tess@hotmail.com). If we like what we see, we'll add your story! That simple. If you homeschool, welcome! We have a twice monthly bakeroose class that will be highlighted on this blog as a way to incorporate food science into your child's education. We hope you want to come back again and again. Even better, we hope you like it enough to want to share your cooking experiences and anything you learn along the way! We are so excited to hear from you! Chef Stephanie's main blog is http://www.cheftessbakeresse..com/

Cooking class information can be found here:

Kids Cooking Classes

Any class Chef Tess teaches with kids will usually be added here automatically! So...how cool is that?!

Friday, April 16, 2010

Homemade Potato Chips

These need to be made with an adult. Obviously we are cutting with sharp knives. We will also be frying the chips in hot oil. Don't do this alone. You need supervising. Mrs. Chef Tess almost needs supervision. The boy holding the knife and cutting this potato is a member of our Friday kids cooking class. Today we made some homemade potato chips. I think these kids are very much improving on their knife skills. Ages five through twelve and all of them did a wonderful job handling the knives safely and practicing cutting potatoes paper thin. Amazing isn't it!
We put the cut chips in big bowls of water. Water keeps the potatoes from touching air, which will make them turn brown. This is called oxidation. It doesn't make the potatoes bad to eat, just ugly to look at. When they where all cut, we drained the chips and dried them between two clean kitchen towels. Too much water in frying oil is very dangerous. It will spit hot oil all over the kitchen and all over you. So be sure to dry them very well. Now we piled them in a bowl and heated a large heavy pot full of oil. The oil got very hot. When it came time to fry the chips, we had the kids play outside for the most part to avoid any oil injuries. It takes 3-5 minutes to cook a potato chip to optimum crispness. It took a while. We skimmed them out with a metal skimmer. Okay. Mrs. Chef Tess skimmed them. The only one who stayed and helped where the very oldest kids.

Put in a paper towel lined metal pan or metal colander. The best part of teaching knife skills with potato chips (free hand, without a food processor or other appliance) was that they felt extreme ownership for those potatoes. They could easily tell if the thickness was acceptable when it was fried and we got to talk about the cooking times being different for thick and thin cut potatoes. It was a great lesson learned.
The chips where delicious!

There you go.

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