Root Vegetable Chips

*Or: “Don’t fry beets. It just isn’t a good idea.”

So in searching for something to do with The Dreaded Rutabaga, I came across this recipe in The Joy of Cooking. Couldn’t be simpler. Slice anything you want to include really thin, then fry the slices in oil. Irma suggests such insanities as carrot chips, but all my carrots are already allocated for salads and snacks, and frankly I don’t like them cooked at all. Even though I am of the opinion that frying makes everything better, carrots may be an exception. I also have several other things I want to try frying, namely a Yukon gold potato, an amusingly long and skinny white sweet potato, a beet, and that danged rutabaga (okay, Gilfeather Turnip).

It turns out I can slice thinner and better with a knife than with a mandolin, so I did it by hand while letting the oil heat up. Irma councils to use 3 inches of oil heated to 375 in a deep fryer or deep heavy pot, but Trusty Roommate Chad isn’t around and I don’t want to be blamed for destroying his fryer and/or the house by doing something catastrophically wrong in the setup stage, so I went with a 3-quart pot, upended a big bottle of canola oil in it, and just turned the heat up to high. This lack of precision may be related to the resulting lack of success. But I’m just guessing here.