taro chips & unfinished ball gowns

A post to let you know I still exist, even if my online action suggests otherwise. There's been real-life adventures but nothing too photogenic: Lots of study (T-minus 5 weeks until thesis due date, wooh!), visiting friends (hi hannah!), and few stolen minutes frolicking in the garden or the sewing room.

Ok, sewing area.

Ok, part of my desk that the sewing machine has commandeered.

I also attended a formal dinner, but unfortunately the bombshell dress I started couldn't join me for champagne and instead spent a sad night dripping over various pieces of furniture. Hours seem to melt away at the moment, but the good news is I've got a half finished bombshell dress nearly ready for a night on the town. 

If I can't find a formal event you know I'll be hitting the grocery store. 

But there is one thing I want to share with you... Taro Chips. This isn't a recipe, more of a "guys have you been making Taro chips?!?"

I hadn't. Until now. But now I'll be making them all the time!

The Taro plant (Colocasia esculenta) grows underground, like a potato or sweet potato, with large leaves that can be steamed like spinach. The tuber of the plant (which I've used to make chips) has a tough brown skin which cocoons the starchy inside. 

The insides make this a particularly special vegetable; let us take a moment to admire its deliciously freckled flesh: 

It has a nutty flavour and when baked as a chip it almost has the texture of... wait for it... lavosh bread.

I'm in love.

Taro must be cooked to dissolve the oxalic acid (which can, apparently, provide serious discomfort). For more ideas on cooking with Taro, including flavour partners, check out Harvest to Table. For mouthwatering salted chips, see below. 

Taro Chips

Don't get too bent over different thicknesses of your chips if you don't have a mandolin. I find the varied textures (resulting from varied thicknesses) really enjoyable!

Ingredients

1 peeled Taro tuber, cut into slices approx 10-20mm (1/16-1/8") wide

Oil (grapeseed or sunflower)

Salt & Pepper (pepper optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C (390 F) and place a tray in the top third of the oven. 

Line a tray with baking paper brushed with a little oil. Place the Taro slices on the baking paper. It's Ok if they're touching, but make sure they don't overlap. Brush with a little more oil (you don't need much) and then generously salt. I also added a little pepper. 

Bake for 10-20 minutes, turning the tray around half way if your oven is a little biased to one side (as mine is!). 

Let cool & eat. 

Thinking of growing Taro?: QLD Government One, QLD Government Two, Harvest to Table, Gardenate, and Gardening Australia.