I’m always after a quick appetizer. I seem to dream in dips, I think of them whenever I pass a aisle stocked with beans, I yearn for the Fall when I can roast roots until they’re practically self-pureed.
But every dip needs a dipper (this has too much meaning), and this weekend I simply couldn’t bear to serve another platter of crudites. I love chips, corn chips, potato chips, ice chips, chocolate chips. But I rarely let myself buy a bag (my distorted sense of serving size leads me to devour an entire bag in one sitting). To whet my guests’ appetite for an evening of smoky chili I had made a tart and hot tomatillo salsa, which begged for a bag of corn chips.
When I looked in my fridge I remembered that I had a package of corn tortillas (sold in absurd units of no less than 50, never costing more than a few dollars) and I thought, “Oh! Dan, you should make your own chips.”
So I did.
And it’s crazy easy. Cut the tortillas into strips, or triangles, or whatever geometry calls to you from the circular stack, then toss them with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika. Throw them in a baking dish (best if you can get them in one layer, instead of stacked on top of each other) and bake at 350 for 25-35 minutes, just until they’re brown and crisp. Serve them warm with salsa, or devour them with hummus.
I suffer less shame when eating my own chips. I should do this more often.