The recipe is incredibly simple but offers an entirely unusual flavor combination with the extensive category of plant-based desserts. In this case, classic fried potato chips, as per culinary tradition, are coated in chocolate and scented with anise.
Chips photo: Noma's credit cookbook by Danish chef Rene Redzepi- Phaidon
The idea
There's nothing specifically Nordic about this recipe from the great Danish chef René Redzepi: potatoes are found everywhere, and cocoa certainly isn't cultivated in Scandinavia. In fact, it's derived, in a slightly adapted form, from the book "Noma: Time and Place in Nordic Cuisine," published by Phaidon in 2010, when perhaps the New Nordic ideology was less restrictive.
Instead, there's a scent of elBulli (the restaurant where Redzepi trained during the 1999 season) in the surprising combination of ingredients, seeking new flavors, starting from a basic and popular element like the potato chip. But the culinary reasoning is clear: prepared with all the finesse of cuisine, from a specific variety, it acts as an ephemeral and crunchy tuile, in a centered flavor contrast. The balanced fat remains the protagonist, balanced by bitterness and aniseed aromatics, which the fat itself conveys and diffuses. Worth trying as an amuse-bouche or snack for tea time.
René Redzepi's Potato Chips with Anise and Chocolate Recipe
Ingredients for 4 people
- 2 potatoes of the bintje variety
- 800 ml of grapeseed oil
- 400 g of couverture chocolate
- 20 g of cocoa butter powder
- 4 g of anise seeds
- 4 g of fennel seeds
Method
Peel the potatoes and slice them thinly, keeping them in cold water until the starch is removed, then dry them.
Heat the oil in a deep fryer to 170°C and fry the potatoes until crispy. Allow to dry on paper towels.
Melt the chocolate with the cocoa butter powder, bringing the temperature to 50°C. Temper to 27°C, then raise to 30°C.
Dip the potatoes in the mixture, coating them well, and let them cool on a rack. Sprinkle the anise and fennel seeds on the surface before they are completely cool.
