Chi Gu Chips

Arrowroot Chi gu chips

note: I was mistaken by the English name for these bulbs. They are NOT arrowroot, which is a different thing.


Arrowroot Chi Gu bulbs

My father had two ways with arrowroot chi gu bulbs, an aquatic plant. He either put them in a shallow bowl of water and stones about a month before CNY to get a green healthy decorative plant (signifying spring and new beginnings) for the celebrations or he cooked the sliced bulbs with cured pressed duck. I didn't quiet like arrowroot bulbs cooked that way because I could detect the slight, very slight bitterness in them. But turned into chips, arrowroot bulbs are delicious. You know I have a weakness for good potato chips, which is very lacking here. I don't know why Merdeka and Tong Hing Supermarkets carry such *bleep* imported potato chips as Oregon Fresh (an oxymoron name because the chips smell stale and rancid, maybe because they're expensive and are on the shelves forever) and Kettle (can taste real potato in them but they are so hard my brains rattle when I bite on them and they also stay on the shelves until clearance sale) respectively and the local horrors Jack N Jill (they are chips not rubber prophylactics) & Mister Potato chips, when they could just give us good old Lays or Smiths chips. That's why I love Lintas Supermarket, behind Apiwon in Luyang, because it's the only supermarket that sells Lays potato chips. And that's also where I found taro at RM4.50/US$1.25 per kg and arrowroot at RM4.99/US$1.40 per kg whereas the other places are selling the same things for RM8/kg and RM12-15/kg respectively!

I nicked and skinned all the fingers on my right hand yesterday slicing the arrowroot bulbs with a mandoline. Making arrowroot chips is straightforward. Just slice and fry but getting good chips is another thing. Some chips among the whole batch remained soft and soggy and I had to pick them out. I tried frying at low heat and at high heat but both ways I still got a couple of soggy chips. If the heat is too high, the chips turn brown and bitter. I tried frying about 12 slices each time and I ended up frying chips all night and woke up with a headache this morning. Maybe I should've dried the chips in the sun before I fried them? Any experience to share?

Arrowroot chips are very tasty. They have a slight flavor but my Hub can't even tell they aren't potato chips, which surprises me. Sometimes I think my culinary efforts are wasted on him. He can't tell if something is on the way to rot; the rest of us won't eat something that's off but he'd not notice it or that we're not eating. Then he looks up and catches us making eyes and goes "What?" I once got into the car and he said, "Nice dress". It was a dress I'd been wearing for 7-8 years. After a radical hair cut once, I asked if he noticed anything different and he said "New dress?".

Arrowroot Chips
1 kg arrowroot  chigu
1/2 t salt
oil for frying

1. Peel (update 14/1/2012: I don't peel the chi gu anymore. Just peel remove the thin 'skin' and scrub well. Less wastage and more fiber) the arrowroot but leave the stem on because you'll need them to hold on to as you slice them into thin slices (the thinner the better) with a mandoline. That's a tip I got from here.

2. Toss the arrowroot bulbs with the salt and leave for an hour.

3. Now, my advice is to bandage all the fingers on your working hand with plaster bandages to prevent skinning them. Get a mandoline that gives the thinnest slices and slice all the arrowroot bulbs (do not rinse away the salt) with a to and fro movement. Update: If you are patient, arrange the arrowroot slices on trays or colanders and leave for a couple of hours (I left them out 1 hour and they were still wet) to dry.

4. Heat up lots of oil and fry the slices in small batches until slightly golden. You have to put the slices one by one into the oil so that they will not stick together. The chips will turn darker even after frying so remove them from the oil when they just turn golden. Drain on paper towels, cool and store in CNY canisters. No need to salt them.