Rangu Kattala Chips

These crispy, crunchy purple yam chips offer the perfect balance of sweetness and starchiness to satisfy your chips’ cravings.

For this recipe, we have used ‘rangu kattala’ or purple yams, provided to us by one of our partners, Daily Groceries. Rangu kattala is known for its deep purple hue and mildly sweet, nutty flavor. Rich in antioxidants, fibre, and essential vitamins, this is a nutritious and versatile ingredient which can be used to make many different dishes.

You can get rangu kattala from Daily Groceries, Dhathuruveringe Market, Boduthakurufaanu Magu, Male’ or get in touch with them via 7998272.

Serves: 4-5

Ingredients:

• 300g rangu kattala (should be 225g when thinly sliced)
• 2 cups water
• ½ cup sugar
• 2 cups oil

Instructions:

1. Peel 300g rangu kattala and thinly slice with a knife or using a mandolin on 3mm blade setting. Let the slices sit in the refrigerator for 1 hour or overnight for best results (this will help to maintain the purple colour of the yams while frying).
2. Into a pot, add 2 cups water and heat on medium high for 2 minutes. Then, add in ½ cup sugar and stir for 1 minute until it fully dissolves.
3. Then, add the sliced yam and stir it a couple of times to completely submerge all the pieces. Let them cook in the sweetened water for 3 minutes.
4. Strain the yams and set aside.
5. Into a large pot, add 2 cups oil and let it heat up on high heat for 6 minutes. You can tell that the oil is heated enough when a piece of yam is added to the oil and small bubbles rapidly form around it.
6. Once the oil has fully heated, reduce the heat to medium, then add 2 or 3 yam slices, one by one into the oil.  Fry for 1-2 minutes, until the chips turn slightly brown in colour. Make sure that the slices don’t touch each other while frying and change the heat from high to low every 2 minutes if you are using an induction cooker.
7. Once fried, remove the chips from the oil using a ladle strainer, and transfer to a mesh strainer to drain the oil. Then, pat them dry with a tissue to remove excess oil.
8. Repeat steps 6-7 for the remaining yam slices.