Tortilla Chips

Once you have made your own tortilla chips, you won’t want to buy another packet.

Preparing your own cornmeal makes a difference. When I have the dehydrator on and a spare dehydrator tray, I dehydrate sweetcorn and keep it in a jar to add to tortilla chips and crackers.

Chef Note:  If dehydrating sweetcorn feels like a step too far, you can omit it. But if you are going to the trouble of making tortilla chips, it would be a pity to miss out on this stage as it adds to the authentic texture.

You don’t have to make the seasoning dust, but it makes them more ‘Dorito’-like.

ADVANCE PREPARATION

170g/1 cup sweetcorn, dehydrated (pre dehydrated weight)

INGREDIENTS
Makes 2 dehydrator trays

130g/1 cup ground linseed, dry

625G/ 2½ cups water

510g/3 cups frozen sweetcorn, defrosted
1 large tomato, chopped

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon onion powder
1½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 ½ teaspoons fine grain sea salt

170g/1 cup sweetcorn, dehydrated and milled (pre dehydrated weight)

SEASONING DUST

2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (optional)
1 teaspoon paprika, for dusting
a pinch of salt

METHOD

Advance Preparation: Prepare the cornmeal. Dehydrate 170g sweetcorn overnight until crunchy. In a coffee grinder, or similar, mill to a cornmeal consistency.

To make the tortilla chips:

In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground linseed and water whisking it well. Leave it to stand for 15 minutes so it thickens, whisking every few minutes to prevent clumps forming.

Meanwhile in a high-speed blender, add sweetcorn, tomato, nutritional yeast, paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, apple cider vinegar and salt and whizz it together until it’s smooth. Turn this into the linseed mix. Add in the ground cornmeal and stir this all together so it is well combined, adjusting the seasoning as needed.

Spread the batter mix over 2 Teflex sheets. Place into the dehydrator for an hour at 145F, then remove the chips from the dehydrator and score them into triangles. Then return them to the dehydrator at 115F for a further 8 hours until they are dry enough to flip and peel away the Teflex. Then separate them into their shapes and continue to dehydrate on the fine mesh sheet until they are completely dry and brittle.

To make the seasoning dust, using a pestle and mortar or a coffee mill, grind together the nutritional yeast, paprika and salt.   When the corn chips are ready, dust them with the seasoning mix before storing in an airtight container until needed.

Serve with the chunky guacamole.