Breaded sweet potato crisps

I waited outside the gate to the kindergarten section at Hasini’s school this morning bracing myself for a fight. I was prepared to talk to the Head-mistress if necessary or stage an online protest, post facebook ads… whatever it took. I came home on Friday last week to a teary eyed Hasini who ran up to me and wailed “Amma, Miss adichitaange ma, thititaange ma, naa school po maaten”(Teacher beat me, scolded me, I don’t want to go to school). 

She cringed at the mention of school but she could not get it out of her mind either. However much I tried to move the conversation to cheerier things, she circled back to school

Me: “2 days leave – Saturday and Sunday. Jolly!”

Hasini: “Adhukku apparam school a” (After that is there school?)

Me: Lunch pidichidha inniki? (Did you like your lunch today?)

Hasini: Nariye yen vecha? (Why did you pack so much?)

I could not bear to see my child so forlorn and anxious. She forgot her worries temporarily over the weekend watching Chotta Bheem, splashing around in our huge new inflatable swimming pool (which I spent 2 hours inflating with a hand pump and would have taken another 8 hours but then remembered our vintage vacuum cleaner and managed to finish inflating in 2 minutes) and getting her nails polished. But she woke up today, silent and dull and wouldn’t eat a thing.

When the assembly was finally over, I walked over to her classroom and met her teacher determined to be direct, diplomatic, firm and tough all at the same time. I introduced myself and told her how miserable Hasini was.

The teacher replied smiling “I know Hasini well. I was just being stern.  I think of them as my own kids..” and I burst into tears.

The teacher was mighty embarrassed and had a hard time consoling me.

For all my bravado, I am a scaredy-cat when it comes to my kids. I really hope the teacher meant what she said. And I hope Hasini had her lunch. I made these breaded sweet potato crisps that she really enjoyed eating recently (at Mathsya’s buffet) for lunch today along with baby corn pulao.

The sweet potato crisps were nice, crisp and tasty. I carefully packed a small portion of pulao and sweet potato crisps so she wouldn’t worry about finishing lunch.

Prep time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 20 mins
Serves: 4

Ingredients

Sweet Potatoes – 4 medium sized ones peeled and sliced into thin rounds
Bread crumbs – 4 slices of bread processed
Red chilli powder – 2 tsp
Garam Masala powder – ½ tsp
Salt to taste
Oil – 4-6 tbsp
Cornflour – 3 tbsp
Water – ¼ cup

Method

1. Peel and wash sweet potatoes well. Slice them into thin rounds and place in a large bowl.
2. Add red chilli powder, garam masala powder and salt to the bowl and toss to coat well. Set aside.
3. Mix cornflour in water and mix to form a thin slurry for dipping.
4. Spread bread crumbs on a plate.
5. Heat a non-stick pan and add oil. Dip each seasoned sweet potato slice quickly in the cornflour slurry and then immediately dredge in breadcrumbs and slide gently into the pan. Repeat with the remaining sweet potato slices till the pan is filled but not overcrowded. Shallow fry on medium-low heat till both sides are golden. Remove on to absorbent paper. Shallow fry in batches till all the sweet potato slices are fried. Serve hot as a side dish with rice or as an appetizer with a dip or ketchup.