Monthly Cooking Thread, March 2021

[Jamestown1630]

In honor of Mr. Potato Head’s ‘transitioning’ - (from what-to-what I’m not exactly sure, as I’ve always understood potatoes to be, in Nature, self-pollinating and containing both sexes in one plant anyway) - I thought we’d do a thread on SPUDS this month.

I like potatoes done certain ways, and despise them other ways. I like baked potatoes (with plenty of butter and sour cream), and home-made potato salad, mashed potatoes, scalloped, etc. I do NOT like potatoes cut up into soups, or store-bought potato salad (in the latter, the potatoes are always undercooked, and the salad is always strangely sweet.)

This video from America’s Test Kitchen presents a way of making baked potatoes that interests me; it involves brining them a little, and I’m anxious to try it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vr-o01qiRYI

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My favorite recipe for potato salad, which my Grandmother made the best and one of my co-workers does a close second, is really a sort of ‘dump’ recipe:

Boil a few pounds of thin-skinned potatoes until easily pierced with a sharp knife, but not TOO soft; and then peel them (I usually use red potatoes, and leave about a third of the skin on. )

Cut them into ½ to 1 inch pieces. Make a mixture of about 2/3 Mayonnaise and 1/3 prepared Mustard, a few tablespoons of finely chopped onion and finely chopped celery; salt and pepper, with a little cayenne thrown in. Add more mayo/mustard as may be needed for your quantity of potatoes, taste for seasoning, and then pour all of this over the potatoes. Mix well, taste again for seasoning, and chill. (If you like throwing in pickle relish, you can do so; but that is verboten in my house, just as any ‘sweetness’ is disallowed in a deviled egg, here ;-)

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I’ve only had the French cold potato soup – Vichyssoise – once, in a fancy French restaurant in Virginia; but it was excellent. Here, from the website ‘Mother Would Know’, is Julia Child’s recipe for that soup. (You can eat this warm or chilled, though I think chilled is classic in the so-called 'haute cuisine'):

http://motherwouldknow.com/julia-childs-vichyssoise-html/

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When Rush Limbaugh died, by husband had a birthday coming up in a few weeks.

I asked him what he wanted for his birthday, and he said that he wanted the Rush Revere series of books by Mr. Limbaugh.

I said that I thought those were books for kids; and husband said, “Yes; and I want them”.

So, I ordered; and they are really beautiful books. Very well-bound and high-quality production, with lots of illustrations (including some reproductions of historical paintings) and lots of supplemental information.

The history is told in a very engaging, modern ‘story’ way which incites one to seek out more information on the issues presented.

I would suggest that people order this collection, whether there are young people in their network, or not. Even adults will enjoy them very much and find many references that they would like to follow up further. And the more we order, the more they will have to print – and the more will be in circulation for young people to find in the future.

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(The picture at the top of this post is of the flower of a potato plant; it is taken from the USDA website of John Bamberg, plant geneticist and devotee of The Potato, q.v.)

[Jamestown1630]

Duke’s always seemed slightly sweeter than Hellman’s, to me; but I’ve only used it a couple of times. I just like Hellman’s.

[lizma2]

(Despite what a lot of people think, I don’t personally believe that we’ve actually ‘progressed’ much in terms of overall quality of life...we’ve suffered, and lost a lot of quality of life.)

No argument here. We are leaving being social as we were before.

Grew up when you knew everyone on the few blocks around you to the few houses around you. Not good.

[Flaming Conservative]

Interesting; it contains no sugar or other sweetener. It DOES have some cider vinegar in it, and that has an element of sweetness to it.

[Jamestown1630]

I worry more about the very barren world we’re creating in general, than I care about local ‘neighborhood’. American ideals used to inspire individuals all over the world.

We’re now creating a world where young people have no real Ideals, nothing to look forward to or to inspire them - nothing to Live Up To!

All they have are simplistic slogans and shallow, empty ‘ideas’ stating what, on its face, has always been obvious to any good-natured human being; but with no examination or critique regarding the real motives behind all of this pabulum. ‘If it sounds good, it must be Real’.

Everyone is being dumbed-down to just think in ‘memes’, now. Many young people can’t even sit down and read an entire book anymore - they’ve been programmed to ‘understand’ everything in tiny, quick little bites. (Even the old Readers Digest gave more information than current ‘blink’ stuff; evening network news; ‘twatter’, &c, do.)

Hollywood can’t even make anything new, different and inspiring. They have ideas - but they are mostly vapid and uninspiring. The old fairy tales that I read as a kid inspired more idealism and concern in me toward compassion, kindness and ‘equality’ than any of today’s cinematic ‘morality plays’ do.

I’m by nature an optimist. But I’ve been getting depressed lately...

[Diana in Wisconsin]

[Liz]

Chewy coconut cookies start with a box of angel food cake mix

ANGEL MACAROONS

Ingredients 16 oz box angel food cake mix 1/2 cup water 1-1/2 teaspoons almond extract 2 cups flaked coconut

Directions beat the cake mix, water and extract on low speed 30 sec. Scrape bowl; beat on med a min. Fold in coconut. Drop rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart on parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Bake 350° 10-12 minutes til lightly browned. Remove paper with cookies to wire racks to cool. Yield: 5 dozen.

[Trillian]

I love potatoes. My husband loves to say I should have been Irish. His grandmother was the same way.

This week i’ve made mashed potatoes several times, creamy cheddar potato soup and I made four potato loaves made with leftover mashed potatoes. Then I had to pick up another 50 lbs at the store. lol

I also use mashed potatoes in my focaccia.. Pugliese style.

[Trillian]

Now that is me! I even boil a bunch with my potatoes for mashed potatoes.

[Liz]

Recipe?....... mashed potatoes in focaccia.. Pugliese style.

[Trillian]

I use my really old focaccia pans for this recipe. The dough will make about three large ones.
It’s in my head, so roughly here it is:

3 cups of warm water
about 1/2 tablespoon of dry yeast
about 1/2 teaspoon of sugar
about 3/4 tablespoon of olive oil
8 - 8 1/2 cups of unbleached flour
about 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
3/4 of leftover mashed potatoes, warmed (or boil 1 medium potato and mash)
Several canned, peeled tomatoes broken up
Olive oil for pans and top of focaccia
salt
oregano
black olives to taste

In kitchenaid bowl add warm water, yeast and sugar. In warm area, cover to proof the yeast. Add olive oil, mashed potatoes, flour and salt. Use kneading hook until everything is combined. This dough is a wet dough, So I let it knead for a few minutes in the mixer.

Cover and let dough rise until double, about a half an hour.

Coat inside of focaccia pans with olive oil and divide the dough for the pans. Press dough into each pan and drizzle with olive oil. Use hands to spread olive oil over the dough. Break apart the tomatoes and press into dough evenly. Sprinkle with salt and oregano to taste.

Heat oven to 350F.
Cover and let rise for 15-20 minutes.

Bake for 30 minutes. Dough will look golden and be crispy on the outside.

There is nothing like fresh focaccia bread dipped in tomato sauce that has been simmered for hours. I used to boil and mash a potato for it like how my parents taught me. Over the years I found that leftover mashed potatoes make an easier substitute for that. They have the added butter and milk, which makes the dough softer after it’s baked. Plus that bonus of garlic boiled with the potato for extra flavor. I’ll post a pic of my old pans here in a minute because I can’t find any online. They are from Italy.

[Trillian]

Here are the pans. The sizes are 13.5", 10.5", 8" and are about 3" deep. You can press in olives, artichokes, anything you like. My kids prefer them plain.

[Liz]

.......a great recipe.....thanks

[Jamestown1630]

We’re making Chicken Cacciatore tomorrow. We’ve greatly upped the garlic in the original recipe.

I have a question: Does anyone have a Fondue Pot/Set that they really like?

I want to buy one, but I want one that runs on gel fuel/sterno, etc., not electric.

I would be grateful for any suggestions.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

I don’t have one now, but I remember Mom having one. Pretty sure it was electric, because it could get hot enough to dip raw meat in the pot and cook it! Pretty fascinating to a kid, LOL!

You’re smart to get a non-electric one.

Last Fondue I had was at a friends house. Remember? Many DECADES ago when we could freely associate with others?

*SNORT*

It was Swiss cheese with some sherry in it and we dipped in french bread. It was good!

[Jamestown1630]

We actually bought a cheap electric one at Lidl today. The one I was eyeing was a more-or-less traditional cast-iron Swiss one that cost a hundred bucks. But when I saw this, I thought it would be good to experiment with, but then could serve as a warmer for other things if I wanted a better one to keep making fondue. (Our range gets overloaded at Thanksgiving and Christmas; this electric one will be useful even if not the greatest for fondue.)

Here’s the recipe we’re going to try (Chef John has a beautiful steel vintage one, but I couldn’t find it anywhere):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GOSp-4U1Qo

[Liz]

E-bay.

[Jamestown1630]

I think I saw that when I was snooping around.

Unfortunately, Chef John’s recipe didn’t work out very well for us. We followed the recipe as precisely as we could, but it came out with very little flavor, and the cheese unpleasantly ‘chewy’. This is unusual with his recipes, so I think we must have had poor quality cheese. (It’s hard to find high-quality Gruyere and Emmenthaler here, and even the cheaper stuff is very expensive.)

We’ll try another recipe. However, we did discover that this cheap little ‘Fondue Pot’ that cost us about $25 is going to make a great warmer for side dishes at holidays...

[Liz]

Fondue sounds easy to make.......but even professional chefs say its a tricky dish. Some chefs mix in flour, cornstarch even a potato to stabilize the cheese.

At least 2 tbl wine is considered a must to make sure the fussy cheeses unite.....instead of splitting.

There are many cooking tricks to making fondue....but as you say high quality cheese is the best.

[Jamestown1630]

We only cornstarch, with 1-1/2 Cups wine, a tablespoon of Kirchwasser, garlic, nutmeg, cayenne - all as the Chef prescribed.

It must have been our cheese.

I’m saving it to see if it does any better toasted on bread tomorrow. But it was an expensive experiment.

Now I just need an idea of how to use a big bottle of Cherry Brandy...the ‘leftover’ wine I can handle ;-)

[Diana in Wisconsin]