Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Five

[mysty]

[clo]

57 minutes ago, QueSeraSera said:

Thanks Clo, and I'm sure you are right.  Just need to break an old shopping habit.

Lest there be any confusion, it was I, not Davey, who opened the can and spilled the beans.

Oh, I grew up (in the South) eating canned vegetables. I can still remember when I moved to SF and ate fresh, cooked, bright green spinach for the first time. It was an epiphany!

[silkismom]

58 minutes ago, clo said:

Oh, I grew up (in the South) eating canned vegetables. I can still remember when I moved to SF and ate fresh, cooked, bright green spinach for the first time. It was an epiphany!

And green beans that weren't olive drab.

[zqtchas]

another world

[mysty]

17 minutes ago, zqtchas said:

another world

 

Thanks Chas!  This one made me cry!  We have so very much to learn from the current situation.  Here's hoping that we are taking notes!

[SteveH2508]

Back to discussing spuds - my DW who is US born, now naturalised Brit, had no idea that there were different types of potatoes for different purposes. She has now been educated!

 

In UK, we have many different types of potatoes, some good for chips (fries), mash, baked, roasties etc. and some good for boiled, salads.

 

For example: maincrop potatoes (generally floury) are for chips, mash, roasties and baked. Two main  varieties being King Edwards and Maris Piper.

Waxy potatoes would be, for example, Charlottes - which are probably better boiled (but are very good for those baked spuds with the slices cut in them - the name escapes me for the moment).

 

Then there are new potatoes - Jersey Royals probably being the best - boiled and served with butter (cold butter IMHO - cold butter with hot potatoes is a wonderful juxtaposition).

 

Choice of potato variety becomes even more critical when doing dishes like pomme dauphinoise - it should be a floury potato because you need the starch to interact with the cream to get the cheesy taste (it should not have cheese added IMHO). Pomme boulangere again needs a floury maincrop potato to get the lovely crungly topping.

 

Potato cookery is actually rather scientific if you want to get the best results.

[zqtchas]

[clo]

3 hours ago, silkismom said:

And green beans that weren't olive drab.

And that crunch a bit 🙂

[QueSeraSera]

Chas' video is remarkable, touching, I agree with Mysty, my eyes moistened up.  OK if I repost on FB on a family only group we've set up?

 

3 hours ago, SteveH2508 said:

maincrop potatoes (generally floury) are for chips, mash, roasties and baked. Two main  varieties being King Edwards and Maris Piper.

 

Steve, thanks for your informative post!  I'll forgive you for stealing one of our women 🙂

 

Anyway, I sense a business proposition.  Buy some land somewhere in North America, grow these floury potatoes, educate the public and sell them for an outrageous price!

[spinnaker2]

And another use for those spuds

 

[silkismom]

WOW, I thought potatoes were either russet for baking, red for boiling or yukon gold

[zqtchas]

lady liberty

[Daveywavey70]

10 hours ago, SteveH2508 said:

Back to discussing spuds - my DW who is US born, now naturalised Brit, had no idea that there were different types of potatoes for different purposes. She has now been educated!

 

In UK, we have many different types of potatoes, some good for chips (fries), mash, baked, roasties etc. and some good for boiled, salads.

 

For example: maincrop potatoes (generally floury) are for chips, mash, roasties and baked. Two main  varieties being King Edwards and Maris Piper.

Waxy potatoes would be, for example, Charlottes - which are probably better boiled (but are very good for those baked spuds with the slices cut in them - the name escapes me for the moment).

 

Then there are new potatoes - Jersey Royals probably being the best - boiled and served with butter (cold butter IMHO - cold butter with hot potatoes is a wonderful juxtaposition).

 

Choice of potato variety becomes even more critical when doing dishes like pomme dauphinoise - it should be a floury potato because you need the starch to interact with the cream to get the cheesy taste (it should not have cheese added IMHO). Pomme boulangere again needs a floury maincrop potato to get the lovely crungly topping.

 

Potato cookery is actually rather scientific if you want to get the best results.

 

I've been using Rudolfs (Welsh reds from Pembrokeshire) for my roasties lately.. They are deliciously sweet and fluffy. The above mentioned Charlotte's make a beautiful Potato salad. It Seems I've opened up a right can of worms. Loving the word crungly too Steve!

[lincslady]

Good morning, coolers.   Sorry, I must have pressed the wrong button re font!

 

The current crises are bringing out the very best in cartoon artists and joke writers - love the Statue of Liberty one, just don't let it be pointed across the pond.

 

Daveywavey, it must be pretty rotten currently to be running your business, in Wales.  I guess you are in the countryside; quite a lot of pubs and restaurants are running takeaway and home delivery food businesses, which must help, and certainly nice for those of us who can utilise them (not us personally, except for a very good Chinese near here).  It is also hard not knowing what the 'rules' will be before and over Christmas - I have to admit I think they should be pretty stringent, current numbers show that lessening strictness has led to more infections, even where we live in the back of beyond.  Although we complain bitterly, I don't envy the powers that be trying to strike a balance.

 

Enjoying the last of the falling leaves, my favourite tree now resembles my hair, not as thickly covered  as it used to be!

 

Lola

 

 

[Fletcher]

13 hours ago, SteveH2508 said:

Potato cookery is actually rather scientific if you want to get the best results.

It certainly is.  Just as critical as the variety of spud is the cooking medium and after many decades of research I have come to the conclusion that rapeseed oil is the best, followed by duck or goose fat.  I was pleased to see Raymond Blanc advocate rapeseed oil quite recently . . . 

[lincslady]

Rapeseed oil for roasteds, Fletcher?  Seems surprising - although no doubt you are right, and if M. Blanc says so it must be - but for so long everyone has said duck or goose fat.  How deep should it be vis a vis the spuds, and is it also the best oil for general cooking, do you think.

 

Many moons ago we went to a wonderful wine tasting followed by lunch at the Manoir;  wine tasting with Gerard Chave and lunch with his wines.  We didn't leave until nearly 5, and M. Blanc helped me on with my coat.  He was charming.    A memorable occasion.

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

Today's funny.....

 

 

Have a great safe day all!

[zqtchas]

Hasselback potatoes look good but look like a pain to fix?

[Lois R]

53 minutes ago, zqtchas said:

Hasselback potatoes look good but look like a pain to fix?

Good morning, I had to Google them..........not even sure my Publix carries these but in my

case, I have cut way, way back on the carbs.  I buy sweet potatoes when buying this product

now. They have much less carbs.  I can't recall the last time I ate a regular potato...baked, fried,

whatever.......I really cut them out of my diet. I  went out for lunch yesterday and had a 

turkey burger with a side of sweet potato fries🙂

[zqtchas]

[spinnaker2]

[QueSeraSera]

Is rapeseed oil what is called canola oil in the US?  I have some vague recollection that canola oil is called that because it comes from Canada - Mysty?

This whole electoral college thing is starting to look like a bad idea.  Once I would have thought it almost traitorous to say so.  However, as the details have come out this year with seemingly endless possibilities to overturn an election, I'm frankly stunned.

[mysty]

42 minutes ago, QueSeraSera said:

Is rapeseed oil what is called canola oil in the US?  I have some vague recollection that canola oil is called that because it comes from Canada - Mysty?

 

 

 

Both canola and rapeseed belong to the cabbage or mustard family. The plants’ flowers both have that characteristic bright yellow color, and you get oil from both of the seeds by crushing the plants.

That said, they have a couple key genetic differences. Canola was created through plant-breeding in order to get rid of two undesirable components of rapeseed. Rapeseed oil and canola oil also get mixed up because they can be labeled incorrectly outside of Canada and the United States.

In the 1970s canola was created through traditional plant cross-breeding by removing two things found in the rapeseed plant: glucosinolates and erucic acid. Erucic acid was removed because it was believed to be inedible or toxic in high doses. The newly developed plant was renamed “canola,” a combination of “Canadian” and “oil” (or ola) to make this difference apparent.

By definition, if a seed is labeled “canola” it has to have less than 30 micromoles of glucosinolates and less than 2% of erucic acid.

 

https://www.thekitchn.com/whats-the-difference-between-canola-and-rapeseed-206047

 

 

[Lois R]

1 hour ago, QueSeraSera said:

Is rapeseed oil what is called canola oil in the US?  I have some vague recollection that canola oil is called that because it comes from Canada - Mysty?

This whole electoral college thing is starting to look like a bad idea.  Once I would have thought it almost traitorous to say so.  However, as the details have come out this year with seemingly endless possibilities to overturn an election, I'm frankly stunned.

GOD FORBID that THAT happens😲👎...........I would consider moving away.  Lets not go 

there on here............

[Fletcher]

4 hours ago, lincslady said:

Rapeseed oil for roasteds, Fletcher?  Seems surprising - although no doubt you are right, and if M. Blanc says so it must be - but for so long everyone has said duck or goose fat.  How deep should it be vis a vis the spuds, and is it also the best oil for general cooking, do you think.

 

Many moons ago we went to a wonderful wine tasting followed by lunch at the Manoir;  wine tasting with Gerard Chave and lunch with his wines.  We didn't leave until nearly 5, and M. Blanc helped me on with my coat.  He was charming.    A memorable occasion.

You just need enough of the oil to cover the base of the roasting pan and also enough to be able to baste the spuds.  I find rapeseed oil imparts a nice flavour as well as a colour.  I also use it for saute potatoes, sone salad dressings and some veg dishes, especially ratatouille.  However, when I make a quantity of ragu it's always olive oil.  For steak or sausages it's always a smear of beef dripping.  For stir-fries, sunflower oil.  And so on!

 

When we lived in London we went to Le Manoir once or twice as a year - a fab place but we have never stayed overnight.  It was always for lunch.  Gerard Chave is deeply impressive - high-end Hermitage if I remember correctly.