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Post by existentialcrisis on Nov 25, 2009 8:08:17 GMT
A potato thread... wow... despite being by my lonesome all night long at a computer, I still don't find the time to find these old threads... Love potatoes. Got some Irish in me, and well, P.E.I. has always been close by. Favorite is mashed, skins on, simple. Also love some baby reds steamed with a little butter, salt and pepper. Or my blue potato salad! Quite interested in the topic of crispy potato skins (was actually hoping for a reason to address this). As described here, they are leftover potatoes, quarted lenghwise, scooped out and baked with toppings, right? I never encountered this version of potato skins until I moved westwards.... I'm pretty sure, from my observations and conversations with other east coasters that potato skins are something a bit different in my old neck of the woods. Instead of a leftover potato, what is used is the skin scraps that have been peeled off potatoes used for French Fries. So instead of symmetrical potato quarters, you have a more chaotic mess of skins thrown on a plate like nacho chips, with melted cheese and bacon bits, and a side of sour cream. I was very disappointed when I saw the Western version for the first time.     The last picture is the only one that comes close to what I'm talking about. It was suprizingly impossible to find a picture of the potato skins I know and love, but I will try to get a good one when I am home for Christmas. |
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Post by lagatta on Nov 25, 2009 13:01:46 GMT
Non-Canadians may not know that PEI is Prince Edward Island, the small island province that was the cradle of Confederation and particularly potato-friendly soil. A lot of potatoes are also grown in nearby New-Brunswick (which includes the remaining French-speaking Acadian regions), home to the world-famous McCain frozen potato empire.
Most of the nutrients in potatoes are right under the skin.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2009 13:28:42 GMT
McCain definitely rules the frozen potato section of French supermarkets, as well as the pizza section.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2009 19:11:49 GMT
When I was younger growing up on the farm,there was an agricultural organization known as The Potato Board and our local chapter had an office with info,updates,meetings etc. They came out with a bumper sticker(in the 1960's still a novel concept)and it read: THE POTATO,SOMETHING GOOD THAT'S GOOD FOR YOU. I remember I put one on my dormitory door when I went away to college and everyone thought I was weird.(which I was) They all had FREE LOVE,and all that hippieness on their doors.  |
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Post by fumobici on Nov 25, 2009 19:14:22 GMT
My best friend in HS had a neighbor who owned a potato farm. Him and his wife lived in a palatial house and drove matching his and hers Rolls-Royces. Never seemed right, I mean they are just potatoes.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 25, 2009 19:17:59 GMT
My best friend in HS had a neighbor who owned a potato farm. Him and his wife lived in a palatial house and drove matching his and hers Rolls-Royces. Never seemed right, I mean they are just potatoes. For every good year or years there would come a bad. At the mercy of the capricious forces of nature... |
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Post by traveler63 on Nov 25, 2009 20:01:03 GMT
I have never heard of McCain foods. Around here the king of all things in frozen potatoes is Ore-Ida. The biggest potato person/company is J. R. Simplot. He was the one that was first to provide frozen french fried potatoes to McDonalds way back when; but started out as the biggest shipper of fresh potatoes early in World War II. We lived in Boise, ID in the early 70's and he was bigger than life. He was the first one to introduce commercially viable frozen french fries in the early 50's. He passed away in 2008 at the age of 99.
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Post by imec on Nov 25, 2009 21:23:23 GMT
McCain purchased Ore-Ida's foodservice operations (manufacture and sale of frozen products, e.g. fries, to the food-service industry in 1997 from Heinz (Heinz retained the retail business). McCain is the worlds largest producer of frozen fries - they produce about 1/3 of the worlds supply.
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Post by hwinpp on Nov 26, 2009 3:32:03 GMT
In Germany McD uses McCain fries. They're quite good if I may say so...
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Post by fumobici on Nov 26, 2009 6:01:53 GMT
McD's fries aren't bad although I can't get past thinking they were better when they were cooked in tallow or lard or whatever the animal fat was they used.
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Post by existentialcrisis on Nov 26, 2009 8:52:16 GMT
I've never understood the appeal of MCD's fries... I'd rather have Wendy's or KFC's. Or ideally, some good pub fries - skins on. I always like skins on my potatoes. As lagatta pointed out, that's where all the nutrition is. I heard that during the Irish Potato Famine, parents would scoop out the insides of the potatoes to feed their kids what seemed more plentiful, while the parents themselves would nibble on the skins. In many cases, the children would die from malnutrition but the parents would live, and nobody understood why at the time.
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Post by imec on Nov 26, 2009 15:01:49 GMT
McD's fries aren't bad although I can't get past thinking they were better when they were cooked in tallow or lard or whatever the animal fat was they used. I second that fb. In Canada it was beef tallow - and they used it a lot longer than they did in the U.S. - gone forever now, I'm afraid. |
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 26, 2009 17:42:40 GMT
Lard good. Tallow bad. (Butter kind of bad.)
This is not mere preference on my part. Here is my logic:
The hog is the food animal most like us in many ways. Remember that the first heart valve replacements were piggy pieces. Also, cannibals refer to human flesh as "long pork". Lard will remain liquid at well under 98.6F, whereas anyone who's ever cleaned a pot in which beef has boiled knows how hard and recalcitrant it is.
(Butter is a beef product, remains fairly hard at room temperature, and doesn't occur all that naturally.)
My point is that people recoil at the idea of using lard, but used in moderation it's a yummy and fairly benevolent fat.
on topic modification: potatoes fried in lard are divine!
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Post by Deleted on Nov 28, 2009 20:30:23 GMT
Belgian fries are still considered to be the best in the world, because beef tallow is still used.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 28, 2009 23:25:57 GMT
*clears throat in preparation for trotting out a bit of trivia*
Supposedly the reason the Belgian fries are so good is that the tallow comes from the fat around the beef kidneys. I rendered it once in order to try it, and it did make yummy fries.
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Post by lagatta on Nov 28, 2009 23:53:58 GMT
Duck fat is by far the best for fries, and that is about as benevolent as olive oil (which is good for some kinds of sautéed potatoes and "oven fries", but not for true frites as its smoking point is too low).
From my great confit adventure, enough duck fat to make frites for a couple of friends, and they were heavenly - just the most beautiful golden colour, and no "too heavy" feeling afterwards.
bixa, that "graisse de rognons" could actually be a different type of fat. As you know, we have different types of fat, and there is no reason to assume it is different for other mammals at least.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 29, 2009 1:33:06 GMT
LaGatta, I'm pretty sure that Michael Field, writing in English, meant to say "beef kidney fat".
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Post by lagatta on Nov 29, 2009 2:35:10 GMT
I wasn't being pretentious, bixa. It is simply that I usually read and see this term in French. No more pretentious than el vasito.
Certainly in Belgium, I'd have seen it in French and in Dutch (Flemish). I have learnt a lot of words in Dutch, but "kidney" is not among them alas. So I remembered it in French.
Of course I checked: it is niervet in Dutch. (Nier is related to all those Nephro/kidney words, and of course "vet" (fat), which I knew, is similar to English and German).
Note that in Dutch, many compound nouns become a single word as in German, but remain uncapitalised, as in English. Dutch is really somewhere between English and German, but of course it is itself, and not a halfway point between other languages.
One of my online dictionaries, for what it's worth (these things must be checked for serious writing) gives "graisse de rognons" or "niervet" as SUET in English, as opposed to tallow...
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Post by Deleted on Nov 29, 2009 3:19:09 GMT
There is a French type bistro here that fries their potatoes in goose fat and a friend of mine will go just to have their 'frites'.The best I ever had.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2010 13:25:10 GMT
I need to perfect my version of the " écrasée de pommes de terre" -- actually I need to find how to vary the versions, because sometimes it is great as a semi-solid base on which to place the other elements (like seared scallops or strips of goose liver), and sometimes it should be a bit creamier and placed next to the other item (entrecôte or fish fillet...). Also I can easily imagine mixing in a bit of chopped mushroom, little pieces of bacon or a little julienne of carrots and courgettes, as the case may be.  |
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Post by fumobici on Apr 6, 2010 21:10:39 GMT
Hmmm... scallops and potatoes sounded a bit of an odd pairing at first to me but now it sounds good. What's giving the mashed potatoes their evident greenish tint there I wonder?
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Post by Don Cuevas on Apr 7, 2010 0:49:26 GMT
We had actual baked potatoes with our comida today. Lately, at least one market stall has been offering Russets. They are somewhat irregular, but close in taste and texture to the Idaho Russet potatoes we were accustomed to on the north side of the Río Bravo.
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Post by gertie on Apr 15, 2010 3:03:31 GMT
The best fries I ever tasted were in Versailles, France in a tiny little eatery. From the taste, they were clearly not fried in peanut oil or vegetable oil, most probably beef tallow. OMG so divine! Ever since, I avoid fries here in the US, where they are usually fried in peanut oil, vegetable oil with an additive to make it last longer, or that horrible chemical oil stuff. Can't stand either of the second two, and peanut oil has always somehow seemed to have an aftertaste to me. Odd in that I love peanuts either roasted, boiled, or made into peanut butter.
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Post by bixaorellana on May 17, 2010 22:34:55 GMT
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Post by bazfaz on Jul 20, 2010 9:53:38 GMT
I make what I call corkscrew potatoes. The proper French term is pommes chatouillard. Today I looked this up on google and came across this recipe (I don't make it quite like this). Alas it is for apples not pommes de terre but it is still a classic.
// Pommes châtouillard
1/ Peel old potatoes chosen amoung the bigest ones. Wash.
2/ Detail the potages in cylinders with the desired diameter (40 mm). Pierce a hole in each cylinder, in the middle and in the lenght, with the help of the sharpened pipe. Sting a cylinder on the point of the stem, center it in the hole perfectly, and bring up the carrriage stinging the adusted potatoe on the nails. Then gently push the carriage and turn slowly. The "pomme chatouillard" measure 3 mm depht (1/8 ») and the cutted potatoe is wound round the stem. If necessary, help the rolling up at the beginning of the cut. Wash the casket from time to get rid of wastes.
3/ Thread spirals on wooden skewers and dry with a hair-dryer.
4/ The "Pommes chatouillard" being cut like above, pluge them in a first frying bath at 120°-130°C without washing them, during a few minutes.
Drain them, then pluge them again in a 180°C frying bath until they blew up.
5/ Beef’fat gives good results.
6/ Get spirals out of the deep fat once they are "soufflé", that is to say swelled up and lay them in bloud & crisp garlands on kitchen paper to drain them.
Add salt . Garnish dishes or plates.
For the 1st time do not give up when the result is not perfect !
Apples that aren’t "soufflés" will delight your friends that will come for drinks !
The ROUET turning slicer gets a “pomme chatouillard casket accessory”. It has been finalized for an examination (Eliminatory Best French Worker = Eliminatoires Meilleur Ouvrier de France 1993) with help of Mr Alain POLETTO Kitchen Professor in the
L .T. H. THONON
and Mr GAY Restaurant
" Au Gay Séjour" SEYTHENEX
F-74210 FAVERGES.
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Post by bazfaz on Jul 20, 2010 9:54:41 GMT
No, now I have reread it I see it IS for potatoes but that apples can be done the same way.
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Post by Don Cuevas on Jul 20, 2010 12:20:32 GMT
A snap! Nothing to it! A mere bagatelle!
(I have been wanting to use that word for sometime, and now I had an opportunity.)
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Post by bazfaz on Jul 20, 2010 15:41:00 GMT
On the subject of English automatically translated from French...
Iam trying to make a reservation at a campsite and saw there was a version anglaise (not an English version). There was a calendar with the following days of the week:
Mon March Sea Game Fri Sat Sun
(I cannot work out how the translation was made from Thursday to Game)
Then there was Date of arrival and Sailing
I look forward to staying there.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 20, 2010 19:50:44 GMT
mer = sea
jeu = game
As I said in the past, I possess the special tool for making corkscrew potatoes! Only takes 30 seconds (not counting cooking time).
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Post by Deleted on Sept 2, 2010 14:02:12 GMT
Yesterday at the store, I don't know what possessed me, but I suddenly bought a package of those pre-cooked vacuum packed potatoes. I don't think I have bought any in about ten years.
Now I have to figure out something to do with them.
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