Shel_B

Since this is a thread about potatoes, and it was mentioned earlier "that if you were to buy only one type of veg that's organic it should be celery," I thought I'd add a copy of a letter I received from a potato grower on PEI, the "Idaho" of Canada. We were corresponding about how insipid I found some commercial potatoes to be. As a result of this letter, some research, and growing my own potatoes, I'll never buy a commercial potato again, and especially so with russets. ===================================================================== Hi Shel, I know a little about how potatoes are grown, commercial and organic. I don't know specifically about Idaho, but similarly in Canada there is a potato region on Prince Edward Island, where like Idaho they are known as the potato capital, and potatoes have been grown there for many years. Much of the soil has become depleted and in poor condition over many years of growing potatoes, which are heavy feeders. To just supply chemical fertilizers and then spray pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides, when you look at that soil, it just looks dead. Try to find an earthworm, not bloody likely. Soil erosion due to cultivation methods is also an issue, as is growing a "monoculture" where potatoes only are grown again and again and for miles. Now I never blame the farmer, in PEI, many of them are indentured in my opinion, working under contract for giant food corporations to produce terribly cheap potatoes for the frozen french fry manufacturers. So the market economy at work wants to do things to have the cheapest cost, the most profit, the public generally doesn't notice the poor quality, especially when you add the grease and salt. Now I'm not pinko or anything, but it's interesting in contrast when you go to Cuba. The whole island has been converted to organic. So to farm large quantities of potatoes industrially.... you want all the plants to die off at the same time. (When you want to harvest potatoes for storage, the skins only firm up a couple weeks after the tops die off, so that's when you want to harvest them to have a good tough skin to store well). Old school small scale organic growing would have waited for the plant tops to die, dug that up accordingly. Enter Monsanto... why not spray all your potato green tops with Round-Up, then they can all be killed at the same time, you can know the date, and go from there as to when you want to harvest. Potatoes were #3 on a list of the worst contaminated crops in terms of chemicals. They regularly are in those "dirty dozen" lists, of the most contaminated vegetables. Roundup BTW kills by being absorbed through the leaves then going down the to roots in my understanding, to kill the roots to kill the plant. Extra bonus: inhibits sprouting, if potatoes are fully dead they won't sprout at all. Anyhow, I'm fortunate that my husband grows amazing potatoes in his organic garden. He's got varieties that he's collected from various places, some red on the inside, blue, purple, yellow, black truffle, long skinny buttery fingerlings, etc... They grow very easily, although he does add some "amendments", things like compost, a little kelp and organic minerals. He puts a little pine needle with them (or pine shavings) to prevent scab, a fungus that can be warded off by acidifying the soil a little instead of needing a fungicide. The taste is night and day. The organisms we're talking about are part of a healthy soil, the organisms contribute to breaking down things to make nutrients available. A plant with good organic nutrition (rather than just chemical N-P-K fertilizer) is better able to resists pests, disease, and produces tastier food IMO.

The lemon might add some flavor, too ... I'll try it when making my next batch of croquettes later in the week.

OK ... thanks! I discovered a technique that I'll try soon, and that's using a splatter shield with a towel (paper or otherwise) over the shield. It seems the towel will absorb the airborne particles generated by frying which carry the odors. Might be worth a try ...

Previous discussions on the subject can be found here http://forums.egullet.org/topic/90003-using-chicken-feet-for-stock-making/?hl=%2Bchicken+%2Bfeet and here http://forums.egullet.org/topic/137066-stock-or-broth-with-only-chicken-feet/?hl=%2Bchicken+%2Bfeet

I like to cook fish, but I, and especially Toots, don't care for the fish smell that results from certain cooking methods, especially frying. How do you cook fish, especially fried fish, so that the smell is minimized or non existent. I don't have the problem when poaching salmon, but what other techniques or tricks are there? Thanks!

Although started by a German immigrant, Mueller's is a 100% American product, founded in Newark, NJ in the late 1860's. It was a one man operation for a number of years, with Mueller making egg noodles. Around 1890 Mueller opened his first factory, also in NJ. By 1894, macaroni and spaghetti pastas were added to his product line. It's as American as any other product.

The portion measuring circle on the box is a clever idea. It may be helpful for some people.

Perhaps I'll try flouring and egging them. I use a somewhat similar recipe of my own creation, and press the mixture into 1/2-cup measuring cups, invert cups onto a plate while heating the oil in the skillet. When the oil's hot enough, I press the mixture into patties and add them to the skillet. They hold together well through all the handling. FWIW, I use no mayo, no ground up bread. Maybe if I was doing the flour/egg thing, the extra handling would require more care or refrigeration.

I'm essentially in accord with andiesenji and judiu. Toots and I each buy TJ's bread on occasion, as well as getting free artisan bread at our local senior centers. None of these breads have preservatives, so we treat them accordingly. Toots cuts hers and freezes the pieces, sometimes she refrigerates the bread, and in all cases she puts them in the toaster before using, in part because she much prefers toast, but also for the reasons andiesenji and judiu noted. Depending on the bread I buy at TJ's, I'll pre-slice it and freeze the slices, using as needed, and generally running them through the toaster oven before eating. I like warm bread. Other times I'll freeze the entire loaf, such as with the small loaves like the Petit Pain Pauline or the Mini Sourdough Boule, and the take 'em out of the freezer before dinner and put the entire loaf in the oven to warm, and we end up with lovely, hot, artisanal bread for dinner, just like you get served in a bread basket at a nice restaurant. Mmmm... If not freezing the bread, I'll generally refrigerate it, sliced or not, and use as needed with a quick warming in the toaster oven. Considering how often I'm at home, even preservative-loaded breads would go bad at my place.

Since reading this thread about a year ago, I've been making salmon croquettes on a somewhat regular basis. Until recently I used canned salmon, and was satisfied with the results. That's what I grew up with, and it seems that most people use, and most recipes call for, canned salmon. However, the last two batches were made with fresh salmon (frozen fillets, actually), and the resultant croquettes were very, very good. I'm still working on perfecting the recipe using the fresh fish, and with that in mind, I was wondering who uses fresh salmon when making croquettes. If you do, what's your technique? Do you cook the salmon first and then mix all the ingredients together before frying the patties, or do you use the raw salmon mixed with the additional ingredients and fry them that way? I've tried both ways and seem to prefer using the uncooked salmon when making the patties. How have you modified your recipe when moving from canned salmon to fresh? Thanks ...

Done! I got the scale you mentioned and now I'll see how clever I was to get the lower capacity unit. I like the somewhat smaller size compared to the 11-lb scale - it'll be easier to store, and the price with the ubiquitous coupon and Gov. Brown's cut was easy on the wallet. If it doesn't work for me, I'll switch to the 11-pounder. Gotta love BBB. Thanks again for the pointer.

I'm heading to the local 3B as soon as I finish my coffee. Taking a handful of coupons with me. I'll look at scales as part of my shopping spree. I like the idea of the scale I mentioned in my post because the tray is stainless steel, but I like the price of the one you mentioned, and maybe it'll be good enough for my needs, especially since I can't say for sure how much I'll use it. Thanks for the link.

I agree, and for that reason I'm only looking at scales that take AA or AAA batteries.

Is that the Bouchon-style onion soup? If so, it's quite good. The trick, as far as I'm concerned, is to really caramelize the onions until they are dark brown and soft. Too many "caramelized" onions are little more than fried.

The insidious corporations are everywhere ... <LOL> Once again Nestlé raises its ugly head. I'm of a mind to have full labeling, so people know what they're getting and can make an informed decision. And when I pay good $$ to eat at a restaurant, I don't want my food coming from a plastic carton and microwaved. OTOH, if I want budget food, I don't mind the shortcuts, convenience, and lower quality - but, in any case, I want to know what I'm getting. Thanks for linking the article - gave me something interesting to read with lunch.

Wonderful article ... Thanks for posting the link. You are welcome. Let us know what new soups you come up with! Right now I'm working on a wild rice and mushroom soup. I made it for a pot luck this past weekend and it got good reviews, but it still need some fine tuning. I'll post the recipe when it's finalized. I meant to ask earlier, did you use a published recipe for your parsnip-cauliflower soup, or was it your own creation? I'd like to know what you did - Toots loves cauliflower and cauliflower soup, and I'm running out of riffs to keep her smiling

I skim, but when making certain stocks, like chicken stock, I'll blanch the bones and meat first, rinse them, clean the soup or stock pot in which the meat and bones were blanched, add fresh water, and then start cooking. It substantially reduces the need to skim and results in a cleaner, clearer stock. It takes a little longer but, IMO, the results are worth it. YMMV

Wonderful article ... Thanks for posting the link.

Is anyone using this scale: http://www.amazon.com/OXO-Grips-Stainless-Pull-Out-Display/dp/B000WJMTNA/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1391113087&sr=1-1&keywords=oxo+digital+scale - OXO Good Grips Stainless Steel Food Scale with Pull-Out Display? It was recently rated #1 by Cook's Illustrated, but their ratings aren't always representative of how a product behaves over time in the real world. What are the pluses and minuses of the unit? Have you had it a while and how has it held up? Would you buy it again? I am also considering this scale: http://www.amazon.com/Polder-KSC-310-28-Digital-Glass-Silver/dp/B000G2OTM2/ref=sr_1_2?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1391114056&sr=1-2&keywords=polder+digital+scale - Polder Easy Read Digital Scale - same questions.

While I can't say that these are our absolute favorite crackers, we do like these crackers from Trader Joe's quite a bit and buy them frequently.

Great idea ... Thanks!

Yes ... the real purpose of my question, and I suppose I wasn't clear, is what can be done with finely ground brown rice (assuming it's clean enough to use)?

The brown rice worked pretty well - not quite as well as the white rice, perhaps because of the oils in the bran (which addresses Heidi's question). So, in the future, I'll stick with white rice. Now, there's this pile of finely ground brown rice sitting on a plate on my counter. What can I use it for? Add to a soup for thickening? It's no big deal to just toss it, but it would be nice to find a purpose for it.

Excellent idea! Thanks for posting that ...

We don't eat bacon much, but when we want some, I go to one of three butchers that will cut from a slab to my desired thickness, and often I get some very lean bacon that way, which is our preference. I can also get as many slices as needed - sometimes I only need two or three slices. A couple-three years ago I bought some Niman Ranch bacon, and, while better than supermarket stuff, it fell short of what is available at the butchers.