JoNorvelleWalker

I was not trying to be coy. I just needed fourteen hours' sleep. https://forums.egullet.org/topic/116043-potato-puree-mashed-potatoes-pommes/?do=findComment&comment=2145922

I like my potatoes fluffy. For some time my method has been to pressure steam a peeled russet then salt and mash with my good old fashioned wire masher. Adding hot milk a la This, then incorporating room temperature butter chunks while continuing to mash. Usually this turns out OK. Recently the result was too gummy to my taste. I knew I had to up my game and reevaluate my methods. I'd already tried retrogradation with poor results. I found the texture of riced potatoes disgusting. I knew better than to whip. Where to start? I consulted Kenji: "The key to super-fluffy mashed potatoes is to remove as much starch from the spuds as possible. We accomplish this by peeling and dicing them before rinsing them in water and boiling them just until cooked. After cooking, they get a final rinse before heading to the ricer. Using a ricer or food mill prevents excess damage to the starch granules, helping the potatoes remain nice and light." But riced potatoes are disgusting. Then I remembered I'd just read Kristen Kish: "To yield the smoothest texture, I pass them through a few vessels. First through a ricer, and you could certainly stop here if you wanted. In a restaurant, I continue. I scrape the riced potatoes though a tamis.... From there I begin to emulsify my fat and/or liquids into them. Finally, the potatoes get pushed through a chinois...." As much as I talked up thread I never actually dug out my tamis to try it with potatoes. First I had to move the rosemary bush. The tamis lives inside my largest pan. All this was not easy. Then I peeled three small russets and cut them up and rinsed them. I boiled them with a bay leaf in salted water, rinsed with more hot water, and let them sit to dry. My WMF ricer I had to import from Europe. Don't know why they are not sold in the US. I riced the potatoes into the tamis, which as it turns out sits nicely on my new 12 inch stir-fry pan. Here is maybe a crucial point. In earlier contributions in this thread the fat and liquid were incorporated before passing the potatoes though the tamis. Kish calls for passing the potatoes though the tamis first. After passing the potatoes through the tamis I was presented with mountain of potato fluff. I used a plastic spatula to fold in the heated milk and cream (again following This). Then I gently folded in the butter cubes. http://tribade.org/Food/Dinner03172018.png I ate all the potatoes in one sitting. Other things to try. Maybe it would help to seep the potato skins in the milk and cream? How about adding a little acid to stabilize the pectin? And what would happen if I pressed the potatoes through a chinois? I don't have a chinois...yet.

Did you mean @nathanm?

Yes, for MR. I prefer the sharpness of straight CO2.

Blueberry and horseradish sounds pretty good. I'll never know because, you know, the birds. I once had a delightful blueberry hot sauce called Wild Blue Yonder: https://www.specialtyfood.com/products/product/8649/pemberton-s-wild-blue-yonder-wild-blueberry-hot-sauce/

After two murderously early mornings, dinner was a can of Progresso Manhattan clam chowder. And good it was. Accompanied by the husks of this week's boule. Dessert was my (finally!) vanilla ice cream with iSi whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles. The iSi is for far more than methode rotuts. That's why I have three. And there were thirds on the whipped cream.

According to 23andme I am mostly Irish/British. I wish I could stomach corned beef. I can't.

Last night: Unremarkable except for the potatoes.* New technique informed by three authors. Fluffiest potatoes I have made. Proud that an entire dishwasher was devoted to preparing one portion of my mashed potatoes. *and for the fact that I did not spill any peas.

I use PureShot as my iPad camera app. I love it. With Lightroom I can transfer .dng files to the computer and open them in Photoshop.

It looks unhappy.

Check with CreamRight. I pay 42 cents a hit. And as I believe @nathanm explained, iSi vessels are far less likely to explode.

Oddly the MC gelato tastes like dairy. Hard to believe, I know.

Consider Modernist Cuisine peanut butter gelato. Actually it is peanut butter and jelly gelato but I leave out the jelly. http://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/p-b-j-gelato/

Agreed forcing CO2 into solution is easy. But I can't unsee photographs of pressure vessel parts embedded in concrete blocks. I'd gladly pay people like iSi who have thought about these things. I pay $125 for a case of thirty boxes of CO2 chargers that last me over a year. Plus I don't have space for the Dave Arnold infrastructure.

Just a glass?

But Battleship Potemkin is my favorite foodie film.

Thanks. Tonight was my first attempt at stir fried bok choy. No Vietnamese peppercorns here, Cambodian is the best that I could muster. I wept as the whole head of baby bok choy cooked down to next to nothing. Exquisitely flavored nothing, but almost nothing nonetheless. I don't miss meat once in a while but I am not used to going to bed hungry. Still, I would have been delighted to have been served this dish in a restaurant.

And it seems almost as easy to order as a custom knife from Japan.

Last night... More Schnitzel.

Now that I have the Paderno pounder I realized I could make my cutlets as thin as I liked. I had vacuum sealed a couple cutlets from the other day. These I pounded till they practically filled their bags: Because they were so thin they were harder to work with but not impossible... By the way this a serving platter not a normal dinner plate. I had two cutlets and two fried eggs.

I am confused. For the 1 quart iSi the max. filling volume is specified as 1 liter, and a liter of liquid comes to the max fill line marked on the vessel. There is headspace above that. Why would you use only 500 ml?

I have three https://www.isi.com/us/culinary/products/detail/product/3/ Some people have three CSO's. Don't forget the red silicone jacket... https://www.isi.com/us/culinary/products/detail/product/25/

Perhaps a matter of definition: a siphon has a tube through which fluid is forced up. This I would call a siphon... https://www.isi.com/us/culinary/products/detail/product/23/ What I use is an iSi Gourmet Whip... https://www.isi.com/us/culinary/products/detail/product/3/ For optimally dispensing carbonated beverage the vessel is neither inverted nor cut in half. If you squirt the MR from the nozzle you give up all the fizz. I use three chargers as recommended somewhere by @nathanm. The first charger is applied with the valve slightly open to expel air and clear the headspace. The second and third chargers provide the carbonation. I shake well after each one. Possibly a single charger would give more than satisfactory results but I buy my chargers in bulk by the case when they are on sale. After about an hour in the freezer (assuming there's no ice cream) I place the iSi on the counter in the upright position and slowly release the pressure. When all is clear I unscrew the head and pour. Replacing the head until the next glass. I do recommend the optional silicone sleeve to prevent flesh from sticking to the stainless steel and marring the finish.

A siphon is not the right tool -- not even for soda water.

I caved.