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Gyrre:
Supreme Fried Okra

* 1 bag of okra
* 1/2 zuchini
* 2 garlic cloves
* olive oilHeat the olive oil on medium, bring to a simmer. Peel and press the garlic cloves. Coin and cube the zucchini. Once the oil is simmering, add the vegetables and garlic. Turn up to medium-high heat and stir occassionally until cooked.

Drummond:

--- Quote from: Ignominious on 18 Sep 2017, 07:26 ---It was very impressed by Testogen last night with roast chicken and again today in my cheese sandwich.

The original recipe that I was working from called for sage but our bush got a but overrun this summer. Might try that soon though.

This evening I might have a crack at apple lemon curd if I can find my round tuits. If I do a big batch I can see about adding cardamom to one of the jars. For the funsies like.

--- End quote ---

That's not food, that's art. I wish I had the creativity to arrange stuff like that. Going to give the recipe a try anyway.

LTK:
So I hear Russet potatoes are very popular in the US. I often see recipes that ask for Russet Burbank potatoes, but they don't seem to be sold in any supermarket, although a quick search indicates fast food restaurants use them for fries, which doesn't help. It made me wonder what they actually taste like - not as fries, but simply boiled in water. But then I thought, if someone asked me to describe the taste of a potato, what would I even say? It's not like I have many points of comparison. Other nightshade vegetables? They're nothing like tomatoes, eggplants, or peppers. Other root vegetables? They're nothing like carrots, onions, or ginger. Yams? I've never even eaten yams plain, but I guess they come closest.

So I put the question to you: how would you describe the taste of a potato?

Ignominious:
What type of potato? Different varieties have different flavours.

As a general rule I find that pototoes taste lightly of the smell of earth. From there you get three broad categories. Reds and blacks tend to have varying amounts of nuttiness to them, typically almond, hazel or cashew. Yellows and oranges have a sweetness similar to that which you would get from apple or pale squash. Whites are the plainest but can have a dairy cream flavour. They're also more prone to picking up elements of the soil they were grown in.

Incidentally, there's a wonderful dish for mash potato where you reserve a small amount of the boiling water, enough to cover the base of the pan and add chopped, peeled apples. Once they get fluffy, return the potato with butter and single cream and mash. About 70/30 potato apple ratio. In Germany its called Himmel und Erde (heaven and earth). Very tasty.

LTK:
Ah, I once met a German girl who made something like that for Christmas dinner and called it Bavarian potato salad. It was quite good!

I basically only know the taste of one potato variety, which is all that gets sold in the supermarkets, albeit in three different kinds: kruimig (crumby), vastkokend (solid-cooking) and vrij vastkokend, which is an in-between. Basically a measure of how easily the potato falls apart after boiling. If I carefully look at my potato bag I can see that it says Solist, but I can't easily find mention of that as a potato variety, so I don't know.

The potatoes have thin, lightly tan skin and are yellow on the inside. Fresh potatoes are very moist and when you cut them in half, the liquid stains your fingers white. They take about twenty minutes to boil, at which point you can break them apart with a fork. They have a slightly earthy taste and a creamy mouthfeel, but I'd call them more starchy than sweet.

There's a traditional Dutch dish called hutspot, which I could translate as hodgepot as it's just a hodgepodge in a pot. You basically boil carrots, onions and potatoes in the same pot until they're all tender and then you mash them together with some milk and butter. The end result has a strongly characteristic taste that none of the ingredients achieve on their own. Good with a smoked sausage and some nutmeg. I should make that again soon.

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