Posted on 06/24/2015 4:55:21 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
This week: Spuds!
Posting early because I have a shoulder injury and need some extended time off of typing after tonight. Will read, and be back.
(If you would like to be on or off of this weekly cooking thread, please send a private message.)
-JT
I'm out on a limb here but I think rehydrated potato flakes work perfectly with this. Lots of milk and butter and making sure the filling is of excellent quality and no one will know the difference. Saves time and mess.
Miss M., I’ll eat potatoes any way they come ;-)
(My husband does a Shepherd’s Pie that is low-carb, and uses cauliflower cooked in chicken broth and garlic and then mashed, for the topping...I haven’t quite warmed up to it yet ;-)
-JT
/johnny
Just noticed an error, when I said that I was trying to get the balance of ‘garlic and onion’ down. I meant garlic and LEMON. There are no onions in this recipe.
Sorry of this was confusing,
JT
Great to hear from you, Johnny!
We’ve always got ‘fake’ potatoes in the pantry. Jacques Pepin often uses them as a thickener in soups and stews; and I just LIKE them sometimes :-)
JT
And they are good.
/johnny
Even easier - get a package of Bob Evans mashed potatoes (they’re usually in the same refrigerator case as the sausage and kraut). They’re real mashed potatoes that you’re supposed to just heat up. One covers an average casserole dish. I’ve used them on many shepherd’s pies over the years.
We love those refrigerated potatoes; they’re very handy, and barely different from homemade.
But I have a question: Whenever I’ve made ‘real’ mashed potatoes and had leftovers, I could freeze the leftovers, and they’d be fine for a while. (I have a horror of wasting food, and always freeze some leftover lunch plates after a big holiday dinner.)
When I make ‘instant’ mashed potatoes, they don’t freeze at all well, but just go to a yucky, watery slurry.
Can you freeze the Bob Evans refrigerated ones, either before or after cooking? I’ve never tried that.
-JT
That sounds good ..and I just ate dinner.
Ina is my favorite of the Food TV chefs. I used some of her recipes when I catered.
The only way to “handle” tofu is to toss it in the trash...UGGGGH...
Well, deep fried tofu cubes with a little bit of soy sauce sprinkled on, are very tasty.
But I’m now kind of leery of any Soy that isn’t fermented.
Miso is a wonderful seasoning.
-JT
I occasionally hunger for them also. I drown them in butter and make a meal out of it. I keep a box of potato flakes for when the urge hits me.
My favorite cookbook writer, Laurie Colwin, swore by them when she cooked in a homeless shelter. So it seems no one here thinks they’re nasty.
I think Ina has two somewhat different recipes in her books that she calls “smashed”. The recipe I posted is sort-of ‘mashed’.
-JT
I love crispy, smashed, taters. Boil them till their tender. Drain and let them cool (you can store them in the fridge at this point and cook them later.) Then, put them on a baking sheet, smoosh them with your hand, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then roast in a 450 degree oven for 20 minutes or until they’re to your liking.
Makes them nice and crispy, crunchy. I like to use the smaller taters myself.
Prepare some hamburger as follows:
Sauté chopped onions and green (red/yellow) peppers until the onions are limp. Add chopped garlic, ground beef, salt, cumin, oregano & black pepper. When the meat is cooked through, drain of any excess oil. Stir in a bit of tomato paste and a drizzle of lemmon juice. (Add chopped olives and raisins now if you want authentic Cuban.) Continue to cook for 2-3 minutes until the mixture is heated through then set aside.
Boil and mash potatoes and season with bouillon or spices and butter then pat into hand size mini “bowls”. Stuff one bowl with the hamburger filling and cover with another bowl of mashed potatoes to create a tennis sized ball (or golf ball). At this point all the ingredients are cooked.
Place in fridge and allow to cool then dip in egg wash and roll in seasoned bread crumbs and fry in EVOO till golden brown. Yum!
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