Posts Tagged ‘potatoes’
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Wednesday, July 13th, 2011
Hrnnngh (Image shutterstock/Roberto Giobbi)
Whoa, whoa, wait, stop. July 13 is National French Fries Day?
Before we get all excited about a nationally recognized day for America’s favorite deep fried junk food, I have one question about National French Fry Day: who decides this stuff? Is it an arbitrary choice by random food bloggers that catches on like wild fire? Is it the fast food industry trying to boost Wednesday sales? Potato lobbyists? (Honestly, it’s probably potato lobbyists).
What’s the point? Who needs to celebrate the French fry, a food that celebrates itself every single day everywhere all over the world?
A quick perusal of the Google doesn’t provide many answers, mostly just people wishing one another a Happy French Fry day while suggesting recipes or the best places to get fries in the area. This terrible website about holidays couldn’t find any answers either: “Our research did not find the creator, or the origin of this day. This holiday is referred to as a “National” day. However, we did not find any congressional records or presidential proclamations for this day. Even though we didn’t, this is still a holiday that is publicized to celebrate.”
Did some schmo representative, dressed in a solid suit of gold bought by the Potato Growers of Idaho (or whatever), actually propose this on the floor of Congress? That’s how this works right? I want answers, Mr. President.
Apparently July is also National Baked Bean Month. It’s National Hot Dog Month, National Picnic Month, National Ice Cream Month, and National “July Belongs to Blueberries Month.” July 10 is National Pina Colada Day, July 21 is National Crème Brulee Day and July 29 is National Lasagna Day. July 7 is National Strawberry Sundae Day and National Macaroni Day.
And today is National French Fry Day. Let’s celebrate:
Screw you, National French Fry Day.
(By the way, according to an Examiner article, if you’re in D.C. Et Viola is giving away free fries today)
- Kris King
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, June 23rd, 2011
Most stock photos of fat people eating potato chips are disgusting, instead here’s a pretty girl starting down the path to obesity (Image: Shutterstock/asbe)
Fresh from the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), a new study shows that eating potatoes can cause you to gain more weight than other foods that will make you fat, like soft drinks, donuts and red meat.
Before you start feigning surprise over a study that proves something that’s obvious, there’s a bit more to it than that. The study gathers information from three separate studies, covering 120,877 men and women and averaged the amount of weight a person gains over the course of four years (3.35 pounds is the average), and then quantified what dietary choices had the most effect on weight gain based on increased daily intake. Basically take what you normally eat and then have an additional serving of something—every day—and tally how it much poundage you put on.
A person who had a daily serving of fruit showed a .49 pound decrease in weight, whereas someone who ate a daily dose of red meat gained an additional .95 pound. The largest contributor to weight gain, more than sodas, butter, or sweets, was potatoes—fried potatoes to be specific. A daily dose of potato chips contributed an average of 1.69 pounds extra over 4 years, while French fries contribute even more (specific number is illusive for that, The Wall Street Journal says it’s 3.35 pounds, but the NEJM abstract does not corroborate that)
The study doesn’t really explain why or how potatoes are more fattening than, say, a daily serving of cake, so I guess we can just chalk it up to SCIENCE. The Wall Street Journal asked a New York University health professor, who gave a fairly funny response: “She says she suspects people who eat potato chips and fries also tend to eat too much in general, making these foods markers for a diet leading to weight gain.” Or maybe it’s significantly easier to eat an entire family sized bag of potato chips by yourself than it is to eat a dozen donuts.
Other factors contribute to weight gain, a beer a day packs on .41 pounds, and quitting smoking can cause you to add on 5.17 pounds of pure misery. Watching television daily adds 0.31 pound per hour watched—which stinks because, I mean, did you guys watch Game of Thrones? That show was punishing enough, I don’t need the added stress of knowing that watching ten hours of television over the past day and a half is going to make me a fat too.
Negative impacts in weight gain were also predictably obvious. Vegetables, whole grains, fruits, nuts and yogurt (-0.82 pounds!) all stave off the fatty blues, and regular exercise decreased weight negative 1.76 pounds, which sounds oddly low.
So there you have it folks, being a soda-drinking, junk-food eating layabout will make you fat—science proved it.
- Kris King
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Friday, November 20th, 2009
Aloo Beans
“I was not a big fan of potatoes … but it was always there on the table,” Dishes of India general manager Gophal Bhatt admitted of his father’s—DoI executive chef Ramanand Bhatt’s—North Indian vegetable medley. “I’d eat the green beans and leave the potatoes.”
Photography by James Kim
Ramanand Bhatt
Executive chef/owner Dishes of India
PREP TIME: 15 min.
COOK TIME: 15 min.
SERVES: 4
INGREDIENTS
2 large white potatoes (or the equivalent in baby white potatoes)
1 pound fresh green beans
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon cumin seed
2 tablespoons garlic-ginger paste (available at ethnic grocers)
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon garam masala
PREPARATION
Peel and cut potatoes into bite-sized pieces. Snip and cut green beans into 2-inch pieces; wash thoroughly.
Heat olive oil in a pan over high heat.
Add cumin seed (it should sizzle) and then ginger-garlic paste; stir for about 1 minute.
Add diced potatoes and green beans; stir.
Add remaining ingredients.
Cook on low heat for about 10-15 minutes. Season to taste.
Serve and enjoy.
(November 2009)
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, March 19th, 2009
Veal-Wrapped Asparagus in Madeira-Mushroom Sauce
Dawn Burkart
Chef de cuisine, Bistro L’Hermitage
A fan of turning the familiar into the flamboyant, Bistro L’Hermitage chef Dawn Burkhart—a seasoned toque who’s worked alongside chefs Jean-Louis Palladin and Robert Wiedmaier—said this impromptu veal creation should turn a few heads. “It’s quick easy and different,” she said of the skyward-reaching roll (a twist on traditional scaloppine). “It just looks beautiful on the plate.”
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Photography by James Kim
PREP TIME: 20 min.
COOK TIME: 25 min.
SERVES: 4
INGREDIENTS
8 pieces veal, pounded thin
1 pound fingerling potatoes
5 tablespoons olive oil
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 pound asparagus
2 cups carrots, thinly sliced on the bias (cross-cut at roughly 45-degree angle)
1 cup flour
1/2 cup Madeira wine
1/2 pound mushrooms, cut in quarters
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon butter
1 shallot, finely diced
Salt and pepper (to taste)
PREPARATION
Cut potatoes in half (lengthwise). In a bowl, toss potatoes with a pinch of salt and pepper, 2 tablespoons oil and thyme. Place on baking sheet and roast in a 325 F oven for about 25 minutes (or until tender).
Blanch asparagus in salted water (about 4 minutes). Plunge into ice water to stop the cooking, then strain and set aside. Repeat with sliced carrots.
Season the veal with salt and pepper, then wrap each cutlet around 3 pieces of asparagus. Secure with a wooden skewer. Lightly dust the rolled veal in flour.
Warm 2 tablespoons olive oil in a saute pan over medium-high heat, and brown the veal rolls all the way around. Deglaze the pan with 1/4 cup Madeira. Move veal to a cutting board.
Add another tablespoon olive oil to pan, and saute the mushrooms. Season with salt and pepper. When fully cooked, add the remaining Madeira; reduce until almost dry. Add heavy cream. Bring to a boil for 1 minute.
Saute the carrots with butter, shallots and salt and pepper.
Slice the veal roulade on the bias. Place in center of plate with potatoes and carrots on each side. Top the veal with the mushroom and Madeira cream sauce.
(March 2009)
Pescado Frito and Pommes Frites: Britain’s National Dish
Posted by The Editorial Desk / Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
Photo Credit: Andrew Dunn
Remember that American spectacle of culinary nationalism that was “freedom fries” back in 2003? British Professor of European History, Panikos Panayi, faced a comparable public furor in the U.K. while researching his book Spicing Up Britain: A Multicultural History of British Food (Reaktion Books, 2008).
His crime? He had the audacity to suggest that fish and chips — widely considered Britain’s national dish — has Jewish and French origins.
The story made headlines in papers as prestigious as the Financial Times (“Kosher French Connection with Fish and Chips”) to that British equivalent of USA Today, the Daily Star, (“Le Great British Feesh and Cheeps: It’s Frog Nosh Claims Prof”).
Panayi’s presumed anti-British sentiment even got his name blacklisted on a Neo-Nazi website under the heading “Know Your Enemy.”
The way the nation reacted, you’d think Panayi peed on the Union Jack in front of the Queen.
The irony of this ordeal is that Panayi’s book isn’t really about fish and chips. Spicing Up Britain is about how immigration has changed the face of British cuisine. In it, the author makes the point that national cuisines don’t actually exist because just about every food comes from someplace else.
To illustrate, let’s look at the greasy pub fare that spawned the controversy: fish and chips.
Fried Fish
The Sephardic Jews brought fried battered fish (pescado frito) to the U.K. from Spain and Portugal. Fish has well-known biblical significance, but the fried form also has practical value as a religious food. When fish is battered and fried, it’s good served cold for those who observe the ritual of not cooking on the Sabbath.
An article in the Israeli daily, Haaretz, reports that the batter originally served as insulation to protect the fish “from the cruel heat of the oil, so that it would become juicy and soft, with a crisp outer coating, full of flavor and aroma.” The battered shell used to be peeled off and thrown away until people started eating it along with the fish.
Chips
The U.S. has a habit of associating fried potatoes with the French, ever since Thomas Jefferson referred to them as “potatoes, fried in the French manner.” But “frenching” is a just method of frying foods twice to maximize crispness.
Many countries claim to have invented them, including Spain and Belgium, so the exact origins aren’t definite. What we do know is potatoes didn’t even arrive in Europe until they were brought over as a New World crop in the 17th century. And though chips might not be strictly French in origin, the French version of fried taters (pommes frites) predated the British chip.
“Fish and Chips”
Fried fish never took off until it was married with fried potatoes. Since fish and chips were also some of the few foods not rationed in wartime England, it rapidly became a staple of British cuisine. It wasn’t until after 1945 (post-WWII) that the Brits began considering fish and chips their national dish.
– Christina Lee
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