Name A Food You ......

[Smowball]

Used to buy pre made but now will only make from scratch. I admit to only ever buying jars of tartare sauce but since discovering I didn't have any in the fridge one day and then also discovering I had all the ingredients in to make it I now only ever make it myself, plus I can make the exact amount. Only a little thing but think it tastes nicer. How about you?

[EDDIE51]

Peel by hand, never used a rumbler. In fact I can't remember seeing one in a pro kitchen for years.

[Jackdaw33]

What exactly are triple-cooked chips?

[pastafreak]

Really? Does it do something to the potato?

[EDDIE51]

You get a rough surface on the spuds with a rumbler plus it does not get the skin off fully there are bits left in the 'creases' that have to be removed by hand anyway. There are catering suppliers who deliver sacks of peeled spuds and most places use them, but the spuds are peeled with a knife.
Jackdaw triple cooked chips are the only way to go. Cut into chips, boil for a few mins (In the pro kitchen we steam them in an oven rather than boil)
Then cool and dry them ,( in the pro kitchen we turn off the steam and dry them in the oven then cool them)
Then 'blanch' in deep fat fryer at 140 deg C , drain and finally brown them in the deep fat fryer at 185 deg C. >> = Perfect chips, crisp on the outside and soft on the inside. We have 4, 50 liter deep fat fryers just for chips and they are filtered after every service and drained and refilled with new oil once a week (guess who gets that job?)

[pastafreak]

Ah...that's what I thought. Thanks for the answer EDDIE.

[ummmm]

Triple cooked chips are really nice but I always think of them as chips that have been prepared in advance and finished at the last minute.

[EDDIE51]

^^ You do finish them at the last minute , that is the browning part. Only takes 2 or 3 mins per batch. The problem is few people brown them at a high enough temperature it HAS to be 185 deg C or over.You need 2 deep fat fryers one at the 'Blanch' temperature and one at the 'brown' temperature.
Doing a few at home you can get away with turning the fryer temperature up for the browning but a pro kitchen will have 2 deep fat chip fryers running.

[EDDIE51]

Ummmm and others, you can cook chips to the 'blanch' stage and then freeze them to 'brown' later. Catering suppliers sell 'pre-blanched' frozen chips.

[Smowball]

Interesting Eddie!

[EDDIE51]

^ What's more they are not too greasy the very high temperature instantly 'seals' the chips surface so oil does not get inside the chips.

[Smowball]

May have to give it a go!

[ummmm]

I know how to do them, Eddie.

[EDDIE51]

Not many people realize you can freeze part cooked chips Ummmm, no offence intended.

[ummmm]

Ignore me....I'd just woke up and my daughter has just left to go back to Ireland so that sounded a bit snippy but wasn't meant to :-)

I watched Nigella Lawson making chips. She put the chips into cold oil and then turned the heat on. You'd think they'd come out greasy but they don't.

[catsrcool]

Pastry both shortcrust and puff.
Cakes.
Biscuits.
Curries from scratch including grinding my own spices.
Pasta including Lasagna sheets and Tagliatelle.
Bread I have a Panasonic breadmaker one of the best bits of kitchen equipment I have bought. You can't beat the smell of freshly baked bread IMHO.
Quiches.
Pies savoury and sweet.
Soup.
Moussaka.
You get the idea. If I can make it at home I will.

[Chipchopper]

Horse radish sauce, sourced straight from the garden, if you can stand the tears ;-)

[Cloverjo]

I sometimes buy ready meals for when I'm feeling a bit lazy, but I wouldn't buy a ready-made shepherds pie. Mine is so much better. I'm too fussy about it now. :))