Welcome to the Fall Edition of Mom’s Corner; hopefully, there will be some nuggets of helpful information for you.
It seems we have been storing our potatoes all wrong, albeit for a good reason. Read on for the new/correct way to store your spuds.
How To Store Your Potatoes, So They Last Longer. how-to-store-potatoes-right_uk_62f22eaae4b0acf9d0018f62
How to reduce acrylamide at home
To reduce your consumption of acrylamide when preparing food at home, we advise you should:
- Aim for a golden yellow colour or lighter when frying, baking, toasting or roasting starchy foods
- Follow the cooking instructions on the pack when cooking packaged foods like chips and roast potatoes
- Eat a healthy, balanced diet and get your 5 A Day to help reduce your risk of cancer
- We previously advised consumers against storing raw potatoes in the fridge at home, as it was thought this could lead to the formation of additional sugars (known as cold sweetening), which can then convert into acrylamide when the potatoes are fried, roasted or baked.
A recent study, which has been reviewed by the Committee on the Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT), has shown that home storage of potatoes in the fridge doesn’t materially increase acrylamide forming potential when compared to storage in a cool, dark place.
So, if you wish to help avoid food waste, you can choose to store them either in the fridge or in a cool, dark place.
From: acrylamide
Guess where Mom stores Mom’s spuds? If you guessed the fridge, you win a prize; what the prize is, only Draconis knows.
Now how to use them refrigerated spuds.
Always take your ingredients out of the fridge at least half an hour to forty-five minutes before you need them. Room temperature items cook faster and according to recipe times.
Simple Hash Browns:
Making Homemade Hash Browns like the store-bought ones is easy; it just takes a little time.
Mom uses two methods; the first one is a little labour intensive but produces the best results. So we will start with that one.
- Pick your Spuds
-
- Mom uses Yukon Gold, Red Potatoes, and sometimes White Rose Potatoes.
- Side Note, Mom intensely dislikes Russet Potatoes.
-
- Grate your potatoes using a box grater (large holes) or a Salad Shooter. (Large holes again)
- Soak grated potatoes in a bowl of cold water.
- This removes some of the starch, so the potatoes don’t stick together.
- This works for Fried Potatoes as well.
- Soak for at least half an hour.
- You can even soak them overnight in the refrigerator.
- Just cover the bowl.
- Pour the potatoes into a strainer or colander,
- Let drain until no water is dripping out
- shake occasionally
- Line a sheet pan or square casserole dish with a double layer of paper towels
- Spread the rinsed grated potatoes over the paper towels
- Place a double layer of paper towels over the grated potatoes.
- You can use clean Tea Towels instead of paper towels.
- Now press firmly on the top layer of paper towels to remove all of the rinse water.
- Place a double layer of paper towels over the grated potatoes.
- Dump the dried potatoes into a bowl
- Sprinkle lightly with Freshly Ground Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper
- Mom adds Granulated Garlic and sometimes Granulated Onions
- Mom’s Dad used to add grated onion.
- Takes a little longer to cook.
- You can also add shredded cheese
- Just be careful not to burn the hash browns.
- Now cook in a skillet on Medium High for about four minutes or until the bottom is golden
- If shredded cheese is added, try using Medium Heat instead.
- Mom uses a mixture of Butter and Olive Oil.
- Lightly sprinkle the hash browns with your cooking oil before turning.
- Turn Hash Browns using a Spatula or Egg Flipper.
- Cook until the bottom is crisp and golden brown for about four minutes.
- If the edges start to turn dark brown, reduce the heat slightly
- Transfer the cooked Hash Browns to a paper towel-lined plate.
Enjoy
Method Number Two:
- 1) Pick your Spuds
- Mom uses Yukon Gold, Red Potatoes, and sometimes White Rose Potatoes.
- Side Note, Mom intensely dislikes Russet Potatoes.
- To let the steam escape, pierce potatoes with a fork several times.
- Rub the potatoes with butter or Olive Oil.
- Mom never uses Margarine! (More about that later.)
- Sprinkle with Garlic Salt or Granulated Garlic and Freshly Ground Pepper.
- Wrap in foil.
- Bake at 350º F (177º C) for an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes or until skins are crispy.
- Take potatoes out of the oven and cool until safe to touch.
- Unwrap potatoes and cool until cool enough to refrigerate.
- Place potatoes in a zip lock bag.
- Refrigerate overnight.
- The following day, grate the potatoes.
- Then follow the cooking directions above.
- No need to rinse. The precooking took care of that.
- Precooking and chilling potatoes lowers the number of carbs.
In case you haven’t noticed, there is no mention of peeling the potatoes, as Mom doesn’t believe in wasting the minerals and fiber in the skins!
Fall is a great time to enjoy the variety of flavours, colours, and aromas of apples. Many apple varieties are being harvested now. So check out your local Farmers Markets for all of the new arrivals.
Mom loves sautéed apples, as they are easy to fix and oh so yummy!
Mom uses her awesome Apple Corer Slicer and then sautés the sliced apples in butter until they soften slightly. Mom then adds a dash of Ground Cinnamon, Brown Sugar, sometimes a splash of Rum, and Half and Half or Heavy Cream. Reduce the heat to low and cook until the sauce thickens. Then enjoy, great over Vanilla Ice Cream!
Baked Apples are another excellent way to serve fall apples.
Granny Smith and Macintosh apples work well as Baked Apples.
- Partially core four apples leaving enough to form a well.
- Place the cored apples into a square baking dish coated with butter.
- Stuff the well with brown sugar, cinnamon and, if you like, ground cloves.
- Cinnamon Hots works well.
- Top with a pat of butter.
- Baked at 350º F or 177º C for 15 to 20 minutes or until the apples are tender.
Serve Warm, great with Ice Cream.
For those of you who like a bit of alcohol with your apples, here is an awesome recipe.
BOURBON APPLE CRISP SHOOTERS WITH BOURBON CREAM from Food.com.
FRUIT MIXTURE
4 cups chopped crisp all-purpose apples (such as Fuji)
3⁄4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
2 tablespoons orange juice
1⁄4 cup Bourbon
TOPPING
3⁄4 cup quick-cooking oats
1⁄2 cup Gold Medal all-purpose flour
1⁄2 cup brown sugar, packed
1⁄2 cup butter, softened
BOURBON CREAM
1 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon Bourbon
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
DIRECTIONS
Heat oven to 350°F
In a large bowl, stir together Shooters ingredients until well combined.
Place mixture in an ungreased 13×9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish.
In a medium bowl, mix the Topping ingredients with your hands.
Crumble topping over apples.
Bake for 35 to 45 minutes or until the topping is golden brown.
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat Bourbon Cream ingredients with an electric mixer on low speed until the mixture begins to thicken. Gradually increase speed to high; beat until stiff peaks form.
Spoon warm apple crisp into shot glasses.
Top each with bourbon cream.
Serve warm.
Note: To make this dessert even boozier, add a teaspoon of bourbon on top of the apple crisp after spooning it into the shot glasses.
EASY & DELICIOUS APPLE CRUMBLE (GLUTEN FREE) from Food.com
INGREDIENTS
UNITS: US
4 gala apples, peeled and cored
6 tablespoons brown sugar
1⁄2 cup rice flour, mix (1 cup white rice flour to 1/2 cup tapioca starch)
1⁄2 cup blanched almond, finely chopped (I really like to add some chopped walnuts as well)
4 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons cinnamon
DIRECTIONS
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Cut each apple into thin wedges.
- Place the apple wedges in a deep baking dish. Make sure that the dish is not too big so you will have more than one layer of apple wedges in the bottom of the dish.
- Sprinkle the apple wedges evenly with cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar.
- To prepare the crumble crust, combine nuts, flour mix and 4 tablespoons of sugar in a bowl. Add in the butter and knead with your hands until the dough resembles breadcrumbs. Spread the crumble mixture all over the apples.
- Bake in the oven until the apples are tender and the topping mixture is golden (25 minutes).
- Serve warm with vanilla ice cream on the side if desired.
- Enjoy!
Butter vs. Margarine: Which Is Healthier?
A massive amount of nutrition misinformation exists on the internet.
Some of it is based on poor research or incomplete evidence, while other information may simply be outdated.
The professionals themselves may even tell you things that seem to directly contradict something you read the other day.
A good example of a subject no one seems to agree upon are the health effects of butter and margarine.
This article compares the two, looking at both sides of the debate.
Cleaning Hacks
Mom uses a mixture of Hydrogen Peroxide and Dawn Dishwashing Soap. Mom adds more Dawn for heavy-duty degreasing. The Hydrogen Peroxide and Dawn combination lifts off dirt and grime quickly and easily.
White Vinegar has multiple uses as a cleaning agent.
Vinegar Cooking Hacks You’ll Wish You Knew Sooner from TastingTable.com
There are some kitchen staples that most of us have lying around in the fridge, the pantry, or on the countertop. These staples aren’t the kinds of ingredients you buy for a specific recipe or cooking project. Rather, you use them in a wide variety of dishes for many varied uses. However, there are few ingredients that are more essential to a kitchen than vinegar. It seems like this ubiquitous ingredient is everywhere, and it’s no wonder: It works for such a wide variety of uses. Whether you have white distilled vinegar, apple cider vinegar, or balsamic stashed in your pantry, there’s a good chance that you use the stuff on the regular.
But most people don’t realize how valuable vinegar really is. It has so many different uses that you’re almost definitely missing out on some of them. And while, yes, vinegar can be used for cleaning purposes, it can also seriously come in handy when you’re cooking as well.
We’re here to help you make sure you make good use of the vinegar you have sitting around the house. With these simple and easy cooking hacks, you’ll find that your bottle of vinegar becomes even more indispensable in your cooking routine.
You probably already know you can clean things around your home with vinegar, but did you know that you can use it to wash your produce too? If you want to get rid of bacteria and make sure your fruits and veggies are as clean as possible, soaking them in a vinegar solution is a smart way to do so, according to Best Food Facts. To make your solution, you’ll want to use three parts water to one part vinegar, and then soak your produce for about 10 minutes.
However, you’ll want to make sure that you don’t make your fruits and veggies dirtier in the process. If you’re using the sink to wash your produce, then it’s important to ensure that the sink is as clean as possible before washing your fruit in it — and that’s especially true if you’ve used the sink to handle any meat recently. Otherwise, you may want to use a bowl instead of the sink.
See you Next Month or Next Year, whichever comes first 😉
