Christmas 2023

[Jon]

5 hours ago, MakemineVanilla said:

 

Going to an actual shop finding what you want and queuing at the check-out, seems like a breeze by comparison.

Going to numerous shops, at your own time and expense, to not find what you want, after wasting time queueing and parking, when amazon has it right there online, quickly and cheaply, a couple of clicks away, seems crazy in comparison 

[Rds1983]

8 hours ago, mjmooney said:

I fear this will be like asking how to make a cup of tea - you'll get arguments. 

FWIW, my approach would be: 

Use large potatoes, and chop so that each chunk has a round and a flat side. 

Parboil for about 7-8 minutes. Shake in pan, to rough up surfaces. 

Heat fat in hot oven (220° C) until sizzling. Some would say best to use goose fat, but I think sunflower oil is fine. 

Place potatoes in pan and return to oven. Cook for approx 40-45 mins, turning once. 

Place in a serving dish lined with kitchen paper, to absorb excess fat. Serve while still piping hot. 

Pretty much how I cook them. Only thing I'd add would be to not turn them for the first 30 minutes and to put the herbs on when you turn them not at the start (less likely to burn off).

I often do the parboil and first 30 minutes or so the day before to save time and help make space in the oven if needed.

[rjw63]

I steam my taters before roasting, pretty much never boil anything these days.

Turkey and roasters and stuffing in the big oven, parsnips and pigs in blankets in the air fryer.

[Davkaus]

5 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

Oh, thank you all! The two simple things I've never witnessed in the States -- and I may very well be ignorant of what others do, and I never watched my dad too closely -- are having hot oil in an oven in advance of adding something to the oil, and this "bashing around" the parboiled potatoes. How deep is the oil? Don't you risk starting a fire? 

 

I personally go for about 1-1.5cm of oil, as I tend to check them and turn them every half hour or so. If you do as mjmooney suggests and only turn them once, you will probably want it a bit deeper.

The idea of bashing them around a bit is to rough up the edges, give more surface area for the oil and you'll get a crunchier layer, works really well, not necessary if you do it the way I posted (as bashing them around too much will have you ending up with mashed potato, you want to handle them with kid gloves when pulling them out of the water if you follow the method I posted).

No fire risk to worry about with the oil heating up on its own, as long as you use the right oil. The flashpoint of sunflower oil, duck fat, etc, is above the temperature you'll be cooking at, it's not going to spontaneously combust. You want to be bloody careful getting the tray out of the oven though, use a deep one if possible, and when you're dropping things into hot oil always drop them away from you so the oil splashes the other way.

[Davkaus]

27 minutes ago, rjw63 said:

I steam my taters before roasting, pretty much never boil anything these days.

 

I would never boil any other kind of veg, haven't in years and years, but it's never occurred to me to steam potatoes before.

[rjw63]

28 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

I would never boil any other kind of veg, haven't in years and years, but it's never occurred to me to steam potatoes before.

No flavour loss into the water, also won't crumble into bits

[chrisp65]

A shout out for adding some parsnip and carrot in the roasting tin. Only slight caveat, sometimes you get a parsnip so sweet its too sweet.

[MakemineVanilla]

5 hours ago, Jon said:

Going to numerous shops, at your own time and expense, to not find what you want, after wasting time queueing and parking, when amazon has it right there online, quickly and cheaply, a couple of clicks away, seems crazy in comparison 

I wouldn't deny any of that but my shopping habits have changed over the years, which has coincided with the diminishing amount of space to store new stuff.

I am told that the residents of old folks homes love a trip to the shops, just to look at the stuff on the shelves and never buy anything.

It seems that shopping is a chore for some people and a nice day out for others.

I definitely think that there are far fewer interesting shops these days, which has taken most of the pleasure out of making the journey.

 

 

 

[rjw63]

6 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

A shout out for adding some parsnip and carrot in the roasting tin. Only slight caveat, sometimes you get a parsnip so sweet its too sweet.

Mine will be, I've plastered them in honey

[MakemineVanilla]

Question:

A few decades ago there seemed to be a trend for roasting spuds in goose fat - is that still the case?

[bickster]

23 minutes ago, MakemineVanilla said:

Question:

A few decades ago there seemed to be a trend for roasting spuds in goose fat - is that still the case?

Duck or goose, pity the poor vegetable heads with their inferior roasties  

[mjmooney]

11 minutes ago, bickster said:

Duck or goose, pity the poor vegetable heads with their inferior roasties  

Every part of my carnivorous soul wants to agree with this, but years of experimentation have convinced me that they work just as well with sunflower oil. 

[choffer]

1 hour ago, MakemineVanilla said:

Question:

A few decades ago there seemed to be a trend for roasting spuds in goose fat - is that still the case?

Good luck finding goose fat in the supermarket this close to Christmas. It was the one thing I was trusted to bring last year and all I found were empty shelves from mid-December. 

[MakemineVanilla]

2 minutes ago, choffer said:

Good luck finding goose fat in the supermarket this close to Christmas. It was the one thing I was trusted to bring last year and all I found were empty shelves from mid-December. 

Just to bring things full circle, there is plenty on Amazon and they will deliver it tomorrow for those on Prime.

[chrisp65]

4 minutes ago, MakemineVanilla said:

Just to bring things full circle, there is plenty on Amazon and they will deliver it tomorrow for those on Prime.

 

there's a prefab building and a funny smell
around the hills outside of town
every now and then we wonder
but we shrug our shoulders and get back to work

there's a railroad there and trains go by
and there's people locked in cattle cars
have you noticed the goose fat from Amazon
tastes a little, strange?

 

 

 

 

[Seat68]

7 minutes ago, MakemineVanilla said:

Just to bring things full circle, there is plenty on Amazon and they will deliver it tomorrow for those on Prime.

That's convenient.

[chrisp65]

There’s certainly a weird pressure selling of amazon vibe.

It’s like a consumer conformity update on Invasion Of The Body Snatchers.

 

 

[Seat68]

2 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

There’s certainly a weird pressure selling of amazon vibe.

It’s like a consumer conformity update on Invasion Of The Body Snatchers.

 

 

What has Blakey off of On The buses got to do with Amazon?

[bickster]

26 minutes ago, choffer said:

Good luck finding goose fat in the supermarket this close to Christmas. It was the one thing I was trusted to bring last year and all I found were empty shelves from mid-December. 

Plenty on the shelves last night

[chrisp65]

Just now, Seat68 said:

What has Blakey off of On The buses got to do with Amazon?

He lost his job ‘cos everyone sat in the house ordering goose fat and the bus network withered and died and the shops closed so there was no income for the local authority because the amazon depot was an offshore facility serviced by drones where the staff that used to be pickers were now redundant, sat in rented flats they couldn’t afford, playing video games they don’t own whilst listening to AI generated musac that they lease that tells droning metallic tales of dystopians lives in pods where we all aspire to a more hi tech commode.