I was waiting for the question...

A tamis is a sieve. A very fine sieve, that is designed for pushing solid food through (as opposed to liquid).

The potato puree recipe is from Thomas Keller's cookbook. Well worth trying, even if only once due to the inherent health risks.

Mashed potatoes will never be the same again

We made mashed potatoes for dinner tonight. Or rather, as Sonia is quick to point out, Potatoe Puree.

For reference, take 1.24 lbs of potatoes and gently boil them (in their skins) until they offer no resistance to being poked with a knife. Then drain the water, return the offending potatoes to the pot for a short time, to get rid of any remaining moisture (steam).

Then push them through your tamis (you don't have one?) - after peeling them, and while they are still hot. Then stick the resulting potato mass back into the pot and start, on a low heat, to mix in about 200ml of heavy cream, and 100g butter. While whipping using a wooden spoon. Don't add all of the cream or butter at once - it should take you about 10-15 minutes, alternating some butter and some cream. The cream should be warmed before adding, and the butter should be at room temperature.

And try not to use Japanese sweetened cream - we almost did but tasted it at the last minute (would that have made it sweet potato?).

The result is very smooth and relatively rich. A bit different to the mashed potatoes that I grew up on. :-)

And no, we did not stop to take photos. Try the recipe for yourself, Sharon.

What to say?

It's spring, which means every day is different weather-wise. Today started hot - at 7am I had to open the doors to try and get a breeze. But by midday the temperature was dropping, and now it is cooler and raining. I thought the temperature was supposed to start low and go higher?

Sonia is off in HK today and tomorrow doing a demo. And probably heading back to Bangkok on Monday - it seems to have calmed down now.

We rearranged the furniture on the weekend. While I now watch TV from a mile away from the screen, at least it feels more spacious.

Nothing else to say. Bye.

A message for Kyla

My mum and dad will confirm that chopsticks are the main eating utensils here in Japan. Most restaurants will not have any knives/forks. So you need to be able to eat using chopsticks before you get here, or starve for 10 days.

I suggest practicing in the weeks between now and when you get here. Try eating a small plate of peanuts using chopsticks. If you can do that, you will be able to eat in Japan.

Cooking and stuff

I noticed the comment from Sharon complaining about no information on cooking that we've been doing. So here is a little.

It started with a refresh of the lemon meringue pie cupcakes that we made at D&S's place during the last trip. Remember the picture of Jayna having meringue piped directly into her mouth after we'd made too much for the cupcakes?

Then I tried making the Crockpot Roast Beef from userealbutter.com. It worked really well, although next time I would reduce the amount of soy sauce in the recipe. It was good, but could have been a little less salty.

Next I ordered a copy of Thomas Keller's cookbook from Amazon. The first recipe to be made was Lamb Stew - or as Keller calls it, "Navarin D'agneau aux legumes printainiers". In my case, minus the legumes printainiers. This dish requires that you begin the day before, browning the lamb pieces, then cooking it slowly for about 1.5-2 hours. This then sits in the fridge overnight. The next day I made the Puree de Pommes de Terre (potato puree). For 2 pounds of potatoes, this has 8 ounces of butter and 3/4 cup of cream. To puree the potatoes you have to force them through a tamis along with the butter, then whip them with the cream. All by hand. We ate later that evening.

I've also made agnolotti by hand - 1 3/4 cup of flour, 6 egg yolks, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of milk, and 1 1/2 teaspoons of olive oil. A lot of hard work later (by hand) you have a lump of pasta dough. Rolling that by hand was only partially successful, and yesterday we purchased a pasta machine. Trying again last night, it was much more successful - the pasta has to be very thin, and trying to get that by hand is difficult. I have a new-found respect for those Italian mamas who did/do this step by hand.

Sonia has decided that Duck Confit is probably the next thing to attempt. Not sure exactly why...

One last detail - we went looking for a gas torch (to brown the cupcake meringues). The only ones in the kitchen shop are just little torch attachments with a disposable gas bottle. The pictures on the bottle show that it can be used in the kitchen, but can also be used for welding. Sure enough, by the time I had browned 6 cupcakes (only a few seconds) the end of the torch was glowing bright red. Not something for children to use, I guess. But at least we can brown meringues and make aburi toro (look it up).

Polite Japan

Well it is a myth that Japanese are polite. As proof I offer the Ueno Zoo on
a warm Sunday afternoon. Half of Tokyo will be there, and they will all want
to see the animals. And most of them will consider it vital that they see,
at least far more important than you see anything. And once they have seen,
it will be crucial that they move on to the next exhibit so that they can
scare those animals with their camera flashes.

That said, it was fun. Just exceedingly busy.