Potatos

It's the first blog i'm putting. I'ts been a while i'm looking for it.
I didn't find yet a food blog concentrated on practical molecular gastronomy,
An information that need to be shared. I'ts a term to describe a new way we look now on things in the kitchen.
My name is Eldad, I'm a cook who lives in paris. Here is the place to pose names in this category, subjects you want to talk,
share or ask.

So.. I decided to have potatos as the first subject, since there is so much to talk about them.
I will not cover not even the tip of the subject, because it's impossible and also because in this area you don't close things that fast and you take everything with suspisions!!

Floury potatos. I noticed that even in this category of potatos nothing is absolute, examples:

Gnocchi, bread, pasta doughs(like kreplakh), puree, etc.
You need the cooked product to be dry and floury to give u good results, but the cooking can change dramatically, but again not absolute.
Gnocchi for an example needs a floury potato, usually cooked on a bad of kosher salt in the oven, to make it really dry, then mixed with eggs or just yolks, salt and flour, which we dont over work so both the gluten in the flour and the starches in the potatos will change the dough to be sticky and chewy.

On the otherhand i can do the same for a bread which will give a nice taste of potatos to the final product and wont make it hard to work with the dough.. but, 2 years ago i remmember cooking not the right potato for a mash and also peeled it and cooked in water. I passed it through a "moulin" and then made the dough, which i gave less yeast and long rise to have better complex flavor and texture(Another subject, so leave it for now). It was a wet dough that was hard to work with, but, the final product was amazing, nicly carmelised crust, very crispy, chewy interieur, very tasty, not the regular potato bread!!

More, Puree.
How many of us know it's better to use floury potatos or it all get messy and gluey, yuck. try to ieat it...
ave you ever had the famous puree Joel Robouchon?
Well, he uses Ratte, which will give you this results if you do it the traditional way, but try to cook it in water with salt, till soft and then when still hot peel and pass through a "moulin" ONE BY ONE over a big bowl so it will not mash what is underneath it. do not touch the mash too much. Wheigh it, put in a pot the puree, and the same amount of cold butter, cut to small pieces, DONT MIX, with a wooden spoon sowly cut through the mass you will see the butter starts to get inside, if it seperates add a sprinkle of hot milk, but never mix.tou will have an amazing flavour puree (don't eat too much, did you see how much butter.
Robouchon then passes it through a drum sieve to get rid of the small particals, slices of Tarttufo di Alba and you're in heaven.

There is a lot to talk about puree and ways to make it, they all great, but another time, let's go on.

Chips and it's friends.. We all know it's better be starchy, but even there there is more and less, so which one for which kind of fries, there is so much and every country is different, normally. so, for an example, have you ever tried to pour hot water on thinly sliced ratte and then drain, then fry?
What about potatos? Two cooking, the second in hot oil, but the first? In oil or water?
Have you tried Heston Blumental's Three Stages Potatos?
And fries? Thin, cooked directly in the hot oil, A little bit more thick, then two cooking first low temperature, second high, but which kind of cooking and what kind of potatos?
Example: "Bintje" cooked first in 130-140 for like 10 minutes then in 180-190, both in oil.
"Agria" cooked first in salted water(startinf with cold water!), then once boiled, drain and dry, deepfry in 190 degrees oil.
nice results, huh?

That it for now.
My next missions: Heston's potatos and Gnocchi made from not starchy potatos.