The bagels came out well enough.
Nov. 6th, 2012 01:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
conulyThey didn't look like bagels because of the aforementioned indecision about how many to make. Once you grab your ball of dough you have to stick with it! But they tasted pretty good. Next time I won't make the same error. (I'll make a different one!)
We're having potato pancakes for lunch as the nieces are home due to Election Day. Lots of people make those out of a box, but they're pretty easy to make the real way. Still, it took me a while to learn a few tricks, most of which I'm sure, as always, I was the last to know.
First, potatoes really are full of water. You have to squeeze them several times to get all the water out, and it's always at least one more time than you think. Salting the grated potatoes helps a little, as does letting them drain. If they drain into your bowl you can save the starch to help bind the pancakes, or you can let any visiting children play with it. That's always fun. If you're adding other root vegetables, they should be grated after the potatoes are all squeezed out.
Second - and this took me ages to work out! - most flours and such are awful binders. They do weird things to the texture and tend to turn gluey. Ick. Mashed potato will do much better, and taste better as well. I wanted to try some mashed chickpeas today, but I burned them. Careless! Well, they'll go in the compost.
Third, it always is better to make applesauce than buy it, because it's not cost effective to buy a small jar but the big ones don't get used up fast enough. That might just be us, though.
Finally, whatever Jenn says, it's not strictly necessary to grate onions. Finely chopping them works just fine.
If you do all the grating yourself, you can eat as many as you've cooked on the grounds that grating burns calories and works up an appetite. Which is what I did, but I probably should not have eaten quite as much sour cream. Oh well!
We're having potato pancakes for lunch as the nieces are home due to Election Day. Lots of people make those out of a box, but they're pretty easy to make the real way. Still, it took me a while to learn a few tricks, most of which I'm sure, as always, I was the last to know.
First, potatoes really are full of water. You have to squeeze them several times to get all the water out, and it's always at least one more time than you think. Salting the grated potatoes helps a little, as does letting them drain. If they drain into your bowl you can save the starch to help bind the pancakes, or you can let any visiting children play with it. That's always fun. If you're adding other root vegetables, they should be grated after the potatoes are all squeezed out.
Second - and this took me ages to work out! - most flours and such are awful binders. They do weird things to the texture and tend to turn gluey. Ick. Mashed potato will do much better, and taste better as well. I wanted to try some mashed chickpeas today, but I burned them. Careless! Well, they'll go in the compost.
Third, it always is better to make applesauce than buy it, because it's not cost effective to buy a small jar but the big ones don't get used up fast enough. That might just be us, though.
Finally, whatever Jenn says, it's not strictly necessary to grate onions. Finely chopping them works just fine.
If you do all the grating yourself, you can eat as many as you've cooked on the grounds that grating burns calories and works up an appetite. Which is what I did, but I probably should not have eaten quite as much sour cream. Oh well!
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