Potatoes/Fish/Horseradish (and 2 recipes)

[Mary]

There's been so much talk lately about Potatoes, Fish, & Horseradish I thought I'd roll them all into this thread for what I can add to these conversations.

First; Has anyone else had problems getting good potatoes lately?
I have had the worst potatoes! It seems no matter what brand and how good they look on the outside, I am having to peal away half the potato due to black spots. What's up with that?

Secondly; For you fish lovers, heres a couple of recipes:

Fish marinate:
I have had this with perch, I don't like horseradish, but the fish done this way is fantastic!

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup horseradish
1/8 cup soy sauce

Mix above 3 ingredients together and marinate fish filet's in it overnight.
When ready to cook, remove filet's from marinate, do not rinse.
Grill fish in a wire basket on gas or charcoal grill until lightly browned.

Serve with ......

Garlic Sauce:

2 heads of garlic, peeled and sliced or slightly chopped
about 3/4 cup of oil. (I use olive oil)
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 large container of sour cream (16 ounces) use more or less.

In blender; blend garlic and oil until well blended
Add the lemon juice & then sour cream until you get the consistency you like.

Please let me know if any of you try these with your fish and how you liked it.

Mary

[bescheid]

Mary

Thank you for sharing your secret of fish preporation..This is 1st to me this sauce, and it sounds very delicious...

Anna is the purchasing agent/accountant/supervisor-administrator of kitchen and house. She purchases our potatoes at the Fred-Meye out let {store} and they are very excellent quality, cleaned/fresh smelling, sized as #1 of consistent size.

She uses Fred-Meyer for her vegetables.

My only suggestion as I am not an expert, just a gobble eater of any thing she cooks. But, what this has sound of is: This time of year, most local harvest potatoes are processed and kept in cold storage. Potatoes and apples are very similar in needs of cold storage handling, they bruise easily. If handled with a heavy hand, they make a smacking noise resulting in bruises as you have described{The apples will have a flat spot above the bruise, with dark spot under the skin at place of bruise}. The potato will have dark spots ranging from the skin to the inner section of the potato.

The other situation in regard to the potatoes with dark portions deep in the inner parts of the potato, is they may have been frozen, some times this is caused from cold air leaks from a defective door seal settling over the stored potatoes, some where in the chain between harvest, handling, packaging, storage and consumer usage. Potatoes with this condition usually spoil very rapidly with rotten ends.

The other situation of dark streaks, is some times from field diseases such as net {Not sure of correct spelling}.

As you see, I am not an expert, just an observer of bad smells with cause and effect.

Charles

[Mary]

Charles,

First, It is good you give Anna credit for all she does. Too many men do not admit or acknowledge their partners contribution's.

Secondly, Thank you for your explanation on the potatoes. I was thinking that they most likely had been kept too cold. As if the warehouse or trucking company had let them start to freeze. It just seems odd that so many bags of potatoes, different brands, and different stores, could all have this problem.
I am anxious for the "new potatoes" to be available.

And MOST IMPORTANT!

When trying the recipes for the fish and sauce....be sure all persons that you may be around also eat the same.......

or you will not be kissed for a week!

(horseradish & garlic.......aromatic!)

Mary

[justjohn]

generation3 said:

Charles,

First, It is good you give Anna credit for all she does. Too many men do not admit or acknowledge their partners contribution's.

Secondly, Thank you for your explanation on the potatoes. I was thinking that they most likely had been kept too cold. As if the warehouse or trucking company had let them start to freeze. It just seems odd that so many bags of potatoes, different brands, and different stores, could all have this problem.
I am anxious for the "new potatoes" to be available.

And MOST IMPORTANT!

When trying the recipes for the fish and sauce....be sure all persons that you may be around also eat the same.......

or you will not be kissed for a week!

(horseradish & garlic.......aromatic!)

Mary

Mary,

We don't have much problem with the potatoes here either. What I can't find are the potatoes I want. Some years back we used to get 'Green Mountain' potatoes from Vermont. We liked them so much that we would plant a bushel bag of GM seed potatoes each spring.

Then it became impossible to find GM potatoes. So, we progressed to 'Maine' potatoes. Mostly grown in Aroostook County. These were the plain ole white potato or the more familiar one called 'Russet'.

The plain white ones are best for cooking. The russet's are better for baking. Some markets here won't carry Maine spuds but that's when I shop elsewhere.

Livia, here is where the potato is called a staple. If you don't have it on the table, the table is not set yet.

That sauce you present sure looks good. Since we grow our own horseradish we will try this.

What is your favorite fish? What's available in upstate NY?

[freetobe]

Mary,
We dont have problems with potatoes purchased at the local farm stands. Long Island potatoes are good quality all purpose veggy. Our local farmers are now growing many different varieties besides the original. Some are growing the so called specialty types, like Yukon Gold, blue and purple varieties. As spring approaches the horse radish roots become plentiful and there is a big run on blenders at the local big box stores. The super market potatoes are not the locally grown product.I agree that the bagged potatoes are not as good. During the time the farm stands are closed, I buy the loose potatoes which seem to be a bit better then the bagged. We are surrounded by the sea so there is usually a decent supply of fresh caught fish in the fish markets. I try and emphsize try, to catch my own during the warmer months. We have flounder, striped bass, bluefish, fluke, blackfish, weakfish and others. Clams are available all year, lobsters during the summer and Peconic Bay scallops in October. You have not lived until you taste these delicious morsels.The scallops have only just started to recover from the effects of "brown tide" which occured repeatedly in past years. The price is outrageous.
Your sauce looks yummy. I'll try it. Also the addition of soy sauce to a basic horseradish mayo suace is something I never thought of. Bet it is great on tuna.

[justjohn]

freetobe said:

Mary,
We dont have problems with potatoes purchased at the local farm stands. Long Island potatoes are good quality all purpose veggy. Our local farmers are now growing many different varieties besides the original. Some are growing the so called specialty types, like Yukon Gold, blue and purple varieties. As spring approaches the horse radish roots become plentiful and there is a big run on blenders at the local big box stores. The super market potatoes are not the locally grown product.I agree that the bagged potatoes are not as good. During the time the farm stands are closed, I buy the loose potatoes which seem to be a bit better then the bagged. We are surrounded by the sea so there is usually a decent supply of fresh caught fish in the fish markets. I try and emphsize try, to catch my own during the warmer months. We have flounder, striped bass, bluefish, fluke, blackfish, weakfish and others. Clams are available all year, lobsters during the summer and Peconic Bay scallops in October. You have not lived until you taste these delicious morsels.The scallops have only just started to recover from the effects of "brown tide" which occured repeatedly in past years. The price is outrageous.
Your sauce looks yummy. I'll try it. Also the addition of soy sauce to a basic horseradish mayo suace is something I never thought of. Bet it is great on tuna.

freetobe,

When I was about 11 or 12 years of age we went fishing off Montauk Point. To be honest I had no idea what I was about to catch.
Well, the first tuna I had pulled in weighed about 65 pounds. Caught 4 more that day and the largest at 78 pounds.

Now that was fishing.

You Long Island potatoes sell well up here also. They are of good quality and not many blemishes.

For your edification (budujący wpływ), I used to live in Ronkoncoma.

(Someone correct me if I am wrong)

[freetobe]

j j,
What means "budujacy wplyw"? Sorry but I'm not understanding its meaning, edifacation or no.I know Ronkonkama. I take the LIIR from there when travel to Manhattan. With the continued depletion of fish stocks due to over fishing, it requires a long run out of Montauk now to get tuna. I am a surf and pier fisher as I don't own a boat and couldn't afford the gas if I did. But I enjoy the beach and once in a while I'll get a big one. That's why they call it fishing not catching.

[crackercrumbs]

Buying the food for our house, if I can I will buy the red or new potatoes before I buy the brown ones. To me the red/new potatoes have a better taste than the others.
For a 5 pound sack of red potatoes, I pay any where between 1.79 up to 2.49.

Most often the grocery store has the russet potatoes on sale-5 lbs for a dollar.
When they have these on sale, I buy 10 pounds, and create my meals around using the
potatoes-like pan fries one night, baked taters, mashed, potato salad and potato soup.
Sometimes we get potatoes that have deep cuts in them or they are semi-shriveled or
have rotten spots in the middles. Potatoes are relatively cheap, but I don't
want to spend money on produce and have to throw most of them away.

Before I buy any potatoes, I do a "sniff" test. I sniff the bag for foul smells and
I squeeze some of them for firmness.