Grow Your Own Magazine

Does anyone else steam their potatoes???

Having boiled spuds since time began, I was interested to see one of our French neighbours steamed their potatoes- and so I've been doing this ever since!
They are quicker to cook,don't fall apart, have more flavour, and I presume keep all their nutrients.

My question is...does this work for all types of potatoes or just waxy salad ones??

I steam most types of spud. Looking forward to harvesting some lovely floury Golden Wonder this year and trying them in the steamer - I hope it will prevent them falling apart.

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Happy Gardening,
Shirley

http://www.honeyjukes.co.uk

i steam all my veg, not just potatoes, they have so much more flavour, and hold onto more of their vitamin content, and i only peel potatoes for mash, everything else keeps its skin.

my mum gave me her 3 tier steamer when they moved to spain, i couldn't live without it now, boiled veg are so bland in comparison

Lynda xx

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sometimes i do talk complete and utter rubbish ...... just ignore me if i do ........i'll go away eventually

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I wouldn't pay too much attention to your French neighbours - you'll be blockading the road you live in next!! Boiled new potatoes in their skins and a big dollop of butter on the top will do for me.

you should try steamed new potatoes, you will be amazed at the difference in flavour

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sometimes i do talk complete and utter rubbish ...... just ignore me if i do ........i'll go away eventually

http://teachy.myminicity.com/

Boil my potatoes and steam everything else on top - you've got to have the water there anyway so may as well make use of it.

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

They family I lived with in France, in Alsace, steamed their potatoes and then ate them with quark. They kind of smashed open in their jackets, (?!) if that makes sense.

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The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it. -John Ruskin

http://wormsflowers.blogspot.com/

What's quark?

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

I steam all my veg its so easy, everything goes in together !!

it's somewhere between yogurt and sour cream. It is a tradition eastern European fermented dairy product. It used to be made by hanging milk in a leather sack in a doorway, it would then be slapped every time anyone passed by, to mix the cultures.

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The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it. -John Ruskin

http://wormsflowers.blogspot.com/

Maybe kefir is what I'm talking about.

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The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it. -John Ruskin

http://wormsflowers.blogspot.com/

When i was a kid my mother used to put sour milk in a tea towel and hang it up to strain and she used to call that cream cheese it was a bit tart jacob marley

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What lies behind us,And what lies before us,Are tiny matters compared to what lies Within us ...
Ralph Waide Emmerson

That is my approach too. Steaming can NEVER be quicker than boiling, although sometimes it may seem to be. If I haven't got enough steamer space for all I want to cook, the carrots go in with the spuds too.
Then there is the microwave. That will steam anything (and yes, the results are good, if you get it right).
For things which take a long time, I resort to the pressure cooker (and that is steam too, usually).

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Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

Quark (or qvark) is a type of fresh cheese of Central European origin. Dictionaries usually translate it as curd cheese. It is soft, white and un-aged, similar to Fromage frais. It is not the same thing as cream cheese or cottage cheese. It is distinctly different from ricotta because ricotta (Italian: recooked) is made from scalded whey. (wikipedia)

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~ What do I think of Western civilisation? I think it would be a very good idea ~ Gandhi

I just wish I could get the Spanish "Queso Fresco" in this country (Like Fromage Frais, it translates to 'fresh cheese', but very different in texture).

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Flowers come in too many colours to see the world in black-and-white.

We steam everything, including the spuds, and have done for years. Though I saw a TV programme the other night (haven't a clue what it was called or the channel as I just caught the last 20 minutes or so round at my daughter's) and there were people on there who were obsessed with not cooking anything at all...ever. They all had those weird smiles on their faces, you know the ones, as if they'd just found religion and couldn't wait to tell everyone. What's all that about? I always thought that we needed to cook most of our foods as we don't have the enzymes required to breakdown the cellulose cell walls of plant stuffs. Sorry, completely off topic, I'll shut up now.

Think they're the raw food lot - eat a very restricted diet though, have seen them on TV before.

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Some of us live in the past, always talking about back then. Some of us live in the future, always planning what we are going to do. And, then there are those, who neither look behind or ahead, but just enjoy the moment of right now.

Which one are you and is it how you want to be?

As I understand it.........cooking of meat by early man in Africa is what lead to larger brains and therefore further evolution of intelligant man ( ..and women of course)
Something to do with getting more nutrition out of cooked meat compared to raw meat.

I bet they didn't steam their new potatoes!!! ...actually spuds were from S America weren't they????

I've found the new pots taste better steamed, and don't fall apart. You can even cut the big ones to make the pieces more even in size. Potatoes go in the bottom, the other veg get added up though the baskets, with the quicker stuff at the top. I've only had the steamer for a year, now it's definitely a 'must have' gadget.

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