Question
Julia Golier
Trying to accommodate lots of dietary restrictions: dairy and gluten free, as well as following bland high PH diet for GI issues. Can you share any advice?
Answer
Alright, well, it sounds like this is gonna be a learning curve holiday for you. Uh, you know what? There's quite a lot of, uh, there's a lot of great resources here on Rouxbe to follow and, uh, manifest some really great dishes, uh, with all of those, uh, restrictions on them. I wouldn't even call them restrictions so much as I would say directions, right? Because take that as, uh, a means to just go find the inspiration for them rather than telling you something you can't do. Uh, take 'em as well, uh, opportunities to point you in new directions, right? You're just gonna discover new recipes there. So following, um, you know, one, the high pH uh, as well as dairy and gluten-free, uh, dairy, especially dairy people tend to look at as well, I think people use dairy as a crutch quite honestly. And a lot of cooking are mashed mashed potatoes really delicious with a whole lot of cream and butter. Well, duh, of course they are, right? But can they be absolutely delicious with a, you know, a, a good addition of just the potato cooking water where you take potatoes? And you know what, people make mashed potatoes, they peel their potatoes, they put 'em in a pot, and then they fill the pot. You know, here are your potatoes and they fill your pot all the way full of water, right? Well, guess what potatoes do when you cook 'em in water? They leach their flavor into the water, right? So instead of adding this much water, all of which you're gonna pour down the drain, add just enough water to barely cover them. Why? 'cause then you're gonna have some pretty intensely potato flavored water, right? And that can become your mixing medium with some olive oil, uh, maybe some lemon juice or something in there to brighten, heighten those flavors if you're not using a whole lot of salt. But there's ways to really make these dishes good. Just thinking about the techniques. How do you make those mashed potatoes as potatoe as possible? Which, you know, what is delicious very much in its own right? Yeah, of course cream and butter is delicious, but making a really delicious potatoe potato dish is also great. So think about a couple of ways to incorporate, uh, some new ideas that way. And I think you're gonna have a real fun time this year and beyond.
