For me I only got two kitchen based presents stuffed into my stocking a potato ricer and a “molecular gastronomy” kit.

Now as I mentioned in a previous post I am more than a little sceptical about kitchen gadgets which seem to do little other than add clutter to my already filled to the brim kitchen. So why would I need this? I already have two traditional potato mashers (one metal and one plastic for different pans), so how on earth will a ricer change my life?

Well the proof of the pudding and all that, I just had to make some mashed potato!

I boiled up some tatties, drained them and got my ricer at the ready. Now I’m pretty good at mashing out the lumps when I make mashed potato, but it does take a bit of time and effort to work it through. Squeezing down hard on the handles of my sparkly new ricer I watched with joy as the potato was obliterated into tiny strands filling the pan with the added air that had been added by the ricer.

Adding splash of good quality rapeseed oil and milk with a pinch of salt and white pepper, I plunged my masher into the pan and within seconds I was rewarded with luxuriously smooth mashed potato.

When I say smooth I mean seriously smooth. I’m not sure I could have achieved that without mashing for several hours. There was nothing remotely lump like in the whole pan.

So thank you Father Christmas, I am now a convert to the ricer. It may take up valuable real estate in my kitchen, but its ease of use and speediness make it a worthwhile gadget to own.

If you don’t have one give them a try, especially if like me you are a mashed potato fan!

More on that “molecular gastronomy” kit soon!

So did you get any weird or wonderful gadgets for Christmas? Do you love it or just wonder “why?”

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The Food Curator

The Food Curator (AKA Michael Robinson) is an aficionado of all things food and bon viveur based in London. A passion for cooking and dining has driven him to put fingers to keyboard to bring you his thoughts on the world of food. When not writing, eating or cooking he has a love of American muscle cars. Pop on over to my Facebook page and let's start a Facebook food revolution together: http://tinyurl.com/thefoodcurator

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The post Kitchen Presents appeared first on Food on the Blog. Post by The Food Curator

If you have ever made a Christmas pudding you may have noticed that during the early stages of putting the ingredients together it smells strangely like when you start off a tagine in the pan but bar the onions of course! It’s the use of spices like cinnamon and ginger which come from the North African region that take over Christmas and have become an essential part of British cooking not really being used outside of desserts at any other time of the year.

Take the humble mince pie. The origins of this well loved Christmas treat come directly from Morocco, the mince meat that we put into them did in fact many years ago actually contain meat! Now meat wrapped in pasty sprinkled with sugar and spice on top is the classic Moroccan Pastilla, so we have taken this directly and over time it has been adjusted to the fruit filling we know today. Many people don’t realise that the meat was still hanging on in there for years as shredded beef suet was used in our mince meat until very recently.

This influence not unsurprisingly appears to have made it to our shores during the crusades and perhaps bringing back these exotic spices and recipes from the Holy Land made total sense to fit with Christmas, and the mince pie is our prime example. For centuries we in the UK did use many of these spices all year round and as well as being status symbols, some say they were important in covering the flavour from not so fresh food. Now this would make them a perfect fit for mid winter when the foods harvested would now not be at there best.

Because of the time of year preserved foods are therefore a big part of Christmas, but not just traditional British styles of perseveration, for example candied peel which is an ingredient in both mince pie and Christmas pudding is of Arab origin. There is also the pickled walnut which only ever gets an outing at Christmas, interestingly the “English” walnuts used originated from Persia.

In recent years here in the UK we have picked up more from Europe to add to our Christmas 20-30 years ago it would have been hard to find the German Stollen bread or an Italian Panettone but now you can find them in almost every supermarket. As the popularity of the German Christmas market has now spread up and down the country, I wonder what new treats are in store for our Christmas future?

One of the great things we British do is take foods from around the world and make them part of our own tradition, and although we still may pick up some Christmas foodstuff from other regions of the world I am sure those old traditions from the east just like the three wise men will be part of our Christmas forever.

Do you know the secret past of a Christmas staple? Our fancy predicting where from or what could be a future Christmas food? Please comment below!

If you have enjoyed reading this post please head over to my facebook page and let’s connect!

Michael Robinson

Author information

The Food Curator

The Food Curator (AKA Michael Robinson) is an aficionado of all things food and bon viveur based in London. A passion for cooking and dining has driven him to put fingers to keyboard to bring you his thoughts on the world of food. When not writing, eating or cooking he has a love of American muscle cars. Pop on over to my Facebook page and let's start a Facebook food revolution together: http://tinyurl.com/thefoodcurator

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The post It’s beginning to smell a lot like…Morocco? appeared first on Food on the Blog. Post by The Food Curator