Maybe it’s time for a new peeler?

Also, I had an ex-boyfriend from Melbourne but I’m pretty sure he pronounced it “broccoleee” as opposed to “broccoleye.” Is the “eee” pronunciation for all Aussies or just a certain region?

I’m a longtime fan–thanks for all the great videos!

I’m subscribing!

http://blip.tv/file/655736/

since i’m the king of soup (the puréed kind, at least) here are some helpfull hints:

get one of those blender thingies you were talking about. there is a really good one called “zauberstab” (magic wand) from a swiss company. i’ve tried different ones, that zauberstab gimmick is by far the best.

the only way to get rid of excess texture in your soup is to puré it through a sieve - in german this is called “passieren”, you tell me the english word. just blending it longer doesn’t really help. it helps a bit, but for fussy people like me, a sieve is the only way. depending on how smooth you want your soup to be, you can use one of those cone shaped sieves, you know, metal with holes in it, or for a really really really REALLY smooth result you should use a mesh sieve.

anyhow - not having magic wand blender thingy you’d have to use a spoon to push the soup through the sieve, and that is no fun at all, let me tell you. so the trick is to use your stick shaped blender in your sieve. the movement the blender creates will push the soup through in quite a short time.

you can make a soup like that out of almost anything, like cellery (spelling right?) leak and potato (it’s also called pottage parmentier) or lentils. my absolute favourite is doing it with green peas. it’s extremely yummy, but those pea skins are very tough and the soup sifting takes for ever, even with the blender.

i love to garnish with puff pastry i cut out with pastry cutters and glaze with egg and sprinkle on some salt or whatever (paprika, black pepper, thyme) or with croutons. crème fraiche is really great in a soup like that also pumpkin seed oil, very yummy!

pouring in some booze does wonders to such a soup. i usually start with caramelizing a chopped onion, some sage and pouring in some dry sherry or vermouth (i recommend neulliy prat) making a very quick reduction. the purèed stuff can be spiced up with white wine or more sherry or vermouth (caution with the vermouth). champagne goes surprisingly well with peas and whiskey or brandy goes very well with the cellery soup.

with broccoli i’d try quite a rich white wine like gewürztraminer or something like that.

i just love your recipes! can’t wait for the next episode!
greetings from germany!

PS: I’m a knife peeler. None of those odd slotted things for me.

As for a specialty cooking store in London, are you looking for cookware/kitchenware or ingredients?

Now, my favourite part of any of your videos is the bantering back and forth between the two of you. It makes me laugh and realize that it doesn’t only happen in my home. I’m not sure where you are in the UK but I’m going to London in the near future and wonder if you could recommend a specialty cooking store? Thanks again for show.

You’re the bloody queen of contrarians, so that’s a bit rich!

Waz

I didn’t realize about the peeler thing either. In response to the above website mentioned I could understand doing something like that if you were having to peel a lot of potatoes but for just one or two it seems doing it by hand would be just as quick. It was interesting though because I didn’t know something like that could work.

Thanks!
Janet

Laura, the American (US) English pronunciation is what is given on your link (I see the source on the page is the American Heritage Dictionary). So that wouldn’t necessarily apply to English-speaking people from all other parts of the world.

Love that video, but it seems a lot of faffing … we’ll stick to the peeler, thanks.

Laura, it’s brockle-eye where we come from. Basically, we’re right, the rest of the world is wrong.

- Waz

or maybe this is some sort of private joke?

P.S I saw you guys in the audience of Kill It, Cook It, Eat It.

Now… I have a fun tip! I hated peeling potatoes too, but then I saw this video of a practically instant way to remove the whole skin all at once. It’s fun and it only took me 2 tries to perfect the technique.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/258719/super_magic_playing_with_potato/