A Farwell to Spuds

Today I ate the last potato I may eat for a very long time.

See, one of the big no-nos of the diet we're starting in just a few days is the very ordinary but apparently monstrously glycemic potato. Uncooked it has a very low glycemic index but is completely inedible. But cooked the GI goes soaring to 70 when boiled and 80 when mashed as more and more of the starches are released. The carrot is similar, uncooked it has a GI of 30 but steamed it jumps to an 85. Pasta's GI jumps the longer it cooks so it is only allowed in whole wheat form boiled al dente and then allowed to cool to give the cell structure of the wheat to contract and lower the GI.

There are a lot of rules and a lot of science to keep track of using the Montignac method.

With this in mind I was determined to make my final bite of potato count. So last night the fella made a delicious lamb and potato stew from Manisha Kanani's 50 Classic Curries (which unfortunately seems to be out of print). The recipes are clearly written and fairly simple for being as in depth as Indian food tends to be. I want to eat everything in book but we had a couple stray potatoes laying around that needed to be eaten before the French Diet begins in earnest so we settled on the lamb stew.

It was fabulous and well worth the 1 1/2 hour cooking time. This is another thing that is going to be a big change in the way we cook, planning ahead for long esoteric French recipes that take much longer to prepare than the 30 minute meals that are a staple of our dinners now. That and I'm going to have pay more attention to my wine and food paring skills for these meals since wine and water are our only beverage choices.



I picked up the Roogle Pink rose' because everyone at the wine store I work in was raving about this crazy pink wine (just look at that bottle) that was pleasantly fruity but packed a huge 15% alcohol. They were right about the pink part, this is the pinkest wine and craziest label I have ever seen but I found it kind of bland almost as if the high alcohol content overwhelmed the flavor. It was definitely too subtly flavored to hold up to the spicy curry but it was what I was in the mood for.

The curry was a winner though with the tender bits of lamb complimented by the slightly crisp and soon to be forbidden potatoes and the kick of the serrano pepper in the sauce. And the left overs I just had for lunch were just as delightful. I enjoyed every sinful bite and said farewell to my friend the potato.