This month, the old high-utility, high-nutrition standby, The Potato.
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-JT
I leave the skins on.
I used Russet.
Couldn’t agree more on potato salad. If I go a get together I always take a small dab so I can taste it . If it’s sweet I don’t load up. Some people use that horrid Miracle Whip. Awful stuff.
Yay! Taters!
We had an excellent crop of potatoes this past growing season, and they are storing nicely in cardboard boxes in our 55 degree basement.
My favorite potato recipe, among MANY:
Garlic Mashed Red Potatoes
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/garlic-mashed-red-potatoes/
I’d never had these until they were a side selection at our favorite steak house...and the next day I went looking for recipes and this was the closest to what we had had the night before. Enjoy!
A little crumbled Blue Cheese in there never hurt anybody, either! ;)
And seriously? If you don’t have a decent potato masher, get yourself one. I like/own the one made by Zyliss.
https://www.zyliss.com/store/products/zyliss-potato-masher-stainless-steel-e980044u.htm
The dressing was roughly 1 : 1 mayo and sour cream. We always go way over to the sour cream side. I add horseradish, just because i like it, green onions, and toss. Chill thoroughly.
I once had potato salad with capers in it and since then, I ALWAYS include them. Yum!
Cube and boil up about two pounds of potatoes until tender in salted water. Drain and set aside. Peel or unpeeled, your choice
Crumble and brown one pound of sausage.
Add in one chopped onion and a couple of ribs of celery (chopped).
1/2 teaspoons sage.
Cook until soft.
Two cans of corn with the water it is packed in.
One can of evaporated milk.
Add the potatoes back in and give the potatoes a rough mash.
Heat through and serve.
To make your own sausage.
Take one pound of ground pork (or you can use turkey or chicken but brown it in butter. Fat is flavor) Mix in:
2 teaspoons sage
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon thyme
1/2 teaspoon garlic
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon fennel
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
You can add in some red pepper flake if you like but it will be plenty flavorful without.
(all herbs are fresh! So half if using dried.) You can cook this right away or you can let it hang out in the fridge overnight.
So far, I'm enjoying them.
Pros/cons
The first service I've tried is Everyplate. It ships from Chicago, which I'm not crazy about. First package was a day late (Fedex), but dry ice in the bottom was still frozen, so package seemed okay.
So far we've had:
On Tuesday I have 5 meals coming from Marleyspoon.com which is Martha Stewart's meal service.
I’m going to try that baked potato recipe...
I’m going to create a spud Cannon and shoot potatoes at Has-been Toys 😃. Hope you are shorting Has-been Toys stock....
Best foods Potato Salad Recipe
Ingredients:
•2 lbs. potatoes (5 to 6 medium), peeled and cut into 3/4-inch chunks
•1 cup Hellmann’s® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise
•2 Tbsp. vinegar
•1-1/2 tsp. salt
•1 tsp. sugar
•1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
•1 cup thinly sliced celery
•1/2 cup chopped onion
•2 hard-cooked eggs, chopped (optional)
Preparation:
Step 1
Cover potatoes with water in 4-quart saucepot; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes or until potatoes are tender. Drain and cool slightly.
Step 2
Combine Hellmann’s® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise, vinegar, salt, sugar and pepper in large bowl. Add potatoes, celery, onion and eggs and toss gently. Serve chilled or at room temperature.
Fool Proof French Fried Potatoes
Peel potatoes, leaving some skin on in inch diameter patches randomly around potatoe. The skin will give the fries a hearty flavor. This is optional if you are a purist.
Cut potatoes into french fry sized strips.
Put cut potatoes into a pot and pour in cooking oil to cover about 1/2 inch.
With pot on burner turn on to high and wait until the oil is bubbling just enough on surface but not splattering. Reduce heat and adjust heat so the oil will continue bubbling but not splattering. When the heat has been set, the potatoes will fry with little maintenance of the burner temperature. With a regular butter knife carefully loosen potatoes that are stuck together by sliding knife between them and giving a twist to break them apart. Cook until the potatoes are a light brown. Use tongs to lift cooked fries into a pan with paper towels on bottom. Salt immediately, moving potatoes around with tongs to coat with the salt.
So many times I have used a thermometer to bring the oil up to temperature. When I put the potatoes in the hot oil, the water content of the potatoes causes a huge eruption of the oil, splattering my entire stove. My method will not allow the oil to saturate the fries because as the oil rises in temperature, the natural water in the potato resists the oil-—oil and water do not mix. As the oil reaches frying temperature, the water in the potato releases steam, which keeps the oil from saturating the fry. The result is a fry with a creamy interior and a match stick snap of a crust.
Food and Wine has a great collection of potato recipes. I’ve tried quite a few of them:
Once I made “Baked potato salad”, I could never return to the traditional mayo based potato salad. If we have grilled steak, it’s the Baked Potato Salad that goes with it. Everything and anything that goes into a baked potato, I use in BPS.....sour cream, bacon, green onions, cheese, anything and it’s wonderful!!
Great post, thank you! Will be trying your potato salad recipe asap!
My dad asked me for the Rush Revere books for Christmas! I have every book Rush ever published. Rest in peace, Rush, we miss you.
We have the SAME taste in our potato preferences! I don’t care for potato salad that much because of the addition of hardboiled eggs (yuk!) but your version sounds like one I would like.
I saw that ATK show with brining the potatoes before baking and it sounded like a good idea. Do you remember when Cracker Barrel restaurants used to “bake” their potatoes by boiling them in resin then serving them wrapped in paper they were stuck to? They were super fluffy but, of course, you couldn’t eat the skin. They don’t serve them like that anymore - probably someone sued them!
I know this had nothing to do with potatoes but I came across a recipe a friend made recently I just loved.
CABBAGE CRUNCH SALAD
Dressing
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup vinegar
1/2 cup oil
Heat until sugar melts
Add 2 tblsp soy sauce
Refrigerate
Crunch
1/2 cup butter (margarine can be substituted)
2 pkg Ramen noodles (chicken)
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/2 cup slivered almonds
Melt butter in large skillet. Break up noodles; brown in butter. Add nuts and seeds. Brown until golden. Add Ramen seasoning packets.
Refrigerate.
Chop up large head of red or green cabbage. Mix dressing, cabbage and crunch just before serving.
Just an FYI. Eleven days now since the thaw in TX, the grocery shelves are just starting to get re-stocked. Dairy products are still hit and miss. Cheese and eggs were stocked last night but there is still no cream for coffee. There are limits on many products (still/always this past year but more currently). There were shortages weeks before the freeze. I was unable to get cream and eggs in my last order weeks before the big freeze.
Just because a product is shown online doesn’t mean it’s really on the shelf.
All in all, count on two full weeks to get shelves stocked if something similar happens in the future.
I love potatoes. My husband loves to say I should have been Irish. His grandmother was the same way.
This week i’ve made mashed potatoes several times, creamy cheddar potato soup and I made four potato loaves made with leftover mashed potatoes. Then I had to pick up another 50 lbs at the store. lol
I also use mashed potatoes in my focaccia.. Pugliese style.