Well,

I have now cooked a terrific steak, and I'm going to try a few more variations from the various recipes. Lamb is good, my favourite is still slow cooking but with lots of herbs. But the price of lamb is going haywire here.

Potatoes. I love roast potatoes. I wash them, cut of the nasty bits and then microwave for abouy 3 mins on high. Put the oven to high (250C) and put the spuds and roast in and leave for about80 mins. I add pumpkin, and mushroom and if I remember a tomato about 15 mins before the meal is ready.

But Potatoes

After working in hospitals for so long I cannot even look at mashed potatoes. They do nothing but really bad mash. My mother used to make mashed potatoes but leave hard bits in them (chuck).

Chips, fine,  love them. Called French fries for some strange linguistic reason in the USA .

Boiled, no, too boring.

In their jackets Get real I want food.

So how do we cook Potatoes to make them fun?

Or are Potatoes just boring - like rice.

I'm roasting some at the moment Mmmm

Cindy

The roast potato is the king of potatoes. Chips are just pure fun.

Boiled, jacket and mash are just plain dull on their own. I posted a recipe the other week for cottage/shepherds pie both of which have a mash potato topping but the savoury mince and gravy under that potato really make the potato taste much, much better. These plain potatoes need a really good gravy to 'lift' them.

I never had any time for new potatoes with parsley and butter.  Rice is dull too unless you add something....

Chop one medium onion finely and fry in sesame oil. Add fours rashers of smoked back bacon chopped finely. When cooked add 1/2 a red pepper, 1/2 a green pepper and 1/2 a yellow pepper. stir well and dose with some dark soy. Add plain cooked rice and mix. Liberally dose with light soy and you now have a more savoury rice that can be eaten on its own or.......

Take one chicken breast and place in a medium hot pan. After a few minutes turn and brown the other side. Turn again and repeat until the centre is cooked (slice a hole with a sharp knife and look). Drizzle with honey and dust with chili powder (be careful, some powder will lift in the warm air around the cooker - put a lid over the pan or keep the window open). Turn the chicken and do the other side with honey and chili. Remove from the pan and slice into sections about 1cm wide. Drizzle with juice from half a lemon and maybe a dash of light soy. Serve on the savoury rice.

Try potato rosti, (shred the potatoes using a grater, dry them to get rid of excess moisture, form them into patties and shallow fry until golden)

A good potato salad dressing is mustard, olive oil and white wine vinigar with chopped chives.  Use English or dijon mustard, not that yucky yellow stuff you squirt on hotdogs.

I like mashed potato and swede (what the Scots call neeps) with butter, pepper, garlic... yum. Also baked potatoes with loads of butter. I've never liked roast potatoes because they remind me of school (shudder...)

I love boiled potatoes, I can eat huge amount of them
I can eat 1.5kg (3.3lb) bag for two meals with some fish fingers or chicken steak 

Neeps are not mashed potato and swede, their mashed swede with carrot and lots of pepper.  I believe potato and swede is referred to by the worrying name of Clapshot.

As a scot I was raised on Haggis, Neeps and Tatties.  Oh, and don't pour whisky on your haggis, it ruins both the Haggis and the malt!

It's hard to go past tiny New Potatoes boiled in their jackets with butter.

I quite often do baked potatoes in the microwave for a quick lunch. Scrub them clean, prick the skin all over, and spray or brush with a little oil. 
They take about 10 minutes in the microwave, depending on the spud and the microwave.
Slit down the middle and have with butter, salt and pepper.  You can add shredded cheese and bacon too. Yum.

Oh well if we are going gaelic... they attempted to raise me on 'champ' - mashed potato with finely chopped scallions (spring onions). I never liked it. I was the shame of the family.

Quote from: Pippa on September 17, 2012, 06:23:46 AM
Neeps are not mashed potato and swede, their mashed swede with carrot and lots of pepper.  I believe potato and swede is referred to by the worrying name of Clapshot.

As a scot I was raised on Haggis, Neeps and Tatties.  Oh, and don't pour whisky on your haggis, it ruins both the Haggis and the malt!

I didn't say neeps were potato and swede, I said they were swede (to distinguish them from what we Sassenachs call turnips).

Quote from: Padma on September 17, 2012, 06:49:00 AM
I didn't say neeps were potato and swede, I said they were swede (to distinguish them from what we Sassenachs call turnips).

Ah! So you really should have typed....

I like mashed potatoes and I also like swede (what the Scots call neeps) with butter, pepper, garlic...

Quote from: brc on September 17, 2012, 07:03:18 AM
Ah! So you really should have typed....

I like mashed potatoes and I also like swede (what the Scots call neeps) with butter, pepper, garlic...

Well, I felt that not typing "I like mashed-potato-and-swede" was sufficient to make clear that the neeps-in-parentheses referred to the swedes only - which turns out not to be the case, so clearly what I should have typed was "I like mashed potato, and swede (what the Scots call neeps), with..." - stinting on commas leads to ambiguity .

Quote from: Padma on September 17, 2012, 07:12:42 AM
stinting on commas leads to ambiguity .

Save the Comma! Stop commas going extinct from over use.   

In order to prevent extinction, you have to bring them together in long sentences, so they can breed.

Comma potato

Take a big pile of potatoes. Boil then mash until a uniform consistency is achieved. Carefully arrange on a plate in the shape of a comma. Take an OXO cube and add hot water. Reduce or mix with cornflour until thickened. Pour carefully on the plate to surround the comma potato with a dark brown gloop. Garnish with neep, champ or savoury fried rice and make Aunty Cindy eat it.

Make 2, yin-yang potato!

  I grow them in my garden.  I've grown many types from blue colored ones to the reliable Yukon Golds I grow today.  I like potatoes from baked to Swedish potato sausages called Potatis Korv my uncle made for Christmas eve dinners. 
  FYI:  French Fries was dubbed by Benjamin Franklin from a French recipe he got while being an ambassador there.  He introduced the potato from the French who got them from South America.  The French farmers were at first reluctant to grow this tuber because the plant resembled and is related to a weed in the nightshade family (solanum) that is poisonous to humans and livestock.  Only the tubers are edible.  Eggplant, tomatoes, tomatillo, Chinese lanterns, purple nightshade, chili peppers along with the potatoes are related. 
  Joelene

Mashed potatoes with roasted garlic is the bomb.  Fresh garlic with tops cut down and a little olive oil drizzled on top and roast till golden.   Mashed together.

Smash ftw. With onion gravy. Yummy.

Chunky chips (that's fries, only better) with mayonnaise and lots of freshly ground black pepper . The best chips in the cosmos come from Wrights in Sheringham. It is written.

Quote from: Sephirah on September 17, 2012, 06:58:44 PM


Smash ftw. With onion gravy. Yummy.

When I grew up we had instant mashed potatoes.  Some of the dehydrated potatoes came in bud shapes and the most brands came with flakes.  Onboard my ship in the Navy they were known as "Snowflake Potatoes" on the menu section of the ship's POD (Plan Of the Day).  We all read through that.  We also had Potatoes Au Gratin onboard ship using the dehydrated sliced or fresh potatoes and it was not bad, even though some of my shipmates called it "Potatoes Au Rotten" while they were eating it!  We were served the fresher foods close to the supply ports and the canned and dehydrated stuff weeks out to sea. 
  The Navy introduced me to O'Brien Potatoes.  This is sliced potatoes fried with coarsely chopped bell peppers and onions added halfway through the potato frying.  I still make this dish for breakfast in bacon grease with the bacon and eggs camping out or at the cabin.   
  I still cannot stand the dehydrated mashed potatoes, but I like the dehydrated slices.  In late summer and into fall, the time of my garden potatoes from the ground to the dinner table is as little as 20 minutes.  I only dig up a plant at a time with enough potatoes to supply me for up to two weeks.  Before the first hard freeze, the rest are dug up and stored in a cool, dry, dark place.  Sometimes I'll have enough to last into January. 
  Joelene