Venerable Spud

po0k

2 questions/topics:

a) Best way to boil a spud to perfection.
I like new potatoes, nicely cooked, but firm. Hate floury ones.
I've gotten it right a few times, but I'm inconsistent. Anyone wish to proffer some advice?

b) Recipes.
Anything.
"Spuds - How do you eat yours?"

Sarky

Roasted, with an unholy amount of cheese melted across the cut. Poetry.

munkeehaven

im not a great potato fan, but one thing that i love is bombay potatoes..mmm.so simple to make and they taste fecking gorgeous (if you like spicy indian dishes)..:-9
you need:
one pound new potatoes..2 tbs oil...one onion sliced
...2tbs bombay spices(or what ever suits you)...40g french beans...400g tin chopped tomatoes..2tbs mango chutney

you gots to:
boil the potatoes till tender...drain..heat oil in a frying pan..fry onions till browned..add curry spices and beans..fry for another minute..add tomatoes,chutney and potatoes..cover and simmer for 10-15 mins..and stirring once in a while....

daveg

If your doing a roast try this out for your spuds....

Slice em in half (nice big sized spuds) and boil for approx 15 mins (skins on). Take the spuds out of the water and put them into a bowl. Drizzle with honey and oliver oil. Place into a hot frying pan to finish them off.

What I usually do is have some chicken peices in the oven. I then add the fryed spuds into the chicken dish in the oven.

You'll be left with sweet roast patatoes.

Krusty_Clown

Jacket Potatoes:
Take a medium/large potato, and give it a good scrubbing, removing any dirt, etc. Prick the potato in several places with a fork.

Making sure that the potato is perfectly dry (dry with a clean towel/paper towel if still wet). Take approximately a tablespoon of olive oil, and using your hands, rub it into the skin of the potato. Place on a baking sheet, and sprinkle with coarse (sea) salt.

An hour and 30 minutes later in an oven at 200' will produce a wonderfully cooked potato with a lovely crispy/salty skin.

Potato Skins:
As above, however, only cook the potato in the oven for about an hour. Remove from the oven, and turn up the heat by approximately 20'/30' Celcius.

Cut the partially cooked potatoes into segments - either 4 or 6 pieces (Think of a Terry's chocolate orange!) Remove some of the excess potato, and put into a large bowl. Add approximately 1 tablespoon of olive oil per potato, and a good twist of salt and black pepper. Mix well. Put back on the baking tray for about another 20/30 minutes at the higher temperature, until crispy and golden brown (adjust temperature and oven time to suit your taste (crunchiness).

Allow to cool slightly, and serve with your favourite dip or sauce.
(recommendations: Guacamole, Salsa, Garlic Mayo, Sweet Chilli, etc.)

Crunchy roasties:
Wash and peel (or peel and wash) a number of medium sized potatoes. The smaller they are, the quicker they cook, and the crunchier they become, so if they're too large, cut them into smaller pieces. Aim for somewhere between the size of a golfball and a kiwi!.

Throw into a saucepan of cold, salted water, and bring to the boil. Allow to boil (not too violently) for about 5-8 minutes. Drain, and allow to cool slightly..

Heat up a saucepan, throw in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and some of your favourite dried herbs (I would typically go for some Rosemary and thyme, but use whatever you like). Throw in around four or five of your potatoes, thrown the lid ontop of the saucepan, and give the contents a good shake.. Not hard enough to break them up, but enough to roughen up the outside of the potato, which will in turn make them crunchier. Repeat for the additional potatoes, throwing them onto a baking tray when done.

Bung the potatoes into a pre-heated oven (200' C) for between 35 and 50 minutes (they should be golden brown on the outside, and yielding to a fork on the inside). Serve with whatever else you happened to be roasting at the same time.. I like to mash mine with some butter, salt, pepper, gravy, miscellaneous other ingredients.. Magic...

Blisterman

I like mashed potatoes with no lumps whatsoever.

Sarky

Sliced spud (splud?) fried with mushrooms and a healthy dollop of cream. Add veggies or other stuff if desired. Nyom.

po0k

Ok, anyone have a step-by step guide to boiling the spud?
Medium sized new potatoes in skins. How do I not make em go floury?
Bring to the boil for a minute? Cover and let simmer on a low heat (1/6 full heat?)

Cook books are so inspecific.

Crash

Best potato recipe : potato gratin.

for amounts you gotta play this by ear

get a longish dish. now put a layer of sliced potato (peeled drained washed and dried)
over the bottom of the dish (oil it first.) once you have covered the bottom put a layer of sliced onion over, then pepper and salt. repeat for about 3 layers in total. now make a mixture of milk and cream, 50 - 50 and pour over the potato, so that it comes halfway up the dish or so. now top with grated cheese. put in the oven until the cheese is melted and crispy and check with a knife to see if the potatoes inside are cooked. Nyom.

Kix

Syx,

I love how everyone is ignoring your question

There are basically two different types of spuds - waxy ones and floury ones. The best way to avoid floury boiled spuds is not to buy them. It's often hard to know what you're getting when you by them, most large spuds sold in Ireland are floury. Keep a look out for "salad potatoes" in Dunnes and "Charlotte potatoes" in Tesco. They're waxy. They do tend to be quit small spuds but then they will cook slightly quicker and you'll just have to eat more of them!

K

Blub2k4

SyxPak wrote:

Ok, anyone have a step-by step guide to boiling the spud?
Medium sized new potatoes in skins. How do I not make em go floury?
Bring to the boil for a minute? Cover and let simmer on a low heat (1/6 full heat?)

Cook books are so inspecific.

The thing with them is to know when they are done. Stick a knife into the spud at the start and you will feel the resistance of an uncooked spud, when the knife slips through the spud easily it is done, there is no way to produce a definitive guide but this will tell you when they are cooked.

bonkey

SyxPak wrote:

Ok, anyone have a step-by step guide to boiling the spud?

1) Bring water to boil

2) Then add salt (not before water is boiling. Dunno why, so don't ask, but apparently its hammered into chef's over here.).

3) Then add the spuds. They should be fully covered in the water, btw.

You can boil w. lid off or on...its up to you...but you want to keep it at a low simmer (i.e. just boiling) and not hopping mad. I can't tell you what setting that is on your cooker...it varies (and will also depend on whether or not you're a lid-on or lid-off man)

How do I not make em go floury?

Buy non-floury potatoes, to be honest.
In Ireland, thats not as easy as it sounds, cause so many of the standards are floury. Ask in your local supermarker/veg. store and remember what they tell you.

BTW, if instead of "floury" you mean "mushy", then its most likely because you're over-cooking them. Medium-sized spuds should take about 15 mins from when they go into the water.

Cook books are so inspecific.