Potatoes - what's up?

A

Audrey

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For a year or more now we (hubby and I) have been unable to get really nice potatoes. Anybody any suggestions? We've tried all the shopping centres, and all the 'normal' types of potato. They either break up during boiling (mush), or there are hard centres left in some while others are well cooked, or they won't mash properly. All we want is a potato that doesn't mush when it's boiled, and makes a nice (lumpless) mash if so required. Help?
 
[broken link removed] might be of interest to you. Choose the potato type to match the cooking method.
 
For some years now I have been steaming potatoes instead of boiling them in water. It works much better and certainly no mushy bits. Especially great with "floury" new potatoes - my favourite!
 
blackditch said:
For some years now I have been steaming potatoes instead of boiling them in water. It works much better and certainly no mushy bits. Especially great with "floury" new potatoes - my favourite!
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Good idea - how long do you let them steam for approx? We steam everything else (broccoli, carrots, leeks, etc etc) but never thought of potatoes.
 
I generally find Roosters are the only OK potatoes around and I'm sick and tired of finding green potatoes in the bag - yach!

Slightly off topic but if you are into steaming then this is great (BTW I'm sick and tired of that useless site which will not produce the goods as compared to the UK one). The steamer will do rice to perfection. You can do a full dinner in it like salmon, potatoes and broccoli. Because of the timer you can go off and leave it to work away on its own preferably under the extractor as it does create a lot of steam. Its definitely the healthy option tho.
 
About 20 mins. Depends on the size, I suppose. Then toss them from steamer section into bottom part, having 1st thrown out the water, knob of butter, salt, even chopped onion, scallion, maybe a few herbs....and mash away!
 
A pressurised cooking pot might be the answer. Since the pressure is applied evenly to the entire content and very little water is needed (1/4 mug-1/2 cup full) a very fast cooking time is achieved as well. Around 8 minutes for the spuds with my cooker from Lidl.
 
Or the old fashioned way- bring spuds to the boil in an ordinary saucepan ( one you don't care too much about as it will blacken, remove excess water, turn down heat, put a bit of newspaper between saucepan and lid and it will steam and become nice and fluffy in about 30 to 40 mins, depending on size.
 
Vanilla said:
Or the old fashioned way- bring spuds to the boil in an ordinary saucepan ( one you don't care too much about as it will blacken,
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Rubbing a lemon inside the pot when cleaning it should remove the blackening.
 

My potatoes take 3 minutes in the pressure cooker - cut into quarters. I never cook them any other way as this is so fast.
 
BBC radio 4 had a whole 30 min programme devoted to the humble spud today Friday 6th January at 15:00 called [broken link removed]. In addition they mentioned two reference books Potatoe and The Potatoe. Ill add links if i can find them.

My favourite is the Kerr Pink and I detest the recent trend started by tescos of selling so called White Potatoes.

aj
 
[broken link removed] is the name of the programme. Ill listen to it again to get the correct references to the books. Thats the great thing about radio - you dont have to be able to spell!

aj
 
Do you people check the origin of the potatoes before buying them or control they are the traditional type potatoes and not those genetically modified?
 
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