Cooking Tips - Potatoes and a Recipe

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Baked or boiled -To bake or to boil? Take the starch test.In a small pitcher, mix 2 3/4 cups water with 1/4 cup table salt. Drop potato in. If it sinks: You have a floury, starchy potato. Best for mashing, baking and fries because it is fluffy and light. If it floats: You have a waxy, firm, low-starch potato. Best for soups and stews, potato salads and scalloped potatoes because it will hold its shape.

Freeze! (your mashed potatoes).

Instead of trying to freeze a large container of leftover mashed potatoes, scoop into 1-cup mounds and place onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Once frozen, transfer scoops from sheet to a sealable bag. Now you have a bunch of small servings all in one bag! Reheat over double boiler or in microwave.

Storing potatoes improperly can lead to rotten or sprouted potatoes that are not edible. Be sure to take the potatoes out of any plastic bags they have come in. Then put them in a cool, dry place, I put them in to storage cupboards downstairs. For added measure, put an apple in with the taters. I'm not sure what magical powers apples have, but I have heard this over and over and it does help!

I read somewhere to store them in a canvas bag, tried this and it worked!!

RECIPE

Reserve the peels from baked, raw, or boiled potatoes and cut them into 3 by 1 inch strips. Arrange the strips in one layer in a buttered baking dish, dot them with unsalted butter, using 1 tablespoon for each cup of peels, and sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Bake the peels in a preheated very hot oven (450 degrees) for 5 to 25 minutes, according to the type of peel, or until they are very crisp. (Baked peels cook in 5 to 7 minutes, raw peels cook in 15 to 20 minutes, and boiled peels cook in 20 to 25 minutes.)