How to cook potatoes: features, methods and recommendations

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Ah, potatoes, overeating, pioneers ideal…. Remember the lines from the Soviet song? As a child, it was hard to imagine something tastier than potatoes baked in a fire, especially in nature. Today we have become bored with life, No one travels with the whole organization to plant and dig root crops, and the children do not know the traditional snack after harvest, when a whole bucket of potatoes was baked, for everyone.

But in the kitchen today we cannot imagine first and second courses without it. Do you know how to cook potatoes correctly so that they retain their nutritional properties? Even this simple matter has its subtleties and secrets.

How to choose root crops

It's no secret for experienced housewives that one potato quickly boils soft and turns into the most delicate mashed potatoes. The other - even after a long cooking becomes soft, but retains the shape of the bar that was given to it. It depends on two factors:

• varieties;
• potato growing conditions (soil, watering).

Therefore, beforeto think about how to cook potatoes, you need to choose the right variety. For mashed potatoes, varieties with a high starch content are best suited. This is Sineglazka, Blueness or Lorch. They are cooked in 20 minutes, after which the peel begins to burst.

If you are thinking about how to cook potatoes for salad, then you need varieties with a starch content of no more than 15%. These include: Leader, Red Scarlet or Nevsky. To cook tubers evenly, you need to choose fruits of the same size.

Preparing for cooking

Do not forget that extra potatoes, peeled and chopped, are of little use. Therefore, you need to immediately estimate how much you need to prepare a particular dish. Next, we decide how to cook potatoes. If the root crop is needed as a whole, then you need to cook it in uniforms. To do this, it needs to be washed, cleaned of dirt.

For mashed potatoes and soup, you must first peel the potatoes. After that, you will wash it anyway, so you can not pay attention to it. You can use a vegetable peeler to save your time.

Potatoes are ordinary and delicious

Surely you have noticed that one housewife's puree turns out to be very tasty, and the other is very mediocre. It depends on many factors, including how to cook potatoes in a saucepan. It would seem that this can be complicated. Pour into the pan and take out after 20-30 minutes. Already at this stage, you need to follow a few rules:

• you need to s alt even before you put the pan onfire;
• two teaspoons of s alt are required for every kilo of potatoes;
• be sure to fill the roots completely with water and close the lid;
• you can boil whole vegetables or cut them into pieces;
• after boiling, you need to wait about 20 minutes.

To check, pierce one potato with a thin knife. If the blade enters easily and softly, then you can safely pour in water. This is almost all the basic knowledge on how to boil potatoes in a saucepan. But there are a few more options that are also important to know.

How to cook in the microwave

Sometimes time is sorely lacking, and several pots are already boiling on the stove. Especially this situation often develops during the holidays. There are other kitchen helpers, such as a microwave oven. How to cook potatoes in the microwave? This requires taking a form suitable for this purpose. If you do not have it, then take a regular package.

Further instructions:

• Wash, clean and cut vegetables into pieces.
• Put vegetables in a bag, add spices and oil. If you want a special taste, then put a few pieces of bacon.
• Tie up the bag and stir.
• Don't forget to poke a few holes to let air out of the bag.
• Turn on for 8-10 minutes at maximum power.

Now you can carefully open the bag and shake out the vegetables on a dish and decorate with herbs. It makes a great side dish.

Modern Assistant

It will be about how to adapt the slow cooker in order to prepare the tubers. It is very comfortable. You can just install the program and go about your business. When you return, you will open the lid and find the potatoes cooked and hot. How and how much to cook potatoes in a slow cooker? Usually 40 minutes on the "soup" mode is enough. If the bowl is filled to the brim, an additional 10-15 minutes of extra time may be required.

To improve the taste of cooked vegetables, you can immediately add spices, butter. Then the potato will become not just a component for cooking this or that dish, but an independent side dish.

Cooking time

This is the most important question. In fact, the quality of the final product depends on this indicator. There are two recommendations here. First, divide the cooking time into before boiling and after that. As soon as the water begins to boil, you can reduce the fire and note the time. This will be the most accurate count. As already mentioned, there are varietal features of tubers. Therefore, focus on the cooking time for 15 minutes, after which start checking with a knife for doneness.

Salad potatoes

Above, we looked at how peeled root crops can be prepared. But often we need to get a whole vegetable out so that we can chop it in a certain way and prepare an appetizer or salad. For this, it is important to know how to cook potatoes in their skins.

Washed tubers should be put in a saucepan, pour water and put on fire. Sprinkle s alt immediatelythis will prevent cracking of the skin. After boiling the water, you can record the time:

• To cook in a saucepan - 20 minutes.
• For cooking in a slow cooker - 30 minutes.
• In the microwave, 10 minutes is enough.

After the time is up, you can pour water over the vegetables to speed up the cooling. After that, you can peel the vegetable and cut it as required by the recipe. It is approximately clear how much to cook potatoes for Olivier. Why can't you cook peeled vegetables for salad? In fact, it is possible, there is nothing complicated about it. Then why don't housewives use this method?

Benefits for the body

This cooking method not only saves time. It allows you to save a maximum of vitamins and nutrients that are contained in this unique root crop. Since it is not difficult to boil potatoes in their skins, you can entrust this task to children or your husband. By the time you get home, everything will be ready. It remains to cut the herring bought in passing, and dinner is almost on the table.

The advantage of this cooking method is also the speed. Only 15-20 minutes, and you can just shake out the tubers to cool. If they are cooked in a puree form, then you need to grind them right away, otherwise the quality of the final dish will be much worse.

Cooking soup

How does the young housewife course start? Of course, from the preparation of the first course. Light, hearty soup - just what you needeveryday. And what is its basis? No, not cereals and meat. These are rather additional ingredients that make it tastier and more nutritious. But no soup is complete without potatoes.

To make the broth tasty, you need to know a few rules. Let's talk about how to cook soup with potatoes. First of all, you need to prepare the broth. It will be vegetable or meat - it depends only on your preferences. After that, s alt it, and you can lay vegetables.

For first courses, root crops are cut into small cubes. Some housewives prefer to grind them in the form of sticks. This does not change the taste. The cooking time in this case practically does not depend on the variety and is 15 minutes. But if you like the vegetable to practically dissolve in the broth, then choose varieties with a high starch content. Some housewives separately catch the potatoes and grind them into a puree, after which they dip them into the soup again. Of course, it is better to do this not with all the potatoes, but only with a few things.

If you plan to cook puree soup, then you should not take any measures to keep the chopped vegetables intact. In this case, you can simply cook longer, and then grind with a blender. Potatoes and mushrooms often become the main components of such a dish.

Mashed potatoes

Basically, you don't have to do anything special. With any cooking method, it is enough to increase the cooking time by only 10 minutes. In this case, vegetables are obtainedcrumbly and easily turns into a tender mass. There is one subtlety - to get a delicious mashed potatoes, it is best to take not young potatoes, but mature ones. It will take about 30 minutes to prepare, but the result will definitely not disappoint. During this period, the potatoes will boil, it will be much easier to mash them.

Instead of a conclusion

From potatoes you can cook a huge number of dishes. Soups, side dishes, mashed potatoes, salads, pies - almost no dish is complete without this root vegetable. It is even added to cakes and cookies. Today we talked about different methods of heat treatment. It will be useful for every young housewife to know.