Gratin dauphinois

I’ve been eating potatoes with eggs most mornings lately. This week, I have been shredding up an organic potato (usually yellow, but I have red skinned potatoes right now), squeezing the shreds with a paper towel and browning it like a pancake in a cast iron skillet with some olive oil.

I also love sweet potatoes. I either microwave it and eat like a baked potato with coconut oil, or it cut it into cubes and bake around 400 degrees in a cast iron skillet with coconut oil and a bit of honey and saigon cinnamon.

I keep any small amount of leftover potato on the rare occasion we have them with dinner and find a way to incorporate them (along with the leftover veggies) into my breakfast.

Oh, I can’t choose one.

Boil little red potatoes. Serve with parsley and butter. It’s really that easy, but here’s a NY Times recipe

I don’t eat much deep-fried food, so my alternative to french fries is potatoes sauteed in olive oil with pepper like this.

I nuke them for a few minutes then run them through a mandolin to make thin slices.
A splash of olive oil in the frying pan, some Zatarain’s Creole spice and some rosemary and then I cook and turn and flip until they are brown. I figure a meal’s worth is 350 grams.

I prefer to use large Idaho potatoes in my potato cannon. The animals like them served that way, too.

@Cupcake Is there some trick I don’t know to shredding potatoes? It always seems like a time-consuming pain to me. But I love hashbrowns so I’d love it if you could rock my potato skills.

Me being British, i’m going to let you work it out yourself :)

@fundevogel I only use 1 potato per pancake (so either 1 or 2 depending on whether hubby is eating too)... so it doesn’t take long at all with my box grater. The potatoes are only about 3“x2–½”. Maybe you use bigger potatoes and it takes longer??

I don’t peel them first.

In a Kartoffelsalat.

Basil Cream Potatoes

I like to take fresh new red potatoes and slice them and boil them just until firm. Then I put butter in a frying pan, add some heavy cream, and some fresh basil (a handful of washed basil leaves), salt and pepper. Cook until slightly thickened.

@fundevogel Is there some trick I don’t know to shredding potatoes

Cuisinart. Takes about ½ second per potato.

While I do love french fries, steak cut with garlic and mashed potatoes, I too prefer baked.
My methodology ( @Kardamom bake 4–6 at a time and then reheat in microwave )

Scrub and dry your big, fat, wonderful taters.
Massage with olive oil, sprinkle with coarsely ground sea salt and white pepper.
Stab a few times to release steam and bake, uncovered naked, on cookie sheet for about an hour @375–400 depending on size.
For the ultimate potato experience then spread with a little butter, more S&P and drizzle with ranch dressing. OMG…to die for.

Double fried on the street in Bruges, Belgium.

I really like the baked potatoes served at the Follow Your Heart cafe:

Chili Potato
Chili on a Baked Potato with Melted Cheese,
Sour Cream and Chives

Broccoli & Cheese Potato
Freshly Steamed Broccoli, Butter,
Melted Cheese and Tomato

Mexican Potato
Avocado, Salsa, Olives, Melted Cheese,
Butter and Sour Cream

Southwest Sweet Potato
Organic Baked Sweet Potato Topped with Spicy Chipotle
Cashew Crème, Organic Black Beans, Cheese and Avocado

Raw!

I just learned of Hasselback potatoes a few years ago and it changed my life. Delicious and perfect food for a poor dude that can’t cook.

Scalloped potatoes.

@Cupcake I think I must have the wrong grater for the job.

@jaytkay My for hate cleaning my food processor dwarfs my ambivalence towards vegetable dismemberment.

Potato salad.

@fundevogel LOL…I know, I am not a big gadget type. I bought this amazing juicer a few years ago, went for a drive to a local apple farm, came home, juiced about 30 apples and never used it again. Sold it at a yard sake for dirt cheap. haha
Went the same way as my eliptical that became a glorified bra hanger at the foot of my bed. haha

Twice baked. I bake the potatoes in the oven, then cut the top half (lengthwise) off of each potato and scoop out the insides. I then mix the potato with butter, shredded cheddar, cream cheese, salt and pepper and add the mixture back into the bottom halves of the potato skins and bake in the oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

Sometimes I get crazy and add bacon.

What? No mashers?
I like hand mashed with the lumps, but the fasted and easiest way to make perfect mashed potatoes is with a ricer. Boil the potatoes with garlic, rice them, stir in liberal amounts of butter, then cream to consistency and salt/pepper to taste.
I prefer not to add air by using a hand mixer, and cheese is tricky. You have to know when to stop blending it in, or the taters will be sticky/stringy.
Please try this recipe for Blue Cheese Mashed Potatoes and report back.

If I want a baked potato I microwave it for ten minutes and then finish it up in the toaster oven on bake.

I love tator tots! That might be my favorite. I also really like scalloped potatoes and baked potatoes. When I’m in the mood I’ll eat some French fries, but not too many.

POTATO CHIPS!

What…no milk in your mashers @ibstubro Pffft, gotta make ‘em extra creamy. :-)

I’m in the ‘is there a bad way to eat potatoes?’ camp. I like them all ways. I’m also a pom so I particularly like chips but these days, I don’t eat potato very often. It’s become a treat rather than a staple part of my diet.

@Earthbound_Misfit What is a pom?

A Brit who lives in Australia. I’ve lived here longer than I was there, but I’ll always be a pom. There is a lack of agreement on what ‘pom’ actually means. Some say ‘Prisoner of his majesty’ because when whitefellas were originally transported here, they were convicts. Some think it relates to the redness those of Anglo-Saxon descent tend to exhibit after they’ve been in the sun for a while. I have no idea where the term originates, but if you’re from Britain, you’re affectionately known as a pom.

THESE are so yummy! http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2008/06/crash-hot-potatoes/

@Earthbound_Misfit When I heard that expression in New Zealand it was usually ‘A whinging Pom’ and I always thought a ‘Pom’ was short for ‘pompous’ because the first generation imports from England just didn’t have the same attitude or spirit of the Kiwis who hadn’t been there for generations. Number 8 wire and all that.

@Earthbound_Misfit Interesting, I learned something new, thanks!

OK everybody, I’m getting a potato woody : P

No @cazzie The historic explanations set out here, and confirmed here are as I described. The National Museum of Australia agrees with my explanation too. I can’t find any references to the term Pom relating to pomposity. It also doesn’t have anything to do with the notion of whinging poms. I don’t think Australians dislike Poms any more than they dislike Kiwis. They enjoy ribbing both groups equally. These days because there are so many Kiwis living here who haven’t taken out citizenship but want to be eligible for government benefits, I hear more complaints about Kiwis than I do about Poms.

Very welcome @Coloma.

@Earthbound_Misfit you misinterpreted. I was filling in my own explanation for what I thought people were saying. When I was in New Zealand, we never worried about the Kiwis who left. It really was a win-win. It increased the average IQs of both countries.

My newest favorite way is microwaved potato chips! Mix thinly sliced potatoes with a bit of olive oil and salt, nuke for 5 or 6 min. on each side, voila !!—potato chips as tasty as packaged ones. And healthier.

Tator tots, french fries and baked.

Mostly by way of mastication. Throw in a good bio-chemically balanced bile and you’ve got a recipe for healthy digestion.

But to not be a smartass: Bacon wrapped tater tot bombs. Glory.

Cream, if it’s available, @Coloma. Milk will do in mashed potatoes, but I’d use the highest fat content first.

We had ‘poor boy’ potatoes most often when I was a kid…boiled diced potatoes that you mashed with your fork on your plate, then added butter and seasonings.

I love potatoes in any form. I particularly love chips (fries) and baked potatoes but you can’t beat a good roastie either!

@Coloma You are speaking my language. I’d give up my food processor, but it’s indispensible for making pesto and I cannot live in a world without homemade pesto.

This probably shouldn’t count as a potato recipe, but I adore it and make it all the time.  Although the potatoes are essentially invisible in he recipe they are the linch pin that make the whole thing possible. Cole slaw, without my old enemy mayonnaise.

Yugoslavian Cole Slaw

2 to 3 small russet potatos, peeled & cubed
4 garlic cloves
2 tsp salt
5 tbsp white wine vinegar
⅔ cup olive oil
1 good-sized green cabbage, trimmed & shredded
fresh ground black pepper

Cook the potato in boilng salted water until tender, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, mash the garlic and salt with a mortar and pestle until a paste is formed.  Beat in the vinegar and oil.
Place the cabbage in a large bowl.
Drain the potato and immediately mash the hot potato into the cabbage.  The cabbage will wilt slightly.  Add the dressing, toss well and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Chill four hours.

@fundevogel OMG! I have to try that! cabbage and potatos, two of my favorite things in the world!
I make a killer baked cabbage with olive oil, coarse ground sea salt, white pepper and thin sliced onions. I often eat a bowl of baked cabbage with a baked potato on the side.

@Coloma I love it. It’s super vinegary and garlicy. I’m going to have to try your cabbage bake as well. I love roasting vegetables, but for some reason I’ve never done cabbage.

@fundevogel Super easy, just cut up your cabbage in big wedges, put in baking dish, layer thin sliced onions on top, drizzle with olive oil, S&P and sprinkle on some italian seasons.
Tent in tinfoil and bake @ about 350 for 50–60 minutes. It is done when the onions are slightly burned and the cabbage is tender. Put a baked potato on the side in a big bowl and eat together. Sublime. :-)

Another killer cole slaw, make your slaw to your liking and add a can of halved cashews.

Perfect. I am adding cabbage to my grocery list.

Hmmmm…Bubble & Squeak

@Pachy I discovered those microwave potato chips on Pinterest about a year ago. Never thought it would work, but I gave it a try and dang if it didn’t work! They’re so good! I’ve made sweet potato chips that way too.

I made the best tater salad yesterday. Used white potatoes, dill, celery, celery seed, onions and some zippy mustard relish. Had it with chicken salad sandwiches and BBQ beans for dinner. Yummy!

It really works, doesn’t it, @Kardamom? Yesterday was the first time I ever bought a whole bag of white potatoes just so I could do it whenever I liked. I’ll definitely try sweet potatoes next time.

Here’s another…Warm Dijon Potato Salad. The combination of ingredients creates a tasty dish.

If anyone is interested in making microwave potato chips, here is a Recipe. This works for sweet potatoes too.

Here’s some helpful hints: make sure to cut your potato slices on a mandoline, rather than with a knife, to ensure that you get uniform thickness. You need to have your chips be of uniform thickness, otherwise they will not cook at the same rate and some of them will burn, while some of them will not be cooked enough. I found that out the hard way. Use a mandoline slicer. You can get a decent one for about $12 at Target.

Use the largest ceramic microwave-safe plate that you have, that will fit in your microwave. I used our holiday meat platter. You want to be able to make as many chips in one go as you can, otherwise you’ll be making a lot of small plates of chips with only 10 or so on a plate. 20 at a time is better.

Place your chips on the plate so that they do not touch or overlap, otherwise they won’t cook evenly.

You will have to experiment with the cooking times. You want to cook them on one side first, right before the second they start to turn brown. If you wait until they start to turn brown, you’ve already burnt them and will have to throw them out and start over. That’s why you will have to experiment first, and maybe waste a tater or 2. Once you get your timing down, write those numbers down.

I’ve made thicker potato chips (about 1/8 inch thick) and thinner chips that were almost paper thin. They’re both wonderful, but the timing will be slightly different. With the thicker chips (and if you make them thicker than mine you’ll have to cook them longer) I did 2 and ½ minutes on one side, then flipped them and cooked them about 30 seconds more. Note: when you take them out, after cooking them on the second side, they’ll still be wiggly and pliable, but once they’ve set and cooled for about one minute, that is when they will get crispy. The first time I made them, since they were still pliable and wiggly when they came out of the microwave, I thought that the process hadn’t worked. I walked away in disgust, but when I came back a minute later, I was going to throw out the batch when I picked one up and realized that it had crisped up. Success!

You only need a wee bit of olive oil. Just put a little bit, like a quarter of a teaspoon into a ziplock bag with your potato slices and then rub it around in the bag until it coats all sides of your potatoes. You don’t need salt, but if you like salt, just add a tiny bit of sea salt or Kosher salt, just a teeny tiny pinch with your fingers. Rub it around inside the bag to coat all of your potatoes.

After they’ve cooled on the plate for a minute, transfer them to a paper towel. They shouldn’t really be greasy at all, because you’re using such a small amount of oil. Putting them on the paper towel just keeps them from getting soggy and sticking to the plate. After that, you can put them in a clean ziplock bag (not the one that you oiled and salted them in) to store for a few day. They probably won’t make it a few days because people will eat them all right away, they’re so good.

And if you’re feeling really ambitious, you can make some homemade Onion Dip.

(I think we need the baked cabbage recipe, @Coloma.)

@ibstubro Easy. Cut your cabbage into wedges in large baking dish, layer with thinly sliced onions, drizzle with olive oil & sprinkle with S&P and a little italian seasoning.
Bake covered in tin foil at 350–375 for about 45 minutes until cabbage is tender and onions slightly burned. haha Mmm good!