Do you trust potatoes?

[Randomguy]

All weird and lumpy and bizarre, I am not sure what I think about potatoes.

Discus.

[Kirby]

My grandmother was from Ireland, it's part of our family DNA. 

[Further]

12 minutes ago, Kirby said:

My grandmother was from Ireland, it's part of our family DNA. 

All 4 of my grandparents were from Ireland. Potatoes were a staple

[Road Runner]

I would never loan money to a potato.  They are fun to hang out with, but they almost never pay you back.  

[Ralphie ★]

Potatoe points are pretty good I hear.  

[Page Turner]

...potatoes are grate. I fried one up this morning for breakfast with half a linguisa and two eggs.

[Longjohn ★]

I’ve carried sweet potatoes in my jersey for fuel on long rides.

[MickinMD ★]

6 hours ago, Kirby said:

My grandmother was from Ireland, it's part of our family DNA. 

Me too.  I always have a bag of baby gold potatoes handy.

[MickinMD ★]

I learned a trick about potatoes (and later learned the same trick is done in Asian cooking with rice) when I was a teenager and got a job working at a fast food restaurant in the 1960's - back when french fries were made from automatic-peeling and manual chopping of potatoes in the restaurants - not from the semi-tasteless frozen fries McD's, etc. use today.

Fried potatoes taste and texture are strongly improved by removing a lot of the starch in the potatoes.

This is done by simply covering the cut potatoes with water and "washing" them: running your hands through them for 30-60 seconds, draining the water and repeating.  The first time you'll see the water becomes very cloudy due to the starch, the second time it will stay much more clear.

The result is a slice of potato that is crisp on the outside but pleasingly soft on the inside, without the starchy taste.

Even If I simply cut up baby potatoes into wedges with no peeling, toss them with a little olive oil, and bake them for 20 min. at 425F, they are MUCH better if the wedges are washed first (then wiping with a paper towel to remove excess water) to remove some starch.

Note that many online recipes for fried rice call for running water over the rice for 7 minutes before cooking/frying it to remove starch.

[BuffJim]

I boiled one with my ham steak and asparagus last night. With a little butter and French Onion dip, it was yummy. BuffCarla enjoyed it, too. 

[Mr. Silly]

11 hours ago, Randomguy said:

All weird and lumpy and bizarre, I am not sure what I think about potatoes.

Discus.

Yukon Golds aren't lumpy and they're delicious.

[Randomguy]

I am almost all Irish, but I am not into potatoes.  

I did the slice, olive oil, s&p and bake thing last night.  Other than that, I liked mashed with gravy and am ‘meh’ on them in all other situations. 

[bikeman564™]

I like good mashed taters

[jsharr ★]

 

[jsharr ★]

6 minutes ago, bikeman564™ said:

I like good mashed taters

[Page Turner]

2 hours ago, Randomguy said:

I am almost all Irish, but I am not into potatoes.  

I did the slice, olive oil, s&p and bake thing last night.  Other than that, I liked mashed with gravy and am ‘meh’ on them in all other situations. 

...there is a vast and bewildering array of potato varieties at my local market right now.  On Sunday I bought some purple Peruvians, and some small fingerlings (might be a French variety).  For a while, I could buy original Burbank Russets, which bake up better than the current Russet potato varieties you buy in the store...I don't know why. Lately there's something called "Orange", which cooks up to an especially creamy  result, and I'll probably buy some of those this Sunday.

 

Potatoes are filled with nutrients, and it's possible to get by on little else for quite a while if you have to.  I can't say enough good things about potatoes.

 

Maybe you need to grow them in a garden for a year or two to appreciate how remarkable they are as a crop plant.  Root tubers that never see the light of day until you dig them up for harvest are kind of an interesting way to get food.