Potatoes, Potatoes, the Magical...Vegetable

November 28, 2020 7:25 PM

However it's spelled, it's a famously versatile ingredient - or even a dish on its own!

Waxy vs starchy/floury vs. in-between

A short list of potato-based dishes, in no particular order:
- Mashed (or as my southern family used to say, "maish taters")
- Fries (or Chips, if you're reading in metric)
- Poutine
- Chips (or Crisps)
- Hash browns
- Gnocchi
- Tots (tots are awesome)
- Salad (vinegar- or mayo-based)
- Baked (jacket)
- Scalloped / Gratin / Bechamel
- Pancakes / Latkes
- Soup
- Fritters
- Dumplings
- Kugel
- Croquette
- Knish
- Bread
- More here, and here, and here.

Share your own favorite recipe!

(Let us not speak of turnips/parsnips...unless we really want to)

posted by Greg_Ace (94 comments total)

My personal favorite recipes:

- In the bottom of the roast chicken pan: I use a V-shaped rack in a large pan to hold the chicken while it's roasting at ~425°F, and pour 1.5-2 C of water into the bottom to keep the dripping fat from smoking/burning when it hits the hot pan. While that's happening I cut 4-6 Yukon Gold potatoes into ~12 pieces each, season them with salt and pepper and whatever seasonings I'm feeling into at the moment (often some combination of garlic, oregano, thyme, paprika...whatever you like really) and toss them gently with a minimum amount of olive oil. When the chicken has half an hour or so left to cook - usually at around 130-135° internal temp - I lower the oven to 375° and distribute the potatoes evenly over the bottom of the pan - the water is pretty much gone by that point, leaving lovely shmaltz to cook the potatoes in. Remove the pan from the oven when the chicken is done (165° internal temp). If the potatoes aren't quite done (crunchy outside/soft and fluffy inside), remove the chicken to a serving platter and pop the potatoes back into the oven for a few more minutes while the bird rests. Additional option: Add roughly chopped carrots, celery, and onion along with the potatoes.

- Oven fries Achewood style (PDF, p.18-19 - Wonderfully crispy outside, fluffy inside!) Optional: add lime juice/zest, black pepper, and Parmesan

- Roasted with duck fat
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:29 PM on November 28, 2020 [6 favorites]

I made my own mashed potatoes for the very first time yesterday! They turned out nice for a first attempt. Buttermilk covereth a multitude of sins.
posted by notoriety public at 7:34 PM on November 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

Great post!

When the chicken has half an hour or so left to cook - usually at around 130-135° internal temp - I lower the oven to 375° and distribute the potatoes evenly over the bottom of the pan

This wouldn't get the potatoes to the doneness that I prefer, but I maybe like them more well-done than some people. I'll usually put the potatoes and chicken in the oven at the same time and then remove the potatoes in the event that they are done before the chicken is. That way they soak up the maximum chicken flavor, too -- the schmaltzy potatoes are my favorite part of the meal, much more so than the chicken itself.

On a lazy Saturday I'll sometimes make fried potatoes and eggs for lunch; it is easy, zero-effort cooking but for me is almost the ultimate comfort food and good preparation for an afternoon nap.
posted by Dip Flash at 7:59 PM on November 28, 2020 [4 favorites]

We've just started doing these potatoes this year, but it was driven by having too many potatoes. Take a bunch of little yukon's or reds, slice them on the mandolin at the 1/16th of an inch, toss with oil, salt, and garlic powder, then throw on a baking sheet. Put that in the a 450 oven for 10-15 minutes and your get these nice contrast where some get super crispy and cool y like, some that are more pulled on top get cranky, but it's quick and really delicious.
posted by Carillon at 8:19 PM on November 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

-Cook whole potatoes in their jackets in a pressure cooker on a trivet above water for about 20 minutes.
-Cool then cube the cooked potatoes.
-Dice and toss potatoes with salt and fat/oil of your choice.
-Preheat cast iron plate under broiler.
-When plate is good and hot, spread potatoes on it and broil for about 20 minutes.
posted by No Robots at 8:58 PM on November 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

It is almost Hanukkah, everybody please tell me how to make latkes because my mom’s recipe is too barebones for my inexperienced ass. It’s like, “grate some potatoes. Put some onions in there. Maybe some flour and salt. Fry until done” and then I am sad because my latkes are uncooked or soggy or fall apart or I burn myself. Also sour cream AND apple sauce, they should be friends, not enemies.
posted by Mizu at 8:59 PM on November 28, 2020 [6 favorites]

Mizu: Soak your shredded potatoes in cold water so they shed a bunch of starch. Then, dry them on a buttload of paper towels. That'll help a lot.
posted by SansPoint at 9:05 PM on November 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Waxy are best.

Boiled or as hash browns.
posted by aniola at 9:08 PM on November 28, 2020

I don't know if you ever get to really good latkes without bumbling your way there. I know I certainly haven't, but it's not for lack of trying. One of my life stretch goals is Best Latkes Made By Goy. I am not religious, but I appreciate food.
posted by notoriety public at 9:09 PM on November 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Shred potatoes. Squeeze out the excess potato water. Dry the water. Grind the result. Voila! Potato starch!
posted by aniola at 9:10 PM on November 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Commercial potatoes are watered down so they can charge you more for heavier (but not more nutritious) potatoes.

We grew our own potato patch last year, and never really watered after they were established. It was Portland so the sky watered occasionally. The potatoes we harvested were extremely hard and dense compared to commercial potatoes. And they were so good!
posted by aniola at 9:15 PM on November 28, 2020

Got a tiny garden space to work with? Tomatoes and potatoes are both nightshade family. Graft your tomatoes onto your potatoes for a ketchup-and-french fries plant! Provides less yield than two separate plants, but more yield than one ungrafted plant.
posted by aniola at 9:18 PM on November 28, 2020 [2 favorites]

The old original McD's fries recipe is on the intertubes

Crisco and beef tallow for the win.

Duckfat likely even better and easier to find!
posted by goinWhereTheClimateSuitsMyClothes at 9:40 PM on November 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

I have thoughts on this:

1. Yes, the nightshade family. Potato plants will fruit under the right conditions and they look a lot like tomatoes but they aren't. They are poisonous, however.

2. If you planted the seeds from the fruit, you would be growing a brand new variety of potato. That's right: brand new, never-before-seen.

3. Nothing is better than fried or deep fried potato with salt. Every other way of cooking potatoes is simply a version of this that comes nowhere near the perfection of fried potato and salt.

4. Except scalloped potatoes, which is really all about the cheese, not the potatoes.
posted by ashbury at 9:46 PM on November 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

This wouldn't get the potatoes to the doneness that I prefer

It depends on what temp you roast the chicken at. I roast at 425° for most of the cooking time (Thomas Keller style, but since I can only find 4-5lb birds I reduce the temp slightly). Using that method, if you put the potatoes in at the beginning they end up burnt. TL;DR: Adjust according to roasting style.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:59 PM on November 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

1. Agreed. I was talking about grafting. Thanks for clarifying that you shouldn't eat potato fruits!

2. I have true potato seeds as described above, if anyone in Santa Rosa Ca wants some.
posted by aniola at 10:02 PM on November 28, 2020

I've had great crops in trash cans in my driveway with seed potatoes. They aren't available at nurseries for very long though. Some years I remember too late.
posted by Windopaene at 10:12 PM on November 28, 2020

Mizu: This is the latke recipe that has never steered me wrong.
posted by dr_dank at 10:42 PM on November 28, 2020 [1 favorite]

Voila! Potato starch!

What are the best uses for potato starch?
posted by Greg_Ace at 11:32 PM on November 28, 2020

If you paint a potato starch slurry pretty thickly onto pinned out fabric, when it dries on the tensioned substrate it crackles into irregular blocks like a dry lakebed. Which you can then use as a resist for dye.

That’s probably not what you were asking, though.
posted by janell at 11:55 PM on November 28, 2020 [3 favorites]

I love my family. My youngest wanted "home-fries" since we were not going to Grandma's this year, so....
5:00 p.m. Watch the evening news while peeling russet potatoes and cutting them into quarter-inch or thinner slices. Pat as you go with paper towels (two large mixing bowls full, which was... ambitious).
5:30 p.m. Heat canola oil in the stainless steel pan. Sit. And wait. And watch the clock. And wait some more.

Skip ahead from testing oil with a potato slice, crossing fingers and adding a few handfuls, to the point where mutterings and cursings get attention from the mancave, where 7 Days to Die is in progress.
Stay. Out. Please.
Nope, this won't work. The first batch is being destroyed. It's sticking to the skillet. It won't brown without falling apart. Start rummaging around in the cabinet for another pan.
The cast iron skillets are tiny by design. I've got no time for something that heavy with a mess of hot grease and slippery tatters.
But... skillet #2 is nonstick and large. Backup skillet #3 is a little smaller.
Perfection! Why didn't I start with these? More mutterings and bangings ensue. Rinse, wipe, ready to go... need a different spatula (mutter mutter).

6:00-ish. Second pan, second burner (this was going to happen anyway). More canola oil. More waiting. Should I just transfer the first mess into the cold pan and... no. Wait, wait, waaaait....
Fast forward to....

7:30-ish. Three skillets, two burners, two spatulas, two splatter screens. A lot of russet potatoes, crisp and oily, with two red onions in thin strips added in the last 15 minutes. Paper towels and aluminum foil in the bottom of the serving bowl to sop up the grease. One batch is heartily consumed before the second is ready to come off the stovetop.

The fried fish was not fried. Somewhere in the two-plus hours something was zapped in the microwave to tide them over. But by golly! It was delicious. No leftovers were refrigerated.
I'm baking the rest of that ten-pound bag, though. And not all at once.
Happy Holidays!
posted by TrishaU at 12:00 AM on November 29, 2020 [3 favorites]

favourite potato recipes:Rösti, past’ e patane, patate arraganate and the recipe-less potatoes grated raw on fish filets, baked in the oven.
posted by progosk at 12:29 AM on November 29, 2020

I'm pro taters.
posted by Pyrogenesis at 1:13 AM on November 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

The Food Lab: How to Roast the Best Potatoes of Your Life

In early summer, when the new potatoes arrive, I always have at least one dinner that is just new potatoes and butter. Maybe a bit of finely chopped parsley or dill. A godly food.

Korean potato salad

Pommes Anna

Every variation of shepherds pie known to humanity

Tortilla Espagnol

Skipperlabskovs (the Danish version of scouse, with much more potato than any other ingredient)

I am known among my daughters' friends to make the best pan-fried potatoes. I slice them thinly, use butter or duck fat, season generously, and take my time.
posted by mumimor at 1:42 AM on November 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

I cannot keep silence: mashed potatoes with mashed roasted rutabaga (with butter and cream etc. obvs) is delicious. About 1:1. Beets are right out.
posted by away for regrooving at 2:15 AM on November 29, 2020 [3 favorites]

Happy Hannukah Eat Some Latkes For Me

Here's the best latke recipe (from the ppk of course). It's also vegan. The secret is starch and flour to hold the latkes together and not fall apart. We add in a half zucchini or whole zucchini depending on batch size. This takes it to a whole other level!
posted by starfishprime at 2:40 AM on November 29, 2020

Whichever way you want to cook potatoes, I'll eat them if you throw onions in.
posted by Miss Cellania at 3:07 AM on November 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

I'd like to remind everyone that the potato was domesticated by my ancestors in southern Peru and northern Bolivia, and that 99% of current varieties descend from a strain developed by some of my other ancestors in south-central Chile.
You're welcome.
posted by signal at 4:29 AM on November 29, 2020 [33 favorites]

Simple potato pancake recipe from Chiloé: Milcao. Really should be a side dish to Pulmay or Curanto (if you have access to a large hole in the ground).
posted by signal at 4:56 AM on November 29, 2020

I've had great crops in trash cans in my driveway with seed potatoes.
I've been growing potatoes for a couple of years, but I always have trouble digging them up. (Sometimes just finding them to dig up)
This year I listened to Hollis, and I don't think I'll go back to the old way. So much easier.

I also ran into the concept of Determinate and Indeterminate potatoes this year, which might help me figure out which ones to grow in the trash cans.
posted by MtDewd at 5:02 AM on November 29, 2020

They're red, they're white, they're brown. They get that way underground.
posted by bondcliff at 6:24 AM on November 29, 2020

The best and easiest french fries in the world from Smitten Kitchen. Gold potatoes and peanut oil are mandatory. Cut potatoes into batons, put them in a heavy pan (I use a cast iron Dutch oven). Cover completely with peanut oil. Cook on medium high heat until done, about 30 minutes. Remove fries and salt immediately. Always perfect. The hardest part is not fiddling with them. No cold water baths, no temperature checks, no blah blah. Try it, its so easy and delicious. And it doesn't use much oil, and you can reuse the oil.
posted by j810c at 7:19 AM on November 29, 2020 [6 favorites]

Got to go with tots over fries!
posted by cparkins at 7:52 AM on November 29, 2020

Serious Eats gives a great lesson on latkes. My advice - as the family latke fryer every year - is to squeeze as much water out as possible and let it collect in a bowl. When the fluid settles there will be a sediment of potato starch sticking to the bottom. Pour off the water and return the starch to the grated spuds. And don't fry at the highest heat - they can burn easily.
posted by zaelic at 8:32 AM on November 29, 2020 [5 favorites]

Just in case anybody somehow doesn't know how easy jacket potatoes are:

Wash your potatoes until all the earth is off them. If they're as big as your fist or bigger, cut them in half through their shortest equator; otherwise just run a shallow slit all the way around their longest equator so they won't explode. Sit them straight on the bars of the oven rack - no pan, no sheet, no fiddly foil wrapping - and bake them until they smell good and they squish when you poke them and their jackets are somewhere between leathery and crunchy (the cut surfaces of the big ones will form their own jackets as they cook).

If you're in a hurry you can pre-cook them a bit in the microwave while you wait for your oven to come up to temperature, then run the oven a bit hotter than usual to brown up the jackets more quickly.

If the jackets get all the way to crispy but the insides are still too firm, use a slightly lower oven temperature next time you cook that variety. That's really about the only thing that ever goes wrong with these that just putting them back in the oven for another 15 minutes won't fix. Potatoes are super forgiving.
posted by flabdablet at 8:48 AM on November 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

cparkins: "Got to go with tots over fries!"

Hardcore taters
posted by chavenet at 9:46 AM on November 29, 2020 [3 favorites]

For latkes, yes, grate potatoes with a medium grater, also some onion. Put them in a big strainer or colander, put a small plate on top, then something heavy to squeeze out the liquid into a dish under the colander. In the liquid, potato starch will accumulate, you'll drain off the liquid and use the starch, as well as @ 1/2 tsp. flour per potato, just mix, starch, flour, potato, onion, some salt and pepper.

Frying: In a heavy frying pan, ideally with slightly tall sides or use a spatter guard, heat 1/4 inch oil to shimmering, over medium-high heat. Really, oil shimmers when it gets hot.
make a test latke, drop it in, does it too brown too fast? Reduce heat, Does it not brown nicely? Increase heat. Stoves vary, this is a learned skill. Keep an eye on a clock and on the heat so you learn what works. You can cook @ 2 at a time, as you add latkes and replenish, they chill the pan, and you have to keep the pan and oil hot, not too hot, and watch them closely. I find I usually have to reduce the heat a bit.

You can grate and add sweet potato, carrots, squash, apple, other veg, and add to your potato pancake mix.
Some people add an egg; that's fine.
Got leftover matzo meal? Now is the time to use it up in place of flour.
Fat. Olive oil is not the best for frying, any neutral cooking oil should work. If you have schmalz, duck fat, peanut oil, etc., use it. I grew up in the Midwest and use corn oil. There are tons of recipes on the web, a video might help.

Last year, I arrived at my sister's on Hannukkah. We were raised Catholic, but I celebrate as many food holidays as possible, and expressed a desire for them. While I showered, my sister made latkes. That's some love, right there.
posted by theora55 at 9:52 AM on November 29, 2020 [3 favorites]

I love potatoes. Boiled new potatoes with butter & parsley, maybe some peas. Roasted, possibly doused with hot sauce. Mashed, with broth instead of milk because, dairy is nope, and people will try them and like them - just don't mention there's no milk. I make a non-dairy version of scalloped potatoes with chickpea flour & water instead of milk. A microwaved baked potato is so easy and satisfying when you just can't even. My family makes potato salad with lots of green olives and red onions, and it is fabulous.

Please make potatoes au gratin for me, sliced potatoes layered with thinly sliced onion and grated gruyere, topped with a nice layer of gruyere to get cripy and delicous on top, add milk to about 1/2 way up the casserole dish, bake. I cannot eat them, but they are so, so good.
posted by theora55 at 10:00 AM on November 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

Latkes - channeling your inner grandmother
(for Mizu)

Abbreviated from the SF Bay Guardian Dec 8 1993 pg 33 by Stephanie Rosenbaum

Apple sauce: Peel core & chop, add 1" water in pan, add raisins, nutmeg, cloves. Cook to rich brown aromatic sauce.
Also sour cream, and a green salad

8 to 10 baking potatoes
2 onions
2 eggs
¼ cup flour or matzo meal
salt & pepper
oil for frying (not EVOO)

wash spuds (don't peel) & onions
GRATE potatoes, not diced nor chopped nor blended, alternating with onion (keeps the grated potatoes from browning)
dump grated mix into colander over a bowl as you go; pat them each time - this gets excess liquid into the bowl
bowl has brownish liquid plus beige layer of pasty stuff; pour off the liquid, mix the starchy stuff back into the potato-onion mix
separate egg yolks & whites
mix yolks with the flour or meal into the pot/onion, adding salt and lots of pepper
beat the whites to peaks
fold whites into the mix

put paper towels on cookie sheets

heat oil in cast iron pan, until a shred of spud sputters & zings around

drop big dollop of mix into pan and flatten
when latke is an even, crispy, mahogany color remove from oil, put onto paper towels and blot, blot, blot

eat immediately, keep cooking more
"if you keep the latkes waiting they will sulk and get soft and greasy, losing that evanescent, lily-like freshness that is their chief charm"
posted by anadem at 10:07 AM on November 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

Re Quayle - I've always wondered if that was a genuine mistake by whoever (sorry, whomever) provided the flashcard, or a deliberate attempt to wrongfoot and embarrass the man. I could see it going either way. Not sure how I would have reacted in his shoes.
posted by BWA at 10:21 AM on November 29, 2020

This year I made the Thanksgiving mashed potatoes a new way which yielded terrific results and freed up precious stovetop space and gravy-making time. Put ~5 lbs of peeled potatoes, cut into ~1-2 inch chunks, into the slow cooker with a stick of butter, chopped up into thin slices and then distributed. Add a box of chicken broth, which is 32 ounces. Cook on high for four-ish hours or until soft when prodded with a fork. Drain and return to slow cooker vessel. Add another stick of room temperature butter, a block of softened cream cheese, and maybe a 1/4 to 1/3 cup of milk or cream or whatever, plus salt and other herbs/spices as you prefer. Mash with a potato masher and then hold in the slow cooker for as long as needed, within reason. The result will be just the right level of smoothness: not baby food mush but with enough body so it's clear real potatoes were used--and delicious.
posted by carmicha at 10:27 AM on November 29, 2020 [3 favorites]

This is a most joyous post full of things I shall enjoy all year round
posted by Kitchen Witch at 10:57 AM on November 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

⌘F hasselback
0_o
No love for the hasselback? In this festive season? That's a spud that likes to get its best gown on for the occasion!

Really appreciating the latkes tips. I love them with sour cream and chilli jam.

Also I offer to the thread my favourite ever sauce for potatoes - very simple and quick, white miso, anchovies, garlic and parsley. This is with riced mash but I prefer it with crushed new ones.
posted by tardigrade at 11:26 AM on November 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

j810c, that fry technique looks amazing. I've always been reluctant to do fries at home because the recipes have seemed too fussy. I don't usually shy away from fussy, but they all seemed like too much effort (and oil). That technique is so simple I'm going to have to give it a go.
posted by mollweide at 11:48 AM on November 29, 2020

Papas arrugadas with aji. Bunch of small unpeeled potatoes [slightly under]cooked in over-salted water, drained and allowed to dry in the hot pan. The residual salt dries on the skins and sucks moisture from beneath so they go wrinkly. Ali is a salsa made from chopped cilantro, tomatoes and green onion tops sopped in = vinegar, lemon juice and water. As a NW European, I find cilantro a challenge. But my eyes popped, in a good way, when I was served this simple simple dish by a Colombian on holiday in Tenerife ~1984.
posted by BobTheScientist at 11:58 AM on November 29, 2020 [4 favorites]

I use potato starch as a substitute for corn starch.
posted by aniola at 12:06 PM on November 29, 2020

Yes, latke season is almost upon us and I am so, so ready for it.

But every year when Chanukah rolls around, I decide to make gribenes potatoes.

And every year, someone always says mumblemumblemyocardialinfarction, and I chicken out.

But this year I'm definitely doing it.

Maybe.
posted by Mchelly at 12:12 PM on November 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Microwave them, whole or cut, until they're 1/2way to 2/3 done, THEN roast/grill/bake/boil etc. They come out just as good and faster and it's easier to add them to a meal. (Usu. I do them whole, most of the way, in the MW, then cut them in half, butter them, and finish them in the oven broiler.. oh I have cheddar and real bacon and sour cream. Tonight!)
posted by sexyrobot at 12:26 PM on November 29, 2020

And every year, someone always says mumblemumblemyocardialinfarction, and I chicken out.

Chicken? Ha! FWIW schmaltz has 1/3 the saturated fat as butter. Go for it.
posted by sexyrobot at 12:30 PM on November 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

But every year when Chanukah rolls around, I decide to make gribenes potatoes .

Those look amazing. Now I need to see if there is any way to buy chicken skin here.
posted by Dip Flash at 12:46 PM on November 29, 2020

I'm pro taters.

i liek potate
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 12:47 PM on November 29, 2020

Now I need to see if there is any way to buy chicken skin here.

In my grocery store it comes free when you buy a whole chicken, with the upside of having leftover chicken meat and bones to do something with! ;)
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:50 PM on November 29, 2020

Delicious trashy american potatoes, by time zone:
Eastern - Disco Fries, aka New Jersey Poutine. Steak fries / British chips topped with brown gravy and shredded low moisture mozzarella (aka pizza cheese). Unless you're not a yankee, in which case it's Waffle House hash browns; "scattered, smothered, chunked, and diced". (cooked on a flat-top griddle with onions, diced ham and diced tomatoes mixed in)

Central - scalloped / au gratin / dauphinoise (or as my niece says it, 'dolphinwise') potatoes, but with very thinly sliced ham between every second layer of spuds. For authenticity, I'm told you have to use the really cheap stuff, like 99c Buddig cold cut packets.

Mountain - the Mountain King. A giant baked / jacket potato, the size of a grapefruit or a small melon, topped/filled with an entire bowlful of chili con carne* and several spoonfuls of sour cream. *for bonus points, use buffalo or elk in the chili.

Pacific - Canoes. No? Maybe you call them JoJos? Okay fine, 'seasoned potato wedges'. Cut potatoes lengthwise with the skins on, in the manner of a delicatessen pickle spear or elongated orange section. Parboil and cool. Dip in a spiced thin egg batter, as for KFC fried chicken, or a tempura with paprika and black pepper in. Freeze overnight so the batter doesn't separate when they go in the frying basket. The thin batter shell provides a crispy spice, while sealing steam in, making the insides into fluffy hot snow.
posted by bartleby at 1:52 PM on November 29, 2020 [3 favorites]

I'm just realizing that I've never had a Hasselback potato, or the uh, 'spiral-cut' kind. Are they good?
posted by bartleby at 2:10 PM on November 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

Hasselback potatoes are delicious. My grandmother used to sprinkle caraway seeds on top of them, then put them in a baking tin under the chicken she roasted on a rotating spit in the oven.
posted by mumimor at 2:29 PM on November 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

A question: what is the word for left-over mash potatoes fried in a pan with a few eggs crack'd on top? We casually call it Frittata, which is technically incorrect?
posted by ovvl at 4:15 PM on November 29, 2020 [1 favorite]

From my side of southeast asia, the spice mix to your standard cubed or sliced fried potatoes would just be tumeric powder + salt (and red chilli powder if you'd like the heat and you just want plain potatoes). A favourite dish for me would be potatoes, sliced green/long beans, onions and anchovies.

Indonesian cuisine has bergedil/pekedel which is basically a type of croquette. I love these. The main difference, other than the minced meat ratio (which isn't as high, at least for stall/hawker food versions i find here in KL) is the use of egg as the final coating for those little patties, so you get crispy egg (which we covered before, a particular asian preference since we cook with very hot woks) and soft hash potatoes at the same time. Here's one recipe. If you ever find bakso (a type of noodle meatball soup) which I think is part of their national cuisine pantheon by now, you can also have these as add-ons.
posted by cendawanita at 5:09 PM on November 29, 2020 [3 favorites]

I've been making mashed potato with about the same volume of cauliflower (cooked), and the flavor is mainly provided by a wheel of Alouette soft cheese.

The other way we use potato in the house is to cook Japanese curry chicken. Potato/onion/chicken make a great trio.
posted by of strange foe at 7:14 PM on November 29, 2020

In Chinese cuisine they have stir-fried potatoes , and they are SO good. I can't verify that particular recipe, for some reason I haven't thought to try making them myself. I should change that, I have a ton of potatoes from my CSA.

Theoretically, if someone's bf made the mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving and overseasoned them by a lot (salt, garlic) , what would be a good way to use up leftovers and dilute them a bit?
posted by Sparky Buttons at 7:54 PM on November 29, 2020

I maintain that it is theoretically impossible to over-season anything with garlic. But for those with a less unflinching constitution, combining properly seasoned potatoes with additional unseasoned but similarly-cooked potatoes shouldn't result in an adversely-affected dish (other than, of course, a relative lack of garlic).
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:08 PM on November 29, 2020 [3 favorites]

I should add - I have a lot of these potatoes and only one person eating them, so I'm looking for something that's not more mashed potatoes.
posted by Sparky Buttons at 8:36 PM on November 29, 2020

Ah, I see. Um. Well, then...perhaps waffles (leaving out the garlic, if one absolutely must)?
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:41 PM on November 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

Make potato pancakes out of them, and dilute them by frying an egg on each one?
posted by Windopaene at 9:49 PM on November 29, 2020

I had a roommate once make something they only knew as 'brambory' from their grandmother. Take the kind of stuff you might put in a stir-fry or an omelet; onions, peppers, frozen veg, those last few bits of ham or what-am-I-supposed-to-do-with-just-two-leftover-wings and heat it in a pan. Then dump that in a bowl with a ratio of boiled and smooshed (your leftover mashed) potatoes. Add spices, and crack a few eggs and a splash of milk on top. Toss together with forks until well mixed, then bake in a shallow dish until the eggs are set.
You get a sort of quiche / fritatta thing that isn't particularly photogenic, but will fill you up and help get rid of leftovers and bits n' bobs.
posted by bartleby at 10:46 PM on November 29, 2020 [2 favorites]

Or Depression Spiral Shepherd's Pie? Empty a couple cans of beef stew into a baking dish, along with half a bag of frozen peas and carrots.
Have a Deep Existential Sigh about having to eat food every day. To what end?
Put the mashed potatoes in a ziploc bag, cut off one corner, and start out trying to make fancy rosettes but give up and just randomly goosh out a layer across the top, as if you were angry at a tube of toothpaste. What you're really angry at is yourself, you realize. Because you never even really try, do you?
Put that in the oven and stare at it through the little window. Lie on the floor doing some more sighing, until the peas are cooked and the stew is bubbling and the potatoes get brown on top.
End up eating it with forks straight out of the pan, because you tried to spatula some out but it fell on the counter; then you couldn't find a serving spoon so you tried a ladle, but all you did was ruin it, like you ruin everything. Have a little sob.
Hate yourself because you actually like it, which means you're a garbage person who eats garbage food in their pajamas and even this is more than you deserve.
posted by bartleby at 10:46 PM on November 29, 2020 [9 favorites]

Maybe you could use the mash as part of a stuffing for samosas? They freeze well.

Another favorite dish that I forgot above is Madhur Jaffrey’s sesame seed potatoes recipe
Sooo delicious.
posted by mumimor at 1:01 AM on November 30, 2020

Hate yourself because you actually like it, which means you're a garbage person who eats garbage food in their pajamas and even this is more than you deserve.

Again, I would prefer not to.

Signed: a man whose favourite childhood food, hands down, no contest, only ever had as a treat on special occasions, was Tom Piper Braised Steak and Vegetables, eaten cold, straight from the tin with a spoon.

Proclaim your appreciation for the fatty salty deliciousness of Unsound Factory Simulated Food Product with your head held high.
posted by flabdablet at 1:26 AM on November 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

My grandmother used to sprinkle caraway seeds on top of them

Caraway seeds make everything better.

what is the word for left-over mash potatoes fried in a pan with a few eggs crack'd on top?

Yesterday's leftover veg used to bulk up today's scrambled eggs was always called bubble and squeak at our house, though strictly speaking it was probably one of these similar dishes.
posted by flabdablet at 1:35 AM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Can't resist. Young flabdablet, this you?.
[It was a tin of Underwood brand Deviled Chicken (potted meat or catfood? you decide) and a waxed paper sleeve of saltine crackers for me.]
posted by bartleby at 2:02 AM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

[It was a tin of Underwood brand Deviled Chicken (potted meat or catfood? you decide) and a waxed paper sleeve of saltine crackers for me.]

Back in the 80's when I was working in a summer camp doing backpacking trips, that was what we called "lunch" one or two of the days. Although it was an upscale camp and they Town House crackers not saltines.
posted by mikelieman at 3:11 AM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Dinki-Di Meat & Vegies

mmm, potted meat food product

just feel that mechanical separation
posted by flabdablet at 3:31 AM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

spam, spam, spam, potato, spam, spam, spam & spam's not got much spam in it
posted by flabdablet at 3:39 AM on November 30, 2020

Boy scout chicken paté. But it's got dehydrated potato, so it's technically not a derail!

There's a thing from a novel where there's a sort of Dickensian ice skating party on a frozen lake. A vendor is selling baked potatoes thusly:
You give him a coin, he plucks a hot spud from the coals and jams a hole in it with his thumb. Switching hands, he re-packs the hole from a tub of salted butter and hands it over. You skate away, letting it warm your bemittened hands for a minute, to let the butter melt through. Once the bottom starts to look shiny, it's ready to start eating, taking big bites like an apple.
posted by bartleby at 4:27 AM on November 30, 2020

Making mashed potatoes from baked potatoes is my go to "I have way too much time today, let's fancy this up" potato dish. Confit a bulb or two of garlic whilst you're baking the spuds, and stir into the scooped out fluffy innards along with butter and a beaten egg. Pop into a dish and return to the oven. Eat the skins whilst impatiently waiting for the garlicky potato goodness to turn golden.
posted by Faff at 5:45 AM on November 30, 2020

If we're at the point in the thread where we start sharing recipes, this Ethiopian Potato and lentil stew is amazing (you can get Berbere spice on Amazon if you can't find it locally)
posted by Mchelly at 6:19 AM on November 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

Over the years I have gone from being a very picky eater with an extremely limited palate to someone who loves spicy food and will try and usually enjoy just about anything (unless it's pickled), but if I'm being honest potatoes are still my favourite vegetable.

I guess nobody has posted a link to Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart making mashed potatoes together? The magic ingredient is a shit-ton of various delicious fats!
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:58 AM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

These scalloped potatoes from Chrissy Teigen's mom are incredible. A winning potluck dish, for when that is again possible, or a wonderful source of tasty leftovers to fight your family over.
posted by Ella Fynoe at 7:49 AM on November 30, 2020

There’s a recipe in Joy of Cooking for jacket potatoes cooked in 40 pounds of pine resin in a kettle. I’ve never heard of it in reality, and I don’t know that the mills in Washington separate out resin. Anybody ever smelled this? How do you not glue your hands to the potato?
posted by clew at 9:46 AM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

We tried a recipe from I think the NY Times, where you bake potatoes completely packed in Kosher Salt...

They were inedibly salty. So, pine resin seems a bit, dodgy. Though I would trust Joy of Cooking more than the NYT.
posted by Windopaene at 2:05 PM on November 30, 2020

Apparently rosin potatoes were a Southern pine plantation thing.
posted by tavella at 2:29 PM on November 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

Reading that I see you can't eat them if you break open the skin while cooking them. Still think I'll give that a pass.
posted by Windopaene at 2:46 PM on November 30, 2020

Thank you tavella! She even explains how you don’t glue your hands to the potato (wrap it in paper).

That means you don’t eat the potato skin, so you’re getting less food from each potato after ninety minutes of fuel use at a minimum - those must be really delicious potatoes.
posted by clew at 3:20 PM on November 30, 2020

If we're at the point in the thread where we start sharing recipes

That was at comment 1, so you're good. ;)
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:51 PM on November 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

There was probably a lot of scrap wood around on a pine plantation, so the fuel usage was not an issue. Classic case of deprived people using the discards of the rich creatively to liven up their diet.
posted by tavella at 5:11 PM on November 30, 2020

I remember when Cracker Barrel used to do rosin-baked potatoes, and really sold them and the whole process in the menu. My family occasionally stopped there on long road trips so once I finally gave in and got one with my entree. It came wrapped in faux old-timey newspaper stuck to the rosiny skin and at first seemed really exciting. At least to this young teen potato fan hoping for revelatory new rosin-baked wonderfulness. I was disappointed because after all the menu hype it was left to the server to point out not to eat the skin, which I love in a good baked potato. I mean, the inside of that potato was really light and fluffy, but as clew pointed out you're not getting to eat the whole potato. I did try it, as I assume most people did, to see what that enticingly crisp rosin-baked skin was like. Reader, it was like potato skin fried in pine rosin. Do. Not. Eat. This was back in the early to mid 80s--no idea when they stopped. I wonder if why is because a health inspector noticed that everyone had to try eating those oh, so toxic yet seductivly crisp fake newsprint wrapped potato skins.
posted by indexy at 6:25 PM on November 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

We had the smoker going already on Thanksgiving for the turkey so we parcooked some potatoes in the pressure cooker for 5 minutes and then finished them off in a nice pecan smoke bath before mashing them. So smoky and good!
posted by Tuba Toothpaste at 10:47 PM on November 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

This thread has inspired to make Hasselback potatoes for the first time tonight!
posted by mollweide at 3:52 AM on December 1, 2020 [3 favorites]

j810c: The best and easiest french fries in the world...

Yes indeed, and I am so happy to have learned this simple trick. Just tried it for the first time and the fries are delicious. Thanks!

Notes: An anti-spatter cover came in handy, even though the enameled Dutch oven was only 3/5 full. Really no intervention required, just like j810c says. I just stood next to the stove for half an hour.
posted by kingless at 2:10 PM on December 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

The Hasselbacks came out well, but I can do better. They were taking a long time to cook, so I had to finish them in the microwave. Next time, I'll roast them on a tray, not in a dish, rinse them after cutting, and make sure I spread them more when I brush on more butter/oil half-way through. I think all of that will cut down the cooking time to what I see most recipes calling for.

My birthday is two weeks, and that will be the time to tackle j810c's fries.
posted by mollweide at 6:12 PM on December 1, 2020 [1 favorite]

Keep up-to-date about potatoes with Potato Pro
posted by davebarnes at 12:52 PM on December 2, 2020

Potato Pro

Worst superhero ever.
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:11 PM on December 2, 2020

For those struggling with latkes, Mark Bittman has a grandmother inspired mega-latke recipe simply named nik. I've made it a few times and it is very forgiving.

Salt potatoes are great on their own. They are also a crazy easy way to start mashed potatoes. Basically follow the recipe and mash them up because they are so tender. Quick, too.

One can mash typical baker toppings (butter, sour cream, bacon, cheese, chives) into mashed pots, of course. If you are having them with prime rib, a healthy dollop of horseradish sauce mixed in really makes them shine. (Obvs, you can do this without prime rib, but I "figured it out" when I had prime rib one day.)

Finally....

Re Quayle - I've always wondered if that was a genuine mistake by whoever (sorry, whomever) provided the flashcard, or a deliberate attempt to wrongfoot and embarrass the man. I could see it going either way. Not sure how I would have reacted in his shoes.



Adding an -es instead of just an -s to potato seems odd, so I could see it as an easy mishap.

Semi-related: I worked at a seafood restaurant for many, many years. I was average to above average in knowing pretty much all the fish that came through our kitchen, their flavor profile and some of the history of the fish (chilean sea bass used to be a trash fish, as an example).

Every six months, our menu was updated. One year, the proof copy was so wrong, it had our address wrong on the front page of the menu. I went over it (amateur proofreader from back in the day) and a former pro proofreader went through it. The number of mistakes were astounding.

No second proof came through. They just shipped us the menus. For any salad or anywhere else an add-on made sense, it said, "add grilled chicken - $3, add grilled shirmp -4".



I saw "shirmp" so many times for so many days for a full 6 months, I still need to stop and think about the correct spelling each time I see it, over a decade later.
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 7:47 PM on December 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

shirmp

Wasn't he the guy who replaced Curly?
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:26 PM on December 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

No, that was Shremp.
posted by flabdablet at 2:41 AM on December 4, 2020 [2 favorites]