Potatoes Can Be Fun

Potatoes are another really fun staple food to play with.  The part of the potato we usually use is the tuber of the plant, where all of the stored energy is kept. The better the growing season the bigger the potatoes become. The potato itself has come a long way; when originally planted for food they barely the size of thumbs, but now they can get to the size of a fist, and there are a number of different varieties. We are also past the stage where a potato famine will cause widespread grief.

With that in mind, potatoes are a staple of most diets. They provide a simple starch that provides the calories needed to get through the die, as well providing a number of great-tasting foods with minimum preparation. A running debate will be rather or not to include the skins; they can be coarse, but at the same time most of the non-caloric nutrition is in the skins. Keep in mind that potatoes need to be cleaned in order to get any remaining dirt off of them before you cook them, and some uses will require peeling them.

For breakfast, potatoes can be grated and fried or baked for hash browns. They can also be mashed and served with breakfast gravy, or cubed and over-peppered. If you can cut them rather small, you can fry with meat, such as roast beef, for a decent hash. For a simple version, just boil and serve. There a number of variations on the above, such as adding caramelized onions to the mix, so it’s just a matter of experimenting.

Lunch consists of pretty much the same options, but fries and chips get added to the list. For home-style, you will either be deep-fat frying the sliced potatoes or covering them in a spiced oil and baking. A simple version involves ¼ cup of oil per potato, with a lot of spices thrown in, and then baking it at 450 degrees for about 45 minutes; flipping half-way through. You can also slice the potato as thin as you wish, and fry in a cup of oil for chips. If you want to do a baked potato, you can always cook one at 350 degrees for over an hour or pound one on the counter and microwave it for about ten minutes.

Snacks consist of pretty much any of those options. You can also cube and boil the potatoes, add in a half-cup of mayonnaise, a little mustard, some cumin, pepper and salt, possibly some sliced hard-boiled eggs, and you have a decent potato salad.

For dinner, you can make mashed potatoes and do just about anything with them, such as serving with spices and plain, under gravy, or even fry them off. You can also cube them up and cook them with whatever meat you have going. They can also be cooked with vegetables. There are a number of different options, and potatoes tend to be very adaptable, and you can do a lot with them. The key is to experiment, and have fun with them.