Ah, potatoes, a binge, pioneers ideal .... Remember the lines from the Soviet song? In childhood it was difficult to imagine something tastier than baked potatoes in a fire, especially in nature. Today we began to live bored, No one travels with the whole organization to plant and dig root crops, and the children do not know the traditional snack after harvesting, when a whole bucket of potatoes was baked, at all.
But in the kitchen today we can not imagine the first and second courses without it. Do you know how to cook potatoes properly so that it retains its nutritional properties? Even in this simple case there are subtleties and secrets.
How to choose root crops
For experienced housewives, it is no secret that one potato quickly boils and turns into the most tender mashed potatoes. Another - even after a long cooking, it becomes soft, but retains the shape of the bar that was attached to it. It depends on two factors:
- varieties;
- potato growing conditions (soil, watering).
Therefore, before thinking how to cook potatoes, you need to choose the appropriate variety. Varieties with a high starch content are best suited for mashed potatoes. This is Blue Eye, Blue or Lorch. They are cooked in 20 minutes, after which the peel begins to burst.
If you are thinking how to cook potatoes for a salad, you need varieties with a starch content of not more than 15%. These include: Leader, Red Scarlet or Nevsky. To prepare tubers evenly, you need to choose fruits of the same size.
Preparation for cooking
Do not forget that excess potatoes, peeled and chopped, are not much suitable. Therefore, you need to immediately figure out how much you need to prepare this or that dish. Then we decide how to cook potatoes. If the root crop is needed whole, then you need to cook it in its uniforms. To do this, it must be washed, cleaned of dirt.
For mashed potatoes and soup, you first need to peel the potatoes. After that, you will wash it anyway, so you can not pay attention to this. You can use a peeler to save your time.
Ordinary and tasty potatoes
Surely you noticed that the mashed potatoes of one housewife turn out to be very tasty, and the other very mediocre. It depends on many factors, including how to cook potatoes in a pan. It would seem that it can be complicated. Throw in a saucepan and remove after 20-30 minutes. Already at this stage, you need to follow a few rules:
- salt is necessary even before you put the pot on the fire;
- for every kilogram of potato, two teaspoons of salt are required;
- Be sure to fill the root vegetables completely with water and close the lid;
- you can cook whole vegetables or cut them into pieces;
- after boiling, wait about 20 minutes.
To check, you need to pierce one potato with a thin knife. If the blade comes in easily and gently, then you can safely pour water. This is almost all the basic knowledge of how to cook potatoes in a pan. 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 assistants, such as a microwave. How to cook potatoes in the microwave? To do this, take a form suitable for this purpose. If you do not have it, then take the usual package.
Further instruction:
- Wash, peel and chop the vegetables into pieces.
- Put the vegetables in a bag, sprinkle with spices and add oil. If you want a special taste, then put a few pieces of bacon.
- Tie the bag and mix.
- Do not forget to make a few holes so that air comes out of the bag.
- Turn on for 8-10 minutes at maximum power.
Now you can carefully open the bag and shake the vegetables on the dish and decorate with greens. It turns out a great side dish.
Modern assistant
It will be about how to adapt a slow cooker in order to prepare 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 you will find ready and hot potatoes. How and how much to cook potatoes in a slow cooker? Typically, 40 minutes in soup mode is sufficient. If the bowl is filled to the brim, then it may take another 10-15 minutes of extra time.
To improve the taste of ready-made vegetables, you can immediately add spices, butter. Then the potato will become not just a component for the preparation of a 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 by before and after boiling. As soon as the water begins to boil, you can reduce the fire and time. Such a countdown will be the most accurate. 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 readiness.
Potato salad
Above, we examined how to prepare peeled root vegetables. But often we need to get a whole vegetable at the exit so that it can be chopped in a certain way and cook a snack or salad. To do this, it is important to know how to cook potatoes in their skins.
The washed tubers should be put in a pan, pour water and put on fire. Sprinkle salt immediately to avoid cracking the skin. After boiling water, you can time:
- For cooking in a saucepan - 20 minutes.
- For cooking in a slow cooker - 30 minutes.
- A microwave is enough for 10 minutes.
After the time is up, you can fill the vegetables with water to speed up 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. And why not cook peeled vegetables for salad? In fact, there is nothing complicated about it. Then why don't the housewives use this way?
Benefits for the body
This cooking method not only saves time. It allows you to save maximum vitamins and nutrients that are contained in this unique root crop. Since cooking potatoes in their skins is quite easy, you can assign this task to children or husband. By the time you get home, everything will be ready. It remains to chop 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 the tubers to cool. If they are cooked in a pureed form on mashed potatoes, then you need to grind it right away, otherwise the quality of the final dish will be much worse.
Cooking soup
How does the course of a young housewife begin? Of course, with the preparation of the first course. Light, nourishing soup is what you need every day. And what is its basis? No, not cereals and meat. Rather, these are additional ingredients that make it tastier and more nutritious. But not a single soup is complete without potatoes.
To make the broth tasty, you need to know a few rules. Let's talk about how to cook potato soup. First of all, you need to prepare the broth. Whether it is vegetable or meat - it depends only on your preferences. After that, salt it, and you can lay vegetables.
For the first dishes, root vegetables are cut into a small cube. Some housewives prefer to grind them in the form of bars. From this, the taste does not change. The cooking time in this case is practically independent of 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 harvest potatoes and chop it in mashed potatoes, and then again dip it into soup. Of course, it’s better not to do this with all the potatoes, but only with a few things.
If you plan to cook puree soup, then no measures should be taken to preserve the chopped vegetables as a whole. 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, the vegetables are crumbly and easily turn into a tender mass. There is one subtlety - to get delicious mashed potatoes it is best to take not young potatoes, but mature ones. Cooking it will take about 30 minutes, but the result will definitely not disappoint. During this period, the potato will fall apart, it will be easier to puree it.
Instead of a conclusion
A huge number of dishes can be prepared from potatoes. Soups, side dishes, mashed potatoes, salads, pies - almost no dish can do without this root crop. It is even added to cakes and cookies. Today we talked about different methods of heat treatment. It will be useful to know every young housewife.