The way of the source of potatoes has made my potato-skeptic wife a lifelong spindle lover

At the beginning of my relationship with my wife, he stated that he didn't care much about potatoes. But I declare that my life will change my work. I started with all the obvious recipes, baking, baking and baking in creamy gratin. He said they were good, but also that they didn't really change their opinion. Then I cooked some, and I wouldn't be kidding and full of potato converts.

This is an unlikely story, and I still write that it makes little sense to me, but I admit that I can boil an average potato. Like To cook properly dried beansThere is an art for boiling potatoes. Most people do not know that art and cooked potatoes … are usual old cooked potatoes. But if you perfect the technique (and now I inform you that you can – it's not difficult), then cooked potatoes become a revelation, inexplicably smooth and creamy, wet and tasteful. It is so good that straight from the pot like a warm, cheeky apple to eat them.

Of course, the best source method depends on the type, size and intended use. I go through the most important techniques that refer to all cooked potatoes and then explain how to change the approach depending on the recipe.

To select potato to the source

There are thousands of the varieties of potatoesBut each can be divided into two basic types: starch (or mealy) and waxy. Starch potatoes include cakes, such as Russet, which are fluffier, drier, while waxed potatoes, such as red potatoes, have a much wet, dense, silky texture. In fact, however, these are only extremes on the starch content spectrum, and the various potato types fall to different points.

There is no source “better” potatoes and almost any potato and cooking. Generally speaking, if I boil the potatoes and eat as cooked potatoes (as opposed to boiling the potatoes to then mass them), I will look for waxy, medium or low murder types, such as yellow potatoes or new potatoes, as the real new potato is usually not a real new potato. I think these potato boiling are the smallest, wet, velvety texture, even before adding rich fats and other textures and taste enhancers.

In many cases, I try to reach smaller potatoes for a source, as they cook not only faster, but also in a smaller size, even though it assumes they are completely boiling. If you think they are first caught, the size of the potato will be less important.

The best method for basic cooked potatoes

There are many reasons for the source of the potato; This is often a preliminary step for foods we do not think of as cooked as mashed potatoesTo french friesand chips– Suppose the moment we intend to boil the potatoes, to eat them as cooked potatoes. These are the most important steps, briefly, and why they are important:

• Cover the potatoes with cold water and start cooking from cold. Since the potato meat can be delicious and can fall apart, once over cooked, it is very important that the potatoes are cooked evenly. It is usually not a great idea for cooking potatoes to be characterized by so many other cooked vegetables that are typical of many other cooked vegetables. Instead, he wants the potatoes to heat slowly so that they stand more evenly from the temperature to the seed and to soften at about similar speeds.

  Cold starting also gives the potatoes time at the lower temperature range (roughly 120-160 ° F / 50-70 ° C), during which pectin with cell walls is enhanced. This helps to maintain the creamy, coherent texture of the potatoes instead of becoming a paste.

  It is also important to mix occasionally when the water heats up. Because the vessel heats up from the bottom up, the potatoes closest to the lower part cook faster than on top when left smoothly. Mixing promotes heat distribution for more smooth cooking.

• Add more salt than you think. This is especially important for cooking the whole potato on the skin as the skin acts as a barrier that slows the salt absorption; The undervaluation of the water leaves them boring. I am very aggressive with salt in potato water, at least prepared As salty as dough water (which should be 1-2% salt, or, as I describe, as salty as tears), and sometimes even more -real “salty than the sea” is about 3% salt.
• Cook a very gentle cooked. This is connected to the cold tip above: Keeping the water gently slows down the cooking time and helps cook evenly for the potatoes.
• Add the aromatics– Potato is a great taste of sponges and boiling gives them the opportunity to flavor them. I always try to throw some fresh herbs into the pot, especially wooded herbs such as thyme, sage or rosemary. Other welcome supplements include alliums such as garlic, whole black pepper and/or one or two bay leaves. This is a small step that can lead to much finer cooked potatoes.
• Cook until easily pierced. The potatoes are ready if you can easily pierce them with a cake test, a piling knife or skewer.
• If you can (and if it makes sense) let them rest in the cooling water. The potatoes are completely cooked if you can pierce them without obvious resistance, but I find that they will continue to improve if they are allowed to hang in the cooking water while they cool down, becoming softer and creamier. Nevertheless, it is a risky step when cooked potatoes, as it has a much higher risk to overpower and break it when they sit in hot water (you can still do it if you cut the heat a little early and let it finish cooking in the remaining heat of the water, but it is not easy to do the right time).
• Optional cooling can help the potato “set up”. If you have ever chilled cooked rice or noticed that old bread growth is obsolete, you have seen a phenomenon retrograde, which refers to the re -crystlization of the starch. In practice, it means that when cooling, the starch that is cooked until the soft is again. This is often undesirable, but in the case of potatoes that have been boiled until silky soft and smooth, they give them the opportunity to solidify a little bit of cooling, you can actually give them a texture that is ideal in certain situations – claims to cut the cooked potatoes and use them in a potato. This is not a need for a step and is not necessary in all situations, but it is good to know that you can take into account the decision -making decision.

Cut and peel or not

Some things should be considered when deciding to cut before source and/or peel -ea potatoes. One is the size of the potatoes: the higher the potatoes, the better the idea can be cut. The reason for this is that very large potatoes will not cook just as evenly as it lasts longer until the heat penetrates the center. It is not just that Larger lasts longer potato cooking, which may be an important decisive factor, depending on how much time it takes. The diced potatoes cook in 15-20 minutes; The big ones can take up to an hour.

But the size of the potato is not the only aspect. Its recipe itself may be to cut the potatoes first (potatoes, potato chips and fried potato Each may have a boiling step to prevent baking and roasting steps and should be cut to the right size from the beginning of the recipe).

Another aspect that needs to be considered is the blow and peeling of how a potato will absorb salt, and even how easily it is cheeky and in water. Cut potatoes have several surfaces, which means there are more options for the salt to leak faster and to make the outside soften and disintegrate. If you cut the potatoes before a source, you need to salt the water less aggressively, and you may want to cook the potatoes even more gentle to prevent your exterior, to be too soft before the centers are completed.

Potato skin, although by no means impenetrable, is something of a barrier to water and salt, so preserving the whole and skin of the potatoes promotes some risk of cooking cube potatoes. The skin also has a taste that can improve a lot of food.

For all these reasons, I often look for smaller, skin potatoes for source and skin, while providing an insurance bond against some risk of the boiling potato boiling point, although it again depends on your concrete plans for potatoes.

The importance of pH

Boiling the potatoes, I mostly use smooth old tap water, which is very close to neutral in the pH. But it is worth understanding the great impact of water pH on the potato. For example, if the potatoes are cooked in acidified water (low pH), the pectin, which helps to keep the potato cells together, will strengthen and lead to cooked potatoes that keep their shape very well. This is very useful for things like french fries, where the pre -cooked step in acid water provides fluffy and crispy potatoes that remain whole and do not break.

On the most important side, adding the alkaline ingredient has a contrary to the water, weakening pectin and causing faster potato decomposition. This is very useful for recipes such as roasted potatoes, where alkaline baking soda in the water softens the exterior of the potato in parallel and helps to produce a starch mud when thrown with oil and is crispy and nicely tan in the oven.

Remember when boiling the potatoes, when adding acid, such as vinegar (to strengthen the potato structure) or an alkaline ingredient, such as baking soda (for more efficiently softening the potatoes).