So when you're making meal, you wanna make sure you get a balance of all the essential nutrients. You need your amino acids: the monomers (building blocks) of proteins, which you can get from your meats and alternatives. You need your fats, which you can get from your meats as well as the fats you choose to cook with (butter, oil, etc.). You need your vitamins and minerals, which can be found in your fruits and veggies. And you need glucose. Glucose forms many poly-saccharides, but the one easiest to digest (and with fewer additional saccharides, which can be noted as less healthy) by a human is starch. Starch is the method plants use to store glucose, so it is found in all fruits and veggies, but in particular: potatoes and rice. I've already done a post on rice (
click here to see it), but now its time to show you a few of my favourite ways of doing potatoes.
Oven-fried:
Potatoes
Olive oil or Canola oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Wash your potatoes, then decide whether you want them peeled or not (with the peel is healthier, but some people are allergic to it). Then you can decide how you wanna cut em up. You can french-fry cut em, cut into wedges or dice em into any size. The smaller the pieces, the more surface area, the shorter it will take to cook. Grease a large, oven-safe dish (pyrex, corningware, etc.) with your oil, and cover with one layer of potatoes. Drizzle some oil over the potatoes and turn to coat. Sprinkle with salt and fresh coarse-ground black pepper. Repeat this process layer after layer until the dish is full and cook uncovered at 350 degrees F. The size of the potato pieces will determine the length they will take to cook.
**If you decided to do french fries, then cook on a flat sheet, in a single layer. Avoid having the fries touch each other.**
This method of doing potatoes is yummy and healthy, and not too fattening as they're not deep-fried. Dip with your favourite dipping sauce, whether it be ketchup, honey mustard, mayo, chipotlé, ranch or my
Creamy-Ceasar dressing. Mix it up with some yams or sweet potatoes. Leftovers are perfect for Sunday brunch hash browns.
Cheezy-Italian:
Potatoes
Olive oil or Canola oil
Salt and Pepper to taste
Italian herbs
Parmesan, Romano and/or Asiago cheese
Wash your potatoes, peel if desired, and cut into a medium dice. Grease an oven safe dish, and layer with potatoes and drizzle with oil, turning to coat. Sprinkle with salt, fresh coarse-ground black pepper and your choice of Italian herbs. No name brand has a bag of pre-mixed, dried Italian herbs, including parsley, thyme, oregano, basil, rosemary and others. Again stir to coat with the seasonings. Repeat this process layer after layer until the dish is full. Cook at 350 degrees F uncovered until potatoes are fork-tender, about 40 minutes. Sprinkle a layer of the cheese(s) you chose, and cook until cheese is golden on the top. Enjoy with your favourite dipping sauce (goes really well with my
creamy ceasar dressing).
Creamy-Mashed:
Potatoes
Butter
Cream-cheese
Garlic - minced (or garlic powder or garlic salt)
Salt, pepper
Italian herbs
Wash and peel your potatoes, and cut up into large, even pieces. Boil in a large pot with salted water, until fork runs smoothly through the potato. Drain most of the water, leaving a small amount in. The reason for this is the water now contains starch and flavour from the potatoes, and you don't want to drain it all away. If you used a tefflon pot to boil the potatoes, transfer them to a large bowl. If you used a stainless steel pot, leave em in the pot. Using an electric mixer, beat the potatoes at high speed into a smooth, thick puree (if you do this in a tefflon pot, the tefflon layer will scrape off into your food, ruining both the potatoes and the pot). Add your desired amount of butter, cream-cheese, garlic, salt, pepper and herbs, so that it forms a smooth, creamy and delicious concoction. You can use any regular cream-cheese, but you can also use an expensive flavoured cream-cheese, like
Boursin (which could save you from adding the garlic and herbs). This recipe is a little high in fat, but the taste will knock the socks off yourself and anyone you cook it for, and sure beets the the dry 'n' bland mashed potatoes you usually get.
Baked-Potato:
Potatoes
Optional toppings:
Butter
Salt and pepper
Sour cream
Green onions or chives, 1/4" slice
Grated cheddar
Bacon bits
Wash and dry your potatoes (the drying process is very important to avoid mushiness). Wrap in tin-foil and bake in the oven at 350-400 degrees F (Temp isn't totally important here) or bury in the hot embers of a slow burning fire in your fireplace or if you're camping. If you do decide to bake em in a fire, double wrap the potatoes in tin-foil, to prevent the ash from penetrating your potatoes. Cook until skin is easily pierced with a blunt butter knife, and the inside is fork tender. Serve with your favourite toppings.
Go the extra mile and make the supreme baked potato. Once your potatoes are fully cooked, remove the tin foil and cut each potato in half length-wise. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil for easy cleaning, and place the potatoes flat side facing up. Press down on the middle of each potato with a fork, so that its semi-mashed and its formed a sort of concave bowl. place a bit of butter in each potato, and sprinkle with salt and fresh coarse-ground black pepper. Spoon a small layer of sour cream onto each potato, sprinkle with green onions or chives, and top with grated cheddar cheese and bacon bits. Bake in the oven until the cheese is melted and slightly crispy and golden.
So there you have it. There are many ways of making delicious potatoes without using store-bought frozen fries with tons of preservatives and other unwanted and unhealthy ingredients.
