It’s March, which means that all the Irish blood in me demands I eat potatoes at least twice a week in honor of St. Patrick’s Day.
Potatoes are cheap. Twelve pounds of potatoes cost me $10 at King Soopers. I prefer cooking with red potatoes, which are $5.46 for five pounds. To cook a cheaper potato, go for a five-pound bag of Russet Potatoes for a grand total of $2.36. Sweet potatoes tend to be more expensive. Three sweet potatoes cost $3.
Though I love potatoes, I get tired of the same old recipes. Here are seven ways to cook potatoes, hardest to easiest. Aside from the potatoes, I had every other ingredient in my kitchen already.
Disclaimer: Mountain potatoes cook more slowly than every other potato on earth. For every recipe, I added ten minutes to the total cook time listed on the website.
1. Triple Cooked Chips
Pubs across England serve Triple Cooked Chips. They were my favorite part of living in London, so I set out to try this recipe. My hopes of perfect pub potatoes were quickly dashed.
I followed the directions, but instead of golden crispy chips, I ended up with off-color French fries. Perhaps if I had had a cup of tea while making them, they would have turned out better.
2. English Roast Potatoes
I had low expectations for my ability to pull this one off, but it turned out to be my favorite recipe. These roast potatoes are cooked in a pan filled with an inch of oil, and mine turned out like fried versions of American potato wedges.
Boiling the potatoes was the easy part. Turning them every 10 minutes and re-coating them with oil felt like a mammoth task. I anxiously awaited each time I had to open the oven and spoon boiling hot oil back over the potatoes in the pan. Thankfully, the labor was worth it in the end.
Pair these with a pot roast and gravy for a more traditional English meal.
3. Hashbrowns
Hashbrowns are the ultimate breakfast meal, so I thought I’d give them a try. I hated every second of this.
The first step is to grate an entire russet potato, and it all went downhill from there. The hashbrowns were too wet and didn’t fry in the pan. Save yourself the trouble and buy frozen hashbrowns.
4. Baked Sweet Potato Fries
Sweet potato fries are my favorite. Turns out they’re not that hard to make. Though the fries didn’t turn out as crispy as the recipe promised, they tasted perfect. These pair perfectly with a burger or pork chops.
5. Southern Breakfast Potatoes
Diners with hardwood floors and grease stains on the wall always serve the best breakfast potatoes. These potatoes are easy to recreate as a one-skillet meal.
For a full breakfast, cook bacon or sausage in the pan with the potatoes. Breakfast potatoes cook best in bacon grease, but don’t tell your doctor I told you that.
Dice one or two potatoes, toss them in a pan on medium heat, and then throw salt, pepper and cayenne powder over the top. Toss them in the pan and cook for about eight minutes.
6. Roast Potatoes
Straight from my mother’s kitchen, these roast potatoes take 30 minutes and are the perfect addition to any meal. Red potatoes work best.
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Grab a few potatoes, cut them in quarters and put them on a cookie sheet. Drizzle olive oil over the potatoes and cover with salt and pepper. Toss the potatoes in a baking pan and cook for 30 minutes.
These potatoes pair perfectly with a rotisserie chicken.
7. Microwave Baked Potato
This is for all you procrastinators and non-meal preppers out there, as a baked potato might be the easiest thing to make for dinner.
Take out one russet potato. Wash the potato, then poke holes in it so it doesn’t explode in the microwave. Take out the one trusty ceramic bowl you have, pop that baby in the microwave and cook for eight minutes.
Customize your potato. Cover it either with nothing or everything.
Graphic via The Scribe archive.