Food Use: Potatoes

I buy a sack of potatoes - one that I cannot lift but which is carried home for me by one of the owners of the veg shop that I frequent.  They are very obliging; I know that this varies from shop to shop but I would encourage you to buy a sack for about £6 to £7 (that's all I have been paying recently) and I keep it under the stairs.  We as a result have a constant resource in that I always have potatoes in the house and that I am not constantly wittering whether or not I am going to have enough potatoes in.  Stored like this with the top kept closed up to keep the potatoes in dark the potatoes keep well and I usually for two of us during this time of the year go through a sack in about six weeks.  They rarely go off and in fact potatoes are clamped by the growers the year before and  are at least a year old when they are brought out of the clamp to pass on to the consumer.  Potatoes a simple ingredient out of which so much can be made.

Buying in this way you save so much money.  Next time you go to the supermarket and you buy a couple of small bags of potatoes work out how much you would spend to reach the equivalent weight of a sack of potatoes normally and if you cannot buy a full sack of potatoes from them change your supplier.  Remember the supermarkets will only service one body and that is themselves and they will make a profit from you.  They make more out of you by supplying you with the smaller bags of potatoes rather than a large full sized sack.

I would love to be in  position to grow my own potatoes and by choice I would do this but I do not have the land to supply me with potatoes for the year that's why I do the next best thing and buy a sack of potatoes.  But one day.

Crisps are made from potatoes, but if you buy an individual bag of potato crisps they are often in excess of 70p a bag and there is less than a large potato in each bag. 

You can make your own at home - in the microwave or the chip pan and I have done both of these methods and will do again.  However I check out the bargain packs the really big bags and buy them when they are on offer.  I never pay full price for them - you get more flavours this way but you can produce some very good crisps at home.  I check out the pound shops for bargains in the run up to Christmas.


Now for the left overs:

If you have some mashed potato left over do not waste it; especially if you have some excess veg as well as you can turn them into bubble n squeak cakes that can be served with a fry, with chicken and pheasant or with the roast dinner.  It may not be convenient to process them after you have eaten your meal but I bundle the ingredients into bowls and then cling film them and then deal with them the next day.  There is always  way.

Or Potato croquettes covered in some of those home made golden breadcrumbs.  You can form the mashed potato into rolls, cover with egg wash and then the golden breadcrumbs or you can flavour the mashed potato with cheese or cheese and onion.  Even if you have not got much mashed potato left over you can still make a few and then freeze them. If you do a few like this each time they will soon build up in quantity.

Equally if you take a small tin of salmon and mash that into the mashed potato and form them into rounds then you have salmon fish cakes.

I use a Tupperware beef burger press set I have for moulding the patties but you can do them freeform as well.

Equally you could cook extra mashed potato when you are cooking your dinner and make enough extra to cover a shepherd's pie during the week.  Its all down to the planning and making the most of the time you have and the ingredients you have.

Or Gnocchi - if you place the cold mashed potato through a potato ricer it should aerate the potato and then with the use of a few extra ingredients you can turn this into a well known Italian accompaniment.

There are a whole host of other ideas that you can use leftovers for Like Soup. Make Leek, Potato and bacon soup.  It is at the end of the day about eating really good food cheaply.

Catch you later.

Pattypan


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