Potatoes
Information
- to store potatoes, take them out of the plastic bag and put them into a cloth or natural fibre bag
- store them away from strong smelling foods such as onions
- choose somewhere cool, dark and airy, but not the fridge
- for storing cooked potatoes, the Food Standards Agency advise that once cooked they should be cooled as quickly as possible, ideally within 1 to 2 hours and then stored in the fridge for up to two days
- a useful tip is to freeze the potatoes on a baking tray so they're not touching each other and when they're solid pop them together in a plastic bag. This stops them sticking together so you don't have to defrost all of them at once
- when potatoes are exposed to either artificial or natural light they can develop a green colour due to chemical changes, this may make the green bits unsuitable to eat, but this can be avoided by simply cutting them out
- it's safe to cook potatoes that have sprouted, but they do not keep well and are more likely to go black when cooked
- always remove the sprouts before using
- keep hold of potato peelings, sprinkle with salt, pepper, chilli or whatever flavour takes you like and put them in the oven for free crisps
- thinly slice leftover potatoes and add to omelettes
- use leftover potatoes to thicken soups
- if you have a few potatoes that you need to use, boil them and make mashed potato and freeze in portions so next time you're in a rush you have them
- they're guaranteed to be crispy and golden if you parboil and freeze potatoes for later and you can cook directly from frozen
- freeze leftover mashed potato in bags and use it for bubble and squeak or shepherd's pie topping