Learning to cook? Cooking potatoes teaches you many basic cooking

Learning to cook? Cooking potatoes teaches you many basic cooking techniques a good place to start!

If you'd like to learn to cook, but don't know quite where to start, cooking potatoes is an inexpensive way to get you feeling comfortable in the kitchen, while teaching you basic cooking methods which you can use to tackle more complicated dishes. All of the methods described here are easy to master and provide delicious results. If you can scramble eggs or fry a burger, you'll end up with a meal on your very first try.

We'll start with a few facts on potatoes: potatoes are a starchy vegetable, which grows underground. Harvesting the potatoes requires the use of a shovel in the home garden and machinery on commercial farms. That's why you'll notice that potatoes sometimes have scars from harvesting.

Although the potatoes in the supermarket bag may appear to be clean, you'll want to clean them again, using a kitchen food scrubbing brush and water, just to be sure all dirt and bacteria are removed. Don't clean them until you're ready to cook. Potatoes store best in the vegetable bin in the frig, or in a root cellar, if you have one, to prevent premature sprouting. If you find a few little sprouts, remove them with the pointed end of a potato peeler. Should the skin show a greenish tinge, you should discard the potato. The green hue is indicative of the presence of aflatoxins, which can make you quite sick.

Now, we'll run through the most common ways of cooking potatoes. We'll start with the baked potato. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. If you prefer to use the microwave, it takes about 8 minutes for one large baking potato. Of course, no preheating is necessary. Whichever method you choose, proceed as follows. After washing, use the tines of a fork to pierce the potato several times across the top and sides, which allows the potato to vent steam while cooking. Cooking potatoes in the microwave without piercing the skin may cause the potato to explode, making a huge mess! When cooking potatoes in the oven, allow 45-60 minutes. The texture of a microwaved potato is not quite as firm as an oven baked potato. When finished, slit down the center and squeeze the potato open, using a fork to fluff the potato in its shell. Put on your toppings and dive in!

One of the simplest ways of cooking potatoes is to roast them. Slice the potato in half, lengthwise. Angling your knife slightly, cut each half into wedges. You can dip the wedges in a bowl of lemon juice, oil the wedges, or submerge the potatoes in a pan of cold water, to prevent discoloring. Raw potatoes oxidize quickly when exposed to air. If you're cooking a roast, arrange the potatoes around the roast and cook until the roast is done. You can season the potatoes with parsley, thyme, rosemary or a bit of all. Just cooking potatoes? Arrange on an oiled baking pan and cook at 375 degrees until a fork pierces the potato easily. Good job!

Boiling is another easy way to cook potatoes. Russets are best peeled before boiling. Cut Russets into similarly sized pieces, so they're all done at the same time. When boiling new red potatoes, leave the peel on it contains valuable nutrients and is also attractive. Use just enough water to cover the potatoes and simmer, not boil, until done, using the fork test. Instead of discarding the cooking water, which contains much of the starch, you may want to save and freeze it. The starchy potato water makes a great thickener for a batch of soup but we'll save that for another cooking lesson! Serve with a little butter and the herbs of your choice.

Mashed potatoes may seem intuitive. Boil them, mash them. However, there is a technique that bears mention. Have you ever had mashed potatoes with a consistency similar to glue? Yes, that's due to a heavy-handed, too vigorous mashing. The starch in the potatoes will stiffen when mashed too vigorously or for too long. Mash gently, working your way around the pot. When the potatoes are softened, add butter and milk or & until the desired consistency is reached. Serve those light, fluffy potatoes and enjoy. Leftover mashed potatoes may be formed into patties and fried for breakfast, along with those scrambled eggs.

Which brings us to cooking potatoes in the frying pan. For cottage style potatoes, slice the potatoes thinly, about inch thick. Place in a large, preheated, oiled frying pan. It's easiest to work with a more or less single layer, so the potatoes brown evenly. Turn once. When the potatoes are soft and lightly browned on the edges, remove them to a baking pan to keep warm in the oven until you're ready to serve. If you're cooking a large batch, keep the uncooked potatoes between damp paper towels until you're ready to cook. They'll stay crisp and won't discolor.

Now you have five different ways of cooking potatoes, that most versatile of veggies!