How often do we eat potatoes? Yes, almost every day! Neither celebrations, nor family dinners, nor outdoor recreation are complete without a “potato”. Fried potatoes and mashed potatoes, various soups and casseroles, zrazy and dumplings, pancakes and chips are just a fraction of everything that can be prepared from this plant. But it was not always like that.
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The appearance of potatoes on the Russian table.
Potato "took root" in many countries, but the poor plant did not experience so much persecution as in Russia anywhere else. Appearing in Europe in the 16th century, potatoes firmly entered the menu of Italians, Spaniards and Irish. The Germans appreciated this product only in the 18th century - hunger forced them to reconsider their attitude to potatoes, but the Russian people only got used to a healthy and tasty plant by the end of the 19th century. In vain did Peter I and Catherine the Great try in every possible way to breed the tubers in their state. In the Volga region, in the Urals and the North, real riots broke out in response to attempts to attract the population of potatoes. In the fight against tubers, the Old Believers were especially diligent, according to the legends of which the potato was known as a "devilish" plant.
What is the value of potatoes?
Besides the fact that the potato is simply delicious, it is also very useful. The tubers of this plant contain a lot of vitamins and minerals. Vegetable protein, starch, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, vitamin B and, oddly enough, a lot of vitamin C. For all this, potatoes contain only 0.3% fat. Potatoes just need to be eaten, it is a pity that many refuse it because of the carbohydrate content in it. After all, potatoes are needed not only for muscle activity, but also for blood formation. Also, potato prevents scurvy and tooth loss, promotes the synthesis of collagen, an essential component of female attractiveness, and increases the body's resistance to certain viral infections.
How to choose potatoes.
Only tubers are edible in potatoes. Green apples on the plant are not only unsuitable for food, but also dangerous to health due to the high content of solanine poison. This poison is also found in greenish tubers, so when choosing a potato, you should pay attention to its color.
Old, sprouted potatoes often turn green during cooking, so beware of buying it. In addition, old tubers lose their taste and nutrients.
Ice-cream potatoes acquire a sweetish taste and consistency is more like zucchini. Frozen fruits are often black inside and you cannot cook them. Carefully select the tubers in the store, and do not take soft potatoes - it will not lie even for three days. Tubers should be strong, even and without spots.
With regard to varietal characteristics, the potato can be indigestible, mostly indigestible and powdery.
Non-digestible ideal for salads, frying, steaming. It is solid, dense, and keeps its shape well during cooking.
Mostly indigestible potatoes are a bit softer, but also good for making side dishes. Such potatoes are often yellow.
For soups, mashed potatoes, dumplings and fritters, powdery potatoes are great. This is a white potato, usually a late-ripening variety, with a high content of ripened starch.
Potato storage.
The storage room for potato tubers should be dark, cool and well ventilated. Sunlight and dampness are contraindicated in this plant. In the sun, potatoes turn green and become unhealthy, and excessive moisture can contribute to rot.
The temperature in the room where the potatoes are stored should be 3-4 degrees. If the temperature is lower, then the potatoes will freeze a little, if the air is warmer, the tubers will sprout.
And in no case should you store potatoes in the refrigerator.
Cooking Tricks.
To make potato dishes tasty and healthy, it's nice to know some tricks.
Potatoes need to be peeled very thinly, and the point here is not at all in saving the product. Just all the nutrients and trace elements are located directly under the skin. A potato cooked in a peel is twice as healthy as peeled.
Young hostess tubers are usually scraped with a knife, but you can just sprinkle it with salt, wipe it well with a clean cloth and rinse. It is better to dip young potatoes in boiling water.
For salads, the potatoes are cooked exactly on the skin, after selecting the tubers of approximately the same size so that they are evenly cooked. So that the potatoes do not fall apart during the cooking process, the water is well salted or vinegar is added to it. You can add both cucumber pickle and pickled cabbage juice. The tubers will not be saline - excess salt will remain in the water that you then drain. To potato clean well after cooking, it must be doused with cold water.
If the potato is peeled before cooking, it is immediately placed in cold water so that it does not turn black. The tubers will cook faster if you put a tablespoon of margarine in the water. And if at the end of cooking add dill, a couple of cloves of garlic and pepper to the pan, the potatoes will be very fragrant. Potatoes are extremely tasty if, right after the water is drained, put a little butter in a bowl, crush a clove of garlic, cover the saucepan with a lid and shake well. The tubers, of course, will fall apart a little, but the taste will be amazing.
When you are making mashed potatoes, mash the potatoes hot, right after cooking. If you add whipped protein, butter and hot milk to the potatoes, the mashed potatoes will turn out to be airy and tasty.
It is better to fry potatoes in a bowl with thick walls and a bottom. Before dipping sliced slices into oil, it must be well heated over high heat, which is subsequently reduced. If you dry the potatoes with a towel before frying, then it will turn out with a crisp. Salt the fried potatoes at the last stage of cooking.
Potatoes baked in ash are an integral part of gatherings in nature. The taste of burning hot potatoes with smoke has been familiar to each of us since childhood. Potatoes prepared in this way retain almost all vitamins and are very healthy.
Many first and second courses can be made from potatoes, potato broths are used in the preparation of sauces and goulash, 200 g of potatoes will cover the daily dose of vitamin C, and it can even cure stomach diseases with raw juice. Think before you remove this useful and delicious tuber from your diet for the sake of fashion and slim figure. After all, we are not recovering from the carbohydrates themselves, but from how much of them we consume.