peeling potatoes ahead of time
Peeling Potatoes Ahead of Time
Peeling potatoes ahead of time can save a lot of cooking time. Mentioned in this article are useful tips for peeling and storing potatoes to save the cooking time...
Did you know that raw potatoes when peeled release dark substance called solanine when exposed to air? However, you can remedy this by immersing the peeled raw potatoes in cold water, to maintain their creamy-white color.
Whenever you are planning to make a potato preparation in large quantity, then a little planning can help you to organize things better. Peeling and boiling potatoes well ahead of time, will save a lot of energy and time the next day. Also, it will help you manage your kitchen time and space more efficiently. So, buy good quality potatoes and follow these simple solutions for peeling and preserving potatoes ahead of time.
How to Peel 'Boiled Potatoes' Fast?
⇒ Take a large pot, which holds all the potatoes you will need for cooking, and boil water in this pot.
⇒ One by one start placing the potatoes in the boiling water, and let them boil for 15 minutes, in case of smaller potatoes, the bigger potatoes might take longer cooking time.
⇒ Take another large pot containing ice-cold water.
⇒ Then use a drainer and pour the potatoes and water through it, and quickly immerse the potatoes in the ice water pot for around 15-20 seconds.
⇒ Again drain the potatoes and start peeling the potato skin with your fingers, it will slip off very easily and you won't have to spend much time on peeling the potatoes.
⇒ You can either directly store the potatoes, or mash them and store them in a plastic air tight box and place it inside the refrigerator.
⇒ Make sure you don't add any seasoning like salt or herbs to the potatoes while refrigerating them. Add the seasoning to flavor the potatoes just before making the food recipes.
How to Peel 'Raw Potatoes'?
⇒ The first thing is to wash all the potatoes clean, then keep all the washed potatoes in a large bowl. Washing will ensure that your potatoes are free of dirt, before peeling.
⇒ Take a chopping board and peeler.
⇒ Hold the potato at its sides with your right hand, and keep other side of the potato on the chopping board, holding the potato at an inclined angle.
⇒ Now take the peeler in your other hand, and start peeling with a quick right to left down motion. Then change the side of the potato and peel off the other half in the same manner.
⇒ This way you can practically peel each potato within 10 seconds. Raw potatoes will start releasing the dark substance, so immerse these potatoes in cold water immediately. You can also keep the bowl of water and potatoes in refrigerator, to preserve the potatoes better.
⇒ This method will help you peel the raw potatoes a day before, but be sure you don't store them for long.
Useful Kitchen Tips
⇒ Even though, organic produce is healthier compared to conventionally grown produce; try to avoid buying organically grown potatoes. Because, organic potatoes might contain higher amount of solanine, this will lead to more darkening of potatoes. Also, peeling will reduce the pesticide residue levels, so its okay to use normal potatoes.
⇒ Also, discard potatoes which have cuts or bruises or look green.
⇒A potato contains 80% water, so avoid freezing cooked potato recipes. Reheating these recipes will make them watery, as the water will separate from starch.
⇒ If potatoes have sprouts, then remove them as sprouts are toxic. Ingesting too many potato sprouts can make a person ill, but once you get rid of all the sprouts they are safe.
⇒ For extra flavor in your mashed potatoes, you can boil potatoes in chicken broth. Also, to prepare low-fat mashed potatoes you can substitute chicken broth in place of cream and butter.
⇒ The method for peeling sweet potatoes before time is similar to normal potatoes. So, you can use the above two methods for sweet potatoes too.
Make sure you don't store the peeled potatoes for too long. Also, avoid buying ready-made peeled potatoes from the supermarket as you can't be assured of their quality, and neither will they give the taste of home peeled potatoes.