Not just french fries - quick and non-obvious potato dishes

Potato is one of the most popular vegetables in our country. We associate them with french fries and noodles, but many other dishes can be prepared from them. How to cook potatoes in an unusual way?

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The creativity of the cuisine knows no bounds - you can make casseroles, tartlets, dumplings, cutlets and pies from potatoes. Every kitchen has its own way of preparing potato leftovers. After all, it was thanks to the potato that many nations survived the period of famine.

Scandinavian potato, i.e. Jansson's Swedish temptation casserole.

Composition:

• 1,5 kg of potatoes
• 3 bulbs
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 25 anchovy filecików
• 300 ml cream 36%
• 1 tablespoon breadcrumbs
• salt and pepper

Janssons frestelse, as it is called in Swedish, has its own taste in every home. Some add sprats to it, others add anchovies. In the simplest version, thinly sliced ​​potatoes (preferably with a mandolin), onions, anchovies and cream are baked in a brazier. How to do it?

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Lubricate the mold with butter. 1,5 kg potatoes, peeled and cut into slices about 3 mm thick (preferably with a mandolin). Also grate 3 onions. Heat 4 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan. Add the onion and sauté over low heat until soft. Put a layer of potatoes on the bottom of the mold, cover with onions, put about 25 anchovies, cover with another layer of potatoes and onions. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Pour in 300 ml of cream 36%. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of breadcrumbs. Bake until soft, about 45 minutes.

Hasselback potato, i.e. potato accordion.

Composition:

• Ziemnyaki
• Bacon slices (how many potatoes)
• Oil
• Salt

An excellent addition to dishes, but also a complete dish, is the Hasselback potato. It is enough to wash the potatoes properly (without peeling) and cut across the accordion - we will not cut it to the end. Wrap each potato in a slice of bacon, sprinkle with salt, and carefully insert chunks of butter into the slits. Bake at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes (until golden brown and soft).

loaded potatoes

A baked potato stuffed with vegetable salad, gzik, cheddar and bacon has become popular by the seaside in recent years. They can be easily prepared at home.

It is enough to buy large potatoes, wash them thoroughly, chop them with a fork and bake at 200 degrees until cooked. Then cut the potatoes in half, being careful not to open them, and stuff them with whatever you like. They go great with fried onions and bacon topped with melting cheddar cheese. The Polish version with cottage cheese with onions and green onions is also good.

They are very tasty if stuffed with a fight, i.e. pate of cottage cheese, smoked mackerel, lemon juice, salt and pepper and mayonnaise (250 g of cottage cheese mixed with a jar of sprats or 1 small mackerel, add the juice of 1/2 lemon, salt, pepper and a tablespoon of mayonnaise).

Mashed potatoes

Of all baked potatoes, this is the easiest and probably best for your own taste. Potato squash is nothing more than potatoes cooked in their skins, squashed (flat so that they are very crispy, or delicate so that they remain a little soft inside) and baked. Ideally, when preparing another dish, such as Silesian dumplings, potato dumplings, or potato chops, boil more potatoes and bake them the next day for lunch or dinner.

Crush each potato cooked in their skins with your hand or a meat pestle, sprinkle with olive oil, put a piece of butter on top and sprinkle with salt. Bake for about 45 minutes at 180 degrees until potatoes are crispy.

We can sprinkle them with shredded cheddar or mozzarella before serving. We can serve them straight from the oven. They are a great accompaniment to grilled meats, but they taste fantastic on their own.

Potato pie, Podlasie classic

Composition:

• 2 kg of potatoes
• 2 bulbs
• 200 g smoked bacon
• 2 eggs
• 3 tablespoons wheat flour
• Salt and pepper
• Kefir / milk / natural yogurt / pickled cucumber (for serving)

If there's a potato dish that deserves a monument, it's definitely potato pie. Tastes a bit like... baked potato pancakes. Only better and more intense. How to do it?

Peel 2 kg potatoes and grate them with the finest mesh grater (or use a food processor with a potato grater). Peel and finely chop 2 onions. Fry until golden in oil. Cut 200 g of smoked lard into cubes and fry a little with onions. Add to potatoes, add 2 eggs, 3 tablespoons wheat flour, 2 teaspoons salt, 1 teaspoon pepper. Pour into a 30 cm x 40 cm baking paper-lined pan. Bake at 180 degrees until golden, about 60 minutes.

Serve with kefir, milk, natural yogurt and pickles. We can serve as an addition to the stew. It is very tasty when crispy, fried with a fried egg.

TIP: What to do with excess potatoes?

Sometimes we have boiled potatoes that we don't know what to do with. Below you will find a few non-waste suggestions that will not only save the planet, your wallet, but also save you from culinary monotony.

Lefse are Norwegian potato pancakes.

Composition:

• 400 g boiled potatoes
• 50 g butter
• 50 ml cream
• 1 ¼ cups potato flour
• Jam (for serving)

Lefse is a Norwegian potato cake. They differ from pancakes in the way they are prepared (they need to be rolled out) and in the ingredients. For 16 small pancakes, 400 g of pressed boiled potatoes, mixed with 50 g of melted butter, 50 ml of cream, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1 1/4 cups of potato flour are enough. Knead all the ingredients on the board until a homogeneous mass is formed. If sticky, add some flour.

Divide the mass into 16 parts, roll each of them into a thin round cake. Fry in a skillet dipped in oil for about 2 minutes on each side. After removing it from the pan, grease the pancake with jam, roll it up and serve immediately. We store lefse set aside with baking paper for up to 3 days in the refrigerator. They can also be frozen.

Russian potato cutlets

Composition:

• 300 g boiled potatoes
• 200 g of cottage cheese
• 1 bulb
• 1 egg
• 3 tablespoons flour
• Pickled cucumbers/sauerkraut (for serving)

We can also fry chops with the taste of boiled potato dumplings. Squeeze boiled potatoes (300 g) through a press, add 200 g of cottage cheese, finely chopped and fried golden onion, 1 teaspoon of salt and a generous pinch of pepper. Add 1 egg, 3 heaping tablespoons of flour. We mix. Shape into patties and fry them in oil until golden brown. Serve with pickled cucumber or sauerkraut.

Polish dumplings and Italian dumplings

Composition:

• 600 g boiled potatoes
• 1 cup plain flour
• 1 egg
• Salt

It may turn out that I am a culinary layman, but I have not yet figured out how Polish dumplings differ from Italian gnocchi. Maybe they are different in shape - Italian gnocchi have a spindle shape and characteristic transverse stripes. The side dishes are definitely different - gnocchi are often served with pesto or olive oil and Parmesan cheese. They are definitely linked by ingredients.

To prepare both types of dumplings, we need 600 g of boiled potatoes passed through a press, 1 1/2 cups of wheat flour, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 egg. Knead the mass until it stops sticking. Form rolls from it with a diameter of about 1 - 1,5 cm. Cut out dumplings. Boil in salted water for 1,5 minutes after departure.

If you want to freeze them, do it before cooking - put a baking sheet on the freezer shelf, put the dumplings on it and wait until they freeze. Put frozen noodles in shopping bags. We do not defrost them before cooking, just put them in boiling water and cook for 3 minutes after they leave.

Which potato should I use every day?

As you may have noticed, in some stores, potatoes are packaged with a type designation. It is worth paying attention to them so as not to repeat later that “there should have been a potato salad and my potatoes turned into porridge” or “it should have been dumplings, and these potatoes are hard as a stone, although they have been cooked for half an hour.”

We will enter the market 3 types of potatoes - A for salad, B universal (i.e. for frying and for dinner) and C mealy. There are also two subtypes AB and BC. If we want to make vegetable or potato salad, we buy type A or AB potatoes; if we want to make delicious noodles, we buy C; if we want to fry potato pancakes, we buy type B or BC potatoes. In its pure form, type B or C potatoes are suitable. If we need potatoes for everything, because we don’t eat that much, let’s buy universal B. Whoever tries to cook type C dumplings will understand what a difference it makes.

As for varieties, in Poland there are several hundred varieties of potatoes, despite the fact that on most vegetable plantations, with the persistence of a maniac, they are all signed as cotoneaster or iris. That is why it is worth asking what kind of potato we buy.

More ideas for interesting dishes can be found in the Cooking for AvtoTachki Passions section.

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