P-O-T-A-T-O-E Find out what it means to me

[livius drusus]

I use the rice cooker she sent me for Secret Santa religiously.

[Janet]

I like most potatoes. I gave up french fries a couple years ago while getting healthy. I had already stopped making hash browns at home and have only eaten them out a couple times in the past three or four years. Still, when you asked my first thought was crispy, shredded diner-style hash browns.

I also love mashed. I've been making it with whole grain mustard lately and sometimes with aged gouda as well. That's some good eating there.

[curses]

Tater.tots. Food of the gods.

Other than that I have no negative potato bias. If you put the starchy goodness in front of me then I'll eat it as quickly as humanly possible because potatoes are awesome.

[Dingfod]

The only potatoes I eat now are sweet potatoes.

[Ymir's blood]

[Kael]

[curses]

Aww, sweet potatoes are good as well

[ZEZOZE]

i love potatoes. especially in a nice hash with bacon and peppers or potato skins deep-fried with cheese, bacon and sour cream.

they are my fav food!

[livius drusus]

I have an important potato announcement to make.

I have decided to use purple potatoes as my default potato purchase for all applications from mashed to roasted to salad. My reasoning is two fold. One, they're better for you than light-fleshed potatoes and two, they're just so damn pretty they make the most pedestrian dish look like a party.

[Kael]

I don't know if I could do that. My brain is wired to tell me that potatoes shouldn't be purple, and I just can't shake the idea that there's something wrong with them... Same reason I can't eat green tomatoes.

[Dingfod]

I could. My potatoes are orange or yellow and I don't mind.

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by Kael

I don't know if I could do that. My brain is wired to tell me that potatoes shouldn't be purple, and I just can't shake the idea that there's something wrong with them... Same reason I can't eat green tomatoes.

I understand. My mother fondly recalls doing psych studies when she was in graduate school where they'd give people weird colored but in every other way normal food and the subjects would usually reject it.

I, otoh, love weird colored foods. Rainbow carrots, orange cauliflower, golden beets make me deeply happy, and purple potatoes are they best of them all because they're purple all the way through and cook up to an awesome cobalt blue color.

The other night I made a variant of this potato salad and the purple really elevated it from a delicious dish to a joyously delicious dish. I used scallions instead of regular onions, so it was this riot of yellow, purple and green, like my favorite irises. That's when I decided to go full purple.

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by Dingfod

I could. My potatoes are orange or yellow and I don't mind.

I'm with you on the sweet potatoes. Can you tolerate scallions? I know you hate onions, but do you feel the same about green onions? They are amazing added to a sweet potato mash with some lemon jest. wei yau can testify to that because I bullied him into making it for some vegetarian guests of his and it was a massive success.

[lisarea]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

lemon jest.

Purple potatoes are also my favorite too, mostly for the same reason.

My only hesitation about switching to that as a default would be that I can't turn down the ass-cheap bags of Russets and Yukon golds.

I hate gardening, but I might actually try growing them or something if I could have a big old barrel of purple potatoes and fingerlings and stuff.

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by lisarea

Keepin' it 'cause it's adorable.

Originally Posted by lisarea

Purple potatoes are also my favorite too, mostly for the same reason.

My only hesitation about switching to that as a default would be that I can't turn down the ass-cheap bags of Russets and Yukon golds.

That's not a problem for me 'cause those huge bags tend to sprout before I'm close to being done with them. The purples, on other hand, stay hard and unsprouty much, much longer. Also I can get masses of them cheap at the farmers market.

I hate gardening, but I might actually try growing them or something if I could have a big old barrel of purple potatoes and fingerlings and stuff.

If the Irish could do it, so can you. Right Kael?

[Zehava]

As if beet wasn't enough, now we are going to have to hear stories of purple potatoe

[livius drusus]

First of all, you can never have enough and we all know that so don't even front. Secondly, potato purple doesn't stick with you like beet purple does.

[Dingfod]

Originally Posted by livius drusus

I'm with you on the sweet potatoes. Can you tolerate scallions? I know you hate onions, but do you feel the same about green onions? They are amazing added to a sweet potato mash with some lemon jest. wei yau can testify to that because I bullied him into making it for some vegetarian guests of his and it was a massive success.

I'm willing to try it. Actually, I don't even hate onions any more. I don't usually seek them out, but don't get icked out if they're in or on something.

[godfry n. glad]

Mom's Tater Soup...the thick stuff with 'rivvils' (handmade egg 'noodles').

I like all potato dishes, but I resonated most to Janet's mention of 'crispy, shredded diner-style hash browns'...mmmmm.

[Anastasia Beaverhausen]

I love potato in all its forms, but like YB, nothing beats lump-free mash. I use a little cream cheese, some butter, cream rather than milk (but maybe 2 tablespoons), s&p, seasoned salt, and garlic powder.

I also make a great fried potato that I just threw together one night. Peel, dice, boil. Canola oil and your cooked potatoes. I think I used nutmeg, cumin, and chili powder with s&p - I usually just grab whatever sounds good. Fry it until the spices are sealed on.

[Janet]

I had some amazing "au gratin" potatoes at a restaurant near my uncle's cottage on Memorial Day weekend. I put it in quotes because they were more like mashed with cheese and something to give them a nice tang. I tried to reproduce it somewhat the other day but I overdid the whole grain mustard and it didn't mush up like I'd hoped. So now I'm considering making plain mashed potatoes and mixing it in to level out the flavor.

[livius drusus]

Originally Posted by Dingfod

I'm willing to try it. Actually, I don't even hate onions any more. I don't usually seek them out, but don't get icked out if they're in or on something.

Wow, that's a major shift. Congratulations! To make the sweet taters, stab a couple of hefty ones with a fork all over. If you're in a hurry, microwave them on high for 7 or 8 minutes on each side, or until they're tender.

If you can afford to take the time, they're much more delicious roasted in the oven. Preheat the oven to 400. Place the pierced potatoes on a foil-lined baking sheet and bake for an hour or until you see them caramelizing (the syrup comes out of the fork holes and darkens).

Take them out and let them cool enough so you can handle them. Slice them in half lengthwise and peel. If they're properly tender, the entire peel on each half should just come right off. Put the insides in a large bowl and mash. Mash in a couple of tablespoons of melted butter, if you want. It's not necessary but it gives it a touch of creamy richness that I like.

Chop a bunch of scallions -- stick to the green parts if you want to avoid the most oniony flavor -- and stir them into to the potato mash. Zest a lemon and add that to the mash. Juice the denuded lemon and add that. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy the garishly awesome color combination and eat.

[Dingfod]

I just eat them with butter, skin and all.

[Ymir's blood]

My coworkers wanted to eat at Cracker Barrel so ok, whatever. But my mashed potaoes not only had skins in them but they weren't even creamy just a solid lump. So so sads.

[Watser?]

Originally Posted by Ymir's blood

Cracker Barrel

Omg, racism!!