Potatoes are brilliant

I like baked potatoes, you can draw little faces on them and talk to them like they deserve.

Oh yeah! I forgot about that. You can even use them for printing!
and Spud Guns..... remember them?

I shall try the talking to them thing. It'll be sweet talk.... Unless they're bad potatoes.

I'm very worried about you two.

crisps

Had a potato that looked like a face and kept it for a few weeks, called it Horace.

Was thinking of writing a childrens book about it, never came to anything though.

Horace was thrown in the bin when he started to smell, but I did keep a photo of him.

True story.

Is the photo on your bedside cabinet?

No, MD.

Here he is:

[   This image is no longer available.   ]

Horace looks a bit like the Elephant man.

Goodness!

It has a proper little face. It's quite sweet

That fella above isn't really Horace, couldn't be arsed looking for photo and scanning it, so found this one on the www. Similar to mine but not quite as cute.

Your project  for next week is to find Horace's photo and put it on here.

A serious question has just arisen.

Mrs Study just kindly prepared a Jacket potato for me as I've recently developed this hankering.
Just Cheese and Cole Slaw. The other day for dinner I had one with cheap tinned chilli (the only possible use for cheap tinned chilli, imo)

On both occasions she put the butter on the top of everything. Whereas I would have put it on the potato first and the other toppings on top of that.

Which of us is right?

Was very nice btw, and I complemented it with some Lemon squash!

Butter on top of everything. Mrs Study is right. In my opinion.

Butter on first!

only a simpleton would put butter atop the toppings

3-2 then, so far.
I might let this run, a bit like the 'Nice' biscuit (is it N-Ice or N-EEce?) argument we tried to get decided on here a few years ago.
That finished up about level too! Something like 35 ish each iirc.

No sour cream on the jacket potato study?

Nice biscuits have always been Nice as in France, to me.

Not crazy about cream Hank, except in some cooking, but I can see the appeal.

You could be my mrs, M_D.......
You have at least 2 things in common.

Do you like nagging too?

I try not to nag, Study. I am very tolerant. Mr Makybe would probably disagree.

Just to keep things even study - N-ICE for me

Ta.

Good stuff MD. I live with Naggy Nellie unfortunately. You know that condition folks have where they are scared to go out. Well, I'm the opposite, I'm scared to go back in. I even have a name for it, Nagoraphobia.

Never mind the children's story about the potato. One about the carrot I dug up a couple of years ago would be a top-shelf bestseller:

Potato then butter then topping.  Obvious really.

We are very lucky Columbus discovered America....otherwise we would not be enjoying them now

Jury results from somerset...

1. Butter first ...as night follows day
2. N-ice biscuits

potatoes used in cleaning sliverware

love the chips - but on my banned list - once a fortnight?
clear oils banned.

boiled spuds add carrot and mash with butter - all good.

shouldn't say this but LIDL sells potato salad in creme fresh which is AWESOME. £1,75
for a big tub. Sell one in yogurt too but it's rubbish.

garlic mash  - good.

Tomorrow morning I am going straight to shop and gonna get baking spuds, red cabbage and carrots... 2 big baked spuds with homemade coleslaw and loads of butter.  Proper breakfast.

for breakfast

I prefer my English Breakfast

If I must sacrifice that I wish Columbus had not discovered America

But that would mean no roast potatoes, fried potatoes or chips......an incredibly tough decision

I grew about 30 pounds of potatoes in sacks this year.

My favs being Pink Fir Apple(which looks nothing like a traditional spud) and a purple variety , purple all the way through .....delicious

I once ordered an English Breakfast in Holland and remember sending the side salad it was presented
with directly back to the kitchen

Pink fur are indeed a superb spud.  Small yield per plant but tasty as fk, just scrub, boil and add butter and salt.  Perfect accompaniment.

I've never tried Pink Fir. Will have to get some.

Pink (with) Fur on the other hand........






I know, unnecessary.

Don't like em meself they err just another Peruvian import we wud be better orf wivout

Best method to bake a spud?
I like a crispy skin, fluffy in the middle..Fail every time.
Help.

Rub olive oil on the skin before baking.* Salt as well, if you like salt (I do). Don't pr1ck the spud before putting in oven. Score a cross on it instead with a knife. This makes it easier to cut open.

*Use your hands to apply the oil. If you are gay, it is possible to purchase a little cookery brush for this purpose instead.

paulypaul, wash potatoes, pat them dry with kitchen roll. I always prick them with a fork in a few places (about 6 or 7 times per spud) (as not above). Rub a little salt onto the skins. Oil too (as above). You could wrap each one in foil before cooking, I don't do this usually, but last 1/2 an hour or so they must be naked for crispy purposes.
About an hour and a half at 180ish in the oven for an average sized potato, 4 or 5 in oven, but different ovens different times. Always preheat oven first. If no good, give them a bit longer. Once they start going a bit wrinkly and the fork goes in easily they should be done.
Once cooked and cooled they'll keep in the fridge for 2 or 3 days and can be microwaved to reheat. I tend to give about 1.5 -2 mins, then add any cheese or chilli and nuke for another minute.
You could cook them in a microwave from scratch. Same preparation then 4 or 5 mins full power then turn over and the same again,but they won't be as good or as crispy as the oven ones.

A couple of practices you'll get it right.

Apparently, although I've never done it, the insides of well done Jacket potatoes makes the best mash!
You can then fill the skins with some of the mash mixed with Bacon and cheese for example.

I once saw an episode of Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Hotel Nightmares USA in which he threw a microwave out of a first floor window.

I would strongly advise the public NOT to attempt to bake, reheat or otherwise prepare a potato or anything else in a microwave. The food will look and taste like you've urinated on it, and you'll be wasting hours afterwards clearing up the mess from chucking the device out of your bedroom window.

Is your microwave in the bedroom ?

Bedroom/kitchen, its all the same. 90% of forum users live in Bedsits

Actually, screaming, you're right. I don't know how people actually cook things in a microwave, but they are still useful for reheating day old takeaways (Indian and Chinese especially) that you deliberately buy too much of.

I have a dog. There is no such thing as "too much" takeaway in this house.

I lived for a decade with a girlfriend who insisted on a ludicrously expensive, brand-new halogen cooker, yet cooked every bloody thing in a microwave or a George Formby grill. Ten years of watery, metallic, fat-free and tasteless bilge. I wouldn't have minded, only I myself wasn't allowed to cook on account of being useless at everything (except spending money, of course).

Anyway, she's long gone now. Took the expensive cooker with her, mind you. I wish I'd seen the Ramsay episode earlier, and I would have known what to do with the microwave as she walked out. I left the George Formby grill in the back of a cupboard when I sold the house. This is the purpose of the Formby grill: to be received as a gift and placed at the back of a cupboard. On no account ever use it for cooking. What the hell is the point of removing fat? The fat is where the goodness and taste is. You might just as well save electricity and eat cardboard instead.

Has soup been mentioned yet?  Had homemade leek and potato soup tonight.  Fk me when you are in the mood I think it is the tastiest thing in the world with buttered rolls. And I cant stand leeks normally, just go so well in soup. Can make a big fk off pan of the stuff and only prob costs about £2.00 for the i gredients and you get 5 or 6 massive bowls of the stuff.

Havent got any buttered rolls but im about to meet two lovely baps.

Frozen pre baked potatoes like McCain's are awful.

However you can cook some varieties of spud in a microwave and the inside turns nice.

Its all about getting the right type of spud.

Have to disagree about the McCain frozen spud, best around if you can't be @rsed to do your own.
Prefer my own baked spuds though

Potatoes can go in most soups and give them lovely consistency. Nice mention, rob.
The reason Indian restaurant Onion Bhajis are better than supermarket and most homemade ones is that they add little gratings of potato as well as onions (and gram flour and spices).

I have to agree that potato things don't always freeze brilliantly and my least favourite 'tater is the oven chip (has oil included in it).

So long as there aren't a couple of little spuds to go with them roy....