We eat a lot of potatoes in our house. As in, potatoes are a permanent entry on our weekly shopping list. Ninety-nine percent of the time, we're buying plain old red-skinned potatoes. Roasted, boiled, or steamed, these guys stay creamy and sweet. We love them! Do you?
Red-skinned potatoes are considered a waxy potato, which means they have a smoother texture and hold up well to cooking. They hold up so well, in fact, that we consider them more all-purpose than actual all-purpose potatoes like Yukon golds!
We toss our red-skinned with oil and roast them in the oven; cook them with onions for breakfast hash or a dinner frittata; boil them for potato salad; even slice them thinly for microwave potato chips. No matter what kind of preparation we throw at them, our red potatoes rise to the challenge.
Another bonus is that the skin on red potatoes is so thin that they don't require peeling. We give them a good scrub in the sink, chop them into bite-sized chunks, and they're ready to go. Easy peasy.
There's absolutely nothing fancy about the kind of potato we buy, either. They're not heirloom or even organic (though we've been seriously considering switching to organic given the permanent presence of potatoes on the Dirty Dozen list). We'll switch over to buying our potatoes at the farmer's market once they're in season, but the rest of the year we're buying them at the chain grocery store across the street.
Do you love red-skinned potatoes too, or has another kind of potato claimed your affection?
Related: Top Five Things to do with Potatoes
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I choose the kind of potatoes I buy based on my weekly menu, in function of what they'll be needed for (boiled, pan-roasted, oven baked, mash, etc.) and I buy only the quantity I need. Just like I did in the UK. I miss their 'potato system'. Nowadays I always have to check what kind of potato I'll need to buy ahead of time as I never remember which kind is best for what use.
I agree, red potatoes are awesome. My husband makes fantastic skillet potatoes with red potatoes, onions and various fresh herbs from our garden. He starts it on the stove in the cast iron pan, to give the potatoes a nice brown crust, then adds the onions, and then finishes it up in the oven. So delicious!
I also just saw Deb at Smitten Kitchen posted a recipe a few days ago for a red potato and blue cheese tart. I can't wait to make that!
I adore red potatoes. I just made a few recipes with these babies-like dirty potatoes with kalamata olive "dirt" rubbed on salty roasted reds and non-mayo salads.
Parboiled and then diced and sauteed, red potatoes make a wonderful Southwest whatever with beans, corn, and salsa.
We adore red potatoes! In our house, we have my husband, who is gluten-free, and me, who is low-fat and low-fiber. Before our medical issues got in the way, we ate nearly everything, starch-wise, but with the recent revelations of our gut issues, we now can only share two options: potatoes and rice. It's really not as bad as it sounds. As starches go, potatoes and rice are easy, cheap, versatile, and tasty, but I'm awfully grateful to have red skin potatoes. If I had to eat mealy Russets all the time, I'm pretty sure it would be rice, rice, and more rice in our house. :)
Red potatoes are delicious. It's funny to hear them called "plain, old red-skinned potatoes," though. I reached adulthood before ever laying eyes on any potato other than a russet. Even though they are widely available now, I still think of them as sort of exotic.
LOVE red potatoes. Hardly think there is any other kind of potato worth eating, save for a sweet potato, but I digress...cooked in crab boil and then mashed with butter - known as 'Red Hots' - is my favorite way. Yum!
Red potatoes were the only kind my French grandmother ever used, generally sauteed with shallots. I'll still occasionally use russets, but they always seem too mealy to me.
LOVE these. During the summer, I quarter them, toss them in oil and season. I then spread them out on a piece of foil, make a flat packet, and toss it onto the grill. It saves us from heating up the kitchen when it's hot outside. Sometimes I'll just season with salt and pepper before putting in the packet and tossing them in a vinaigrette after they come out of the packets.
I just made a red potato blue cheese tart last night, recipe from SmittenKitchen. It was absolutely amazing.
I LOVELOVELOVE red potatoes! I grew up on ND black dirt reds. I hate russets. They are so mealy and dry. And Yukon's are vastly overrated.
So yeah, yay reds! :) And I never peel them. Why bother when the skin is so thin and delicious? I love smashed potatoes and green onion and potato soup best.
Happiness, that blue cheese potato tart makes me want to go on a fancy picnic at the fancy public garden.
Love 'em.
Red potatoes are the backbone of my dear departed MIL's "cabin potatoes." Whenever we went up to the lake we'd wake up to the smell of her cooking up a red potato hash with mushrooms...oooh, I miss her fiercely as well as those potatoes. No one else makes them quite the same, not me nor my husband.
The only potato I buy. They have less starch and take less time to cook.
We were just having the "potato" discussion last night over dinner.
Remove their skin...that is where all the good stuff is.
They are my "go to" potato!!! But with the skin please!!!
... Where I live, red potatoes are an expensive fancy variety, and the cheap generic ones are white. But with that recommendation I might shell out for a bag and use some for seed next I'm planting...
cut in quarters with tons of rosemary and garlic then roasted forever until they are cripsy on the outside and tender on the inside. omg yes.