There are many different ways to prepare potatoes.

For baked potatoes:

- Clean excess dirt off the potatoes (do not try to rub the skin off!)

- Poke several holes with a fork into the potato

- Wrap up in paper towel and place in a bake potato bag and microwave for around 3 to 4 minutes on HIGH

- If using the oven method, preheat the oven to the desired temperature (preferably around 350 F) and wrap the potato completely in tin foil. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until the center is soft

- Take out to cool

- Best served with sour cream and bacon bits (vinegar and diced green onions optional)

For mashed potatoes:

- Clean excess dirt off potatoes

- Partially dry with a paper towel

- With a paring knife or carrot peeler, peel the skin in such a way that you are taking mostly the skin off and not the inside part

- Cut up into halves, quarters or eights, depending on the size of potato (the bigger the potato, the more halving needed to be done)

- Place into a big pot

- Pour water in the pot until the water until it completely covers the potatoes and cover with lid.

- Set on the stove top burner to boil (turn correct dial to Max) and cover with lid

- When the water has reached a hard boil, set the lid so that it slightly uncovers the pot and immediately set the stove-top burner setting to minimum

- After 20 minutes or so, test the potatoes with fork to see if they are soft (not hard, nor semi-soft nor semi-hard).

- When soft enough, drain the pot completely into the sink (use the lid as a strainer to keep the potatoes from going in)

- With a potato masher, mash potatoes until no chunks are left

- Serve with roast beef and corn, or chicken and green salad, or with a nice Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey dinner.

For scallop potatoes:

- Clean and peel as described in mashed potatoes

- Slice potatoes 1/4 inch thick each.

- Spread around and place in a cake pan

- Pour milk, flour, egg, and spices mix over potatoes (best to follow recipe for scallop potatoes)

- Bake for 30 to 45 minutes

For potato pancakes:

- Clean and peel as described in mashed potatoes

- Grate potatoes using a cheese grater (large holed grater highly recommended)

- Mix with pancake mix (as described in potato pancake recipe)

- Fry on pancake frying pan

- Serve with sour cream, vinegar, bacon bits and diced green onions

- Enjoy!!

The potato skin is a concentrated source of dietary fiber, so to get the most nutritional value from this vegetable, don't peel it and consume both the flesh and the skin. Just scrub the potato under cold running water right before cooking and then remove any deep eyes or bruises with a paring knife. If you must peel it, do so carefully with a vegetable peeler, only removing a thin layer of the skin and therefore retaining the nutrients that lie just below the skin. Potatoes should be cleaned and cut right before cooking in order to avoid the discoloration that occurs with exposure to air. If you cannot cook them immediately after cutting, place them in a bowl of cold water to which you have added a little bit of lemon juice, as this will prevent their flesh from darkening and will also help to maintain their shape during cooking. Because potatoes are also sensitive to certain metals that may cause them to discolor, avoid cooking them in iron or aluminum pots or using a carbon steel knife to cut them.

Aside from the alkaloids, raw potatoes also contain protease inhibitors, which can prevent you from breaking down protein, and resistant starches that you don't digest well and can cause digestive upset. If you get enough nutrients from other parts of your diet, you should be fine eating raw potatoes occasionally, but you'll get more nutrition out of them by cooking them to destroy the protease inhibitors and swell the starch granules. Boil potatoes between 10 and 25 minutes, depending on size and type, to become soft. You can also cook potatoes in a microwave oven, covered to prevent moisture from escaping, and still retain nearly all of their nutritional value. This method produces a dish very similar to a steamed potato, while retaining the appearance of a conventionally baked potato.

Whether mashed, baked, or roasted, people often consider potatoes as comfort food. This sentiment may have inspired the potato's scientific name, Solanum tuberosum, because solanum is derived from a Latin word meaning "soothing." Just avoid processed or fried potatoes. But fried, processed foods made with potatoes, such as potato chips and french fries, along with potatoes cooked at high temperatures, develop acrylamide, a potentially toxic and potentially cancer-causing substance. Potatoes that are boiled or steamed do not develop acrylamides.

Potatoes can be prepared in many ways. As potatoes have a neutral starchy flavor, they serve as a good complement to many meals. Their texture varies slightly depending upon their preparation, but it can be generally described as rich and creamy. Purée roasted garlic, cooked potatoes, and cashew milk together to make delicious garlic mashed potatoes. Season to taste. Potatoes are a featured ingredient in the classic dish, Salad Nicoise, that pairs new potatoes with steamed green beans dressed lightly with vinaigrette. Alternatively, you can toss steamed, diced potatoes with a dressing and fresh herbs of your choice.

Peruvians use potatoes in many dishes, as around 3,000 varieties are grown there. In Ecuador, potatoes are a staple in most dishes, and are featured in locro de papas, a thick soup of potatoes and squash.

A traditional Canary Islands dish is papas arrugadas (wrinkly potatoes). Patatas bravas (fried potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce) are popular in Spanish tapas.

In the UK, potatoes are often served fried as chips. Roast potatoes are commonly served with a Sunday dinner, and mashed potatoes form a major component of several other traditional dishes such as shepherd's pie and bubble and squeak (pan-fried leftover vegetables). New potatoes are often cooked with mint.

Scotts enjoy tattie scones made with potatoes. The Irish eat colcannon (mashed potato with shredded kale or cabbage and onion), champ (mashed potato with scallions), and boxty pancakes (grated potato pancakes).

Bryndzové halušky is the Slovakian national dish, made of a batter of flour and finely grated potatoes that is boiled to form dumplings. In Northern and Eastern Europe, especially in Scandinavian countries, Poland, Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, new potatoes are a delicacy, boiled whole in their skins and served with dill. Puddings made from grated potatoes (kugel, kugelis, and potato babka) are popular in Ashkenazi, Lithuanian, and Belarussian cuisine. Potatoes are also used to brew alcoholic beverages such as vodka.

In Western Europe, especially in Belgium, sliced potatoes are fried to create frieten, the original French fried potatoes. Stamppot, a traditional Dutch meal, is based on mashed potatoes mixed with vegetables. Pâté aux pommes de terre is a potato dish from central France.

In northern Italy, potatoes are used to make gnocchi, a type of pasta. Cooked and mashed potatoes or potato flour is used in the Knödel or dumpling eaten all over central and Eastern Europe, especially in Bavaria and Luxembourg. Potatoes are a main ingredient in many soups such as vichyssoise and Albanian potato and cabbage soup. In western Norway, komle (potato dumpling soup) is popular.

Mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, boiled or steamed potatoes, French-fries, cubed roasted potatoes, scalloped potatoes, home fries, and hash browns are all popular in North America. In New England "smashed potatoes" (a chunkier variation on mashed potatoes, with the skins) are popular. In central New York, salt potatoes are bite-size new potatoes boiled in water saturated with salt then served with melted butter. Latkes (fried potato pancakes) are also popular, especially during the festival of Hanukkah. Potatoes are also used as a stew ingredient.

In Canada, a traditional Acadian dish is poutine râpée. The Acadian poutine is a ball of grated and mashed potato, salted, and boiled, then eaten with salt and pepper or brown sugar. It may have originated from Klöße, prepared by early German settlers who lived in Acadia.

In India, popular potato dishes are aloo ki sabzi (spiced potatoes in gravy), batata vada (mashed potato patties coated with chickpea flour, then deep-fried), vada pav (the aforementioned batata vada served as a sandwich), samosa (spicy mashed potato mixed with vegetables stuffed into dough, and deep fried) and aloo chaat (deep-fried potatoes served with chutney). In Northern India, alu dum (a spicy potato curry) and alu paratha (a stuffed chapatti) are popular. Masala dosa (a thin pancake made of rice and lentils rolled around a filling of spicy mashed potato) from South India is popular all over India. Other favorite dishes are alu tikki (potato patties), pakora (battered, deep-fried vegetables), and aloo posto (a curry with potatoes and poppy seeds).

Potatoes are used in northern China where rice is not easily grown, and where a popular dish is qīng jiāo tǔ dòu sī, made with green pepper, vinegar and a thin slices of potato. In the winter, roadside vendors in northern China also sell roasted potatoes.

In central Africa, potatoes are mashed with grains and legumes, or boiled or roasted and eaten whole.

And of course, everywhere, food has been globalized, so potatoes worldwide are now being used to produce French fries (also known as "chips") and potato chips (also known as "crisps"). Try to avoid those, and enjoy a healthy potato often.

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