Boling Potatoes The Right Way

If you are just starting living alone, one of the things that you need to learn is how to prepare your food without undercooking or overcooking them. While undercooked foods may be remedied by heating them in a pot or in the microwave oven, extremely overcooked foods might end up in the wastebasket.

Because potatoes is one of the most common and easy to prepare meal, it is necessary that you learn how to cook this crop even before you move out of your parent’s house. Here are the steps on how to boil potatoes the right way and without consuming a lot of time.

1. Preparing the Pot

Fill your pot with water and set it on your stove. Set the heat to medium high. Add a pinch of salt to the water. Salt helps the potatoes cook faster.

NOTE: Consider how many potatoes you are going to boil before filling the pot with water. The water that you boil should just be enough to submerge the potatoes about two inches below the surface.

2. Preparing the Potatoes

While waiting for the water to boil, start preparing the potatoes. Wash the root crops under running water in order to get rid of the dirt and soil that still cling to its skin.

If you prefer to, you may also peel the potatoes after washing them. The best way to do this is to use a peeler and to have the trashcan or the sink catch the skins. You might need to wash the potatoes again after peeling them.

Place the potatoes on top of the chopping board and cut off the ends of the potatoes. Cut the potatoes into 1-1.5 inch cubes or according to the recipe. Cutting the potatoes into cubes also allows them to cook faster.

NOTE: Get rid of the ends immediately after cutting them off so that they will not be mixed with the diced potatoes.

3. Cooking the Potatoes

Once the water is boiling and you are finished preparing the potatoes, carefully drop them into the pot. Just allow them to boil for 20-25 minutes or until they are tender. You might need to turn the potatoes over through occasional stirring in order to help them become tender faster. To check if the potatoes are already cooked, use a fork to check their tenderness. If the potato starts to break when you use a fork, it is now time to take them off the heat and to drain the water using a strainer.

Cooking potatoes might seem easy. However, the most common problem when it comes to this task is overcooking the potatoes. Don’t worry much about it, though. Overcooked potatoes may be used in preparing mashed potatoes.

By: Roberto Bell

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Please click these links if you want to know more about how to boil potatoes or how to boil potatoes in general.