Different potatoes for different needs

Nov 19th, 2007

I was out grocery shopping and found these pink potatoes from Australia. They look so pink and cute, so I bought three. Over here in Malaysia, we get our potatoes from several countries, namely USA, India, Indonesia, China, Holland and Australia. I had also bought baby potatoes from UK before which is kick ass expensive.

Do you know that potatoes from different countries are good for different dishes? Of course, potatoes from Indonesia and China are very cheap and hence, they are often used by the mass produced meals like the economy rice stalls. However, if you are cooking curries, the best potatoes are from India. It is firmer and it last better in curries as it will not break into tiny pieces. However, I hardly buy potatoes from India because they take a mighty long time to be cooked till soft in my soups.

Meanwhile, the more floury types are the USA potatoes which normally are rather large. They become soft (flaky?) and needs shorter cooking time. It is best for making homemade mashed potatoes (click the green link for recipe), salads and quick boiled soups.

As for Australian potatoes, they have several types. Until today, I haven’t quite master all the potatoes names but as a general rule of thumb, the larger the potatoes, the flakier and easier to cook.

And if you have bad luck, you may end up with some real bad potatoes which will remain slimey even after cooking. I think I got one of the Indonesian potatoes that turned out like that. No one wants to eat it!

Here is an informative page from Wikipedia on potato. Remember that if your potato has sprouted plants, it is time to throw them out because those green parts are toxic (but not enough to kill you though). There are information on Wikipedia :

Potatoes contain glycoalkaloids, toxic compounds, of which the most prevalent are solanine and chaconine.

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5 Comments on “Different potatoes for different needs”

#1 moo_t
on Nov 19th, 2007 at 6:08 pm

Normally I just remove the sprout and remove all the “sprout area”, which can be seen clearly after you remove the skin.

Back in 90’s, a news report that says a China farmer try to be thrifty, instead of throwing the heavily sprout potatoes, he fed his pigs with it. All his pig are poisoned and die. No, I don’t encourage people to poison their enemy/ex with potatoes
#2 ginger
on Nov 19th, 2007 at 11:43 pm

The potatoes looked too red to me! Normally here in Melbourne, I see these potatoes in much milder pink in colour. I guess you tweaked the colour a bit too much! Lol.
#3 Yatie
on Nov 20th, 2007 at 1:54 pm

thx for the advise. thank god cos normally i throw when the potato start sprouting. so the pink potato tu masak ape??
#4 Recipe : Potato gnocchi | Best recipes, foods and travel
on Oct 31st, 2008 at 11:16 pm

[...] grated. So, my son and I decided to turn the mashed potatoes into gnocchi. I have an old post on different potatoes over [...]
#5 One advice : Never attempt gnocchi unless you know your potato LOL | Best recipes, foods and travel
on Oct 31st, 2008 at 11:21 pm

[...] and has that springy bite to it. But nahhh…never attempt gnocchi unless you know that your potatoes won’t turn [...]