Not only the appearance, but also the taste of the dish depends on the shape of the potato cut: if the pieces are the same, then they are boiled or fried evenly. Homemade potato cutting is different from restaurant cutting. In restaurants, chefs do everything to make dishes look as impressive as possible, so they sacrifice savings in favor of beauty. Housewives try to clean and cut the tubers so that there is less waste. Restaurant cutting methods at home are used only in preparation for the holidays.
Preliminary preparation
Before cutting potatoes, the tubers need to be washed well. If you are going to peel the potatoes later, you can simply wash the skin with your hands so that the damage and eyes are clearly visible. But to prepare tubers in their skins (boiling in their uniforms, baking in a country style), they are washed especially carefully: rubbed with a brush under running water.
Even slightly damaged tubers are not suitable for boiling in their skins. If there are rhizoctonia black specks on the potato (they look like tiny lumps of dirt), they must be removed with a brush. There should be perfectly clean tubers of the correct shape, without damage. If such potatoes are boiled or stewed in the country style, they can be eaten with the peel: after brushing, the skin becomes thin, like tissue paper.
Potatoes that will be cooked without skins are cleaned after washing, eyes and damaged areas are cut out, and then they must be dipped in cold water so that the flesh does not darken. You should first cut all the peeled potatoes, then transfer them to a container for cooking. If you cut one potato at a time and transfer it to a hot frying pan or saucepan with boiling water, the pieces will cook unevenly.
Simple ways to cut potatoes
Simple methods of cutting potatoes include those that can be easily done using any knife, and without first “cleaving” the tuber: circles, slices, sticks, cubes, straws, slices, shavings.
Circles
Peeled and washed potatoes can be cut into circles 1–1.5 cm thick (Fig. 1). This cutting method is called paysanne. Pieces 1.5, sometimes 2 cm thick, are used for preparing “country” soups, stewing, and country-style baking. Mugs 0.7–1 cm thick are deep-fried.
Fig.1. Potatoes, sliced To fry potatoes in the usual way, the tubers are cut into circles 2–3 mm thick, and for making chips – even thinner, about 1–2 mm. Usually small and medium-sized tubers are cut in this way: it is difficult to separate a neat thin circle from a large potato with an ordinary knife. Therefore, to prepare homemade chips, it is more convenient to chop potatoes using a shredder (Fig. 2).
When slicing in a restaurant, mugs of approximately the same diameter are selected from the middle of the tuber, and the rest are used for puree.
Fig.2. Universal shredder for vegetables Slices
If the circles are cut into 2 or 4 parts, you will get slices (Fig. 3). The tuber is cut lengthwise into 2 parts. If it is large, then each half is also cut lengthwise into 2 parts. These pieces are cut crosswise. While one half of the tuber is being cut, the other half is immersed in water.
Fig.3. Slices Slices 1–2 cm thick are suitable for making soups and baking. For frying, potatoes are cut into slices 2–3 mm thick. The rule for restaurant slicing is the same as for mugs: choose slices of the same size.
Slices
Medium, less often small, tubers are cut into slices. First, cut the potato into 4 parts (as for slices). To get slices, each quarter is cut in half (Fig. 4). This is an excellent cutting form for baking duck stuffed with apples, stewing with meat, and cooking country-style potatoes. The slices are also deep-fried.
Fig.4. Slices The restaurant form of slicing differs from the home one only in that tubers of approximately the same size are chosen for holiday dishes.
Whetstones
Restaurant cuts:
- Select tubers of approximately the same size, wash and peel them.
- Cut a piece from each side of the tuber to form a rectangular parallelepiped.
- Cut it into plates.
- Stack the plates one on top of the other and cut them into bars.
When slicing at a restaurant, the slices should be identical (Fig. 5). The cross-section of the block is a square with a side of 6–7 mm. This cut is called batonnet. These sticks are deep fried.
Fig.5. Homemade potato slicing 
Rice. 6. Restaurant cutting of potatoes into wedges When cutting at home, the tuber is not pre-trimmed, so some pieces have an irregular shape and differ from others in size.
For soups, shorter sticks are used, cut using the prentanière method: 3–4 cm long and 0.7–1 cm thick. The prentanière sticks are fried (in the usual way and deep-fried), and stewed.
There are slicers on sale that can be used to easily and quickly cut potatoes into cubes, even for a very large company.
Fig.7. Slicers for cutting potatoes into cubes Straw
Straws are very thin sticks.
Types of straws:
- julienne – blocks 2 mm thick and 2.5 cm long;
- share - length 4–5 cm.
The straws are most often deep-fried and used to prepare Korean salads.
To cut the tuber into strips, you need a very sharp knife. It is much easier to chop potatoes using a grater for Korean salads or using a special device (Fig. 8).
Fig.8. Devices for cutting tubers into strips Cubes
To get cubes, the tuber is cut into sticks, then a stack of sticks is cut across (Fig. 9).
Types of cubes:
- brunoise – edge 1–2 mm;
- jardiniere – 3–4 mm;
- Macedonian (macédonienne) – 5 mm;
- paisan - parallelepipeds with a base 1 × 1 cm and a height of 0.3–0.4 cm.
Raw tubers are cut into cubes for soups, boiled ones for salads.
Fig.9. Cubes Shavings
Potato chips are long thin ribbons 1–2 cm wide. They can be cut with a regular knife, but there is also a special device that allows you to make very even and neat chips (Fig. 10). Potato strips are deep fried.
Rice. 10. Potato planer
Methods for “grinding” whole tubers
To make whole potatoes seem the same and look more beautiful in the finished dish, they are given different, sometimes intricate, shapes.
Barrels
To make a keg:
- The top and bottom of the potato are cut off.
- The sides of the tuber are “ground down”, forming a barrel (Fig. 11).
The barrels are stewed whole or the middle is removed, stuffed and baked. Barrel-shaped tubers are stable and can be placed compactly in a baking dish.
Garlic
To make garlic, the barrel is cut into slices. A little pulp is trimmed off the sharp edge of each slice (Fig. 12).
Fig. 12. Garlic "Accordions"
Deep transverse cuts are made on the tubers at a distance of 3–4 mm from each other (Fig. 13). Pieces of lard or cheese are inserted into the slits and baked.
Fig. 13. Baked potato accordion "Pears"
The tuber is “grinded”, giving it the shape of a pear. Such potatoes are usually baked (Fig. 14).
Rice. 14. Potato “pears” "Lapti"
Medium tubers are washed and cleaned. A transverse cut is made on the tuber. Using a knife and spoon, a “bast shoe” is formed (Fig. 15). Shallow transverse and longitudinal cuts are made on the “toe”. Lapti are stuffed, greased with butter and baked in the oven.
Rice. 15. Potato “bast shoes” "Mushrooms"
A circular transverse incision is made on the tuber washed with a brush. One half of the potato is left in the peel (this is the “hat”), the second is trimmed, forming a “leg” (Fig. 16). The “mushrooms” are brushed with butter and spices and baked.
Rice. 16. Potato “mushrooms” Shaped potato cutting
Curly cutting requires special tools.
Wavy chips
The peeled tuber is cut in the same way as into circles, using a special knife with a wavy blade (Fig. 17).
Rice. 17. Chip knife Balloons
To make potato balls, you need a special spoon. It is stuck into the tuber and the stalk is rotated around its axis. The result is neat, identical balls the size of a hazelnut (Fig. 18). They are baked or deep-fried.
Rice. 18. Potato balls Spirals
A metal skewer is inserted into the raw tuber. Then a device with a sharp blade is screwed onto it (Fig. 19). The knife cuts the potato so that you get one long ribbon 1 - 2 mm thick, twisted into a spiral.
Rice. 19. Potato spirals The spirals are not removed from the skewers, but are immediately deep-fried (like chips). These “kebabs” look very impressive.
Slicing for cooking country-style potatoes
Students at the University of Essex found that when baked, the largest area of pieces will be covered with a golden crust if:
- Cut the tuber lengthwise.
- Cut each half at an angle of 30° (Fig. 20).
Fig.20. Tuber slicing For today, another simple recipe - we are preparing a delicious second course (or appetizer, as you like) - potato pie. If you have never tried this dish, I can say that these are a kind of homemade potato chips.
Potato pie turns out crispy, tasty, impressive and very easy to prepare. It can be served as an original appetizer or main course with fresh vegetables, sauces, a side dish for meat dishes, or used as an ingredient in salads (for example, Wood Grouse's Nest).
Potato pie is salted (or flavored with seasonings) in its ready-made form. Even after a day, these thin potato sticks retain their crispy properties. In any case, no matter how you serve it, this simple potato recipe will surprise you with its originality, not hackneyed and appetizing crunch. Quite a worthy replacement for everyone’s favorite French fries!
Ingredients:
Cooking step by step:
To prepare potato pie, I advise you to choose smooth, medium-sized root vegetables, preferably without eyes, so that the stripes are long and of the same size. Peel the potatoes and wash them in cold water.
Then we choose one of two grinding methods. You can take a sharp knife and cut the tubers into very thin, long strips. But it is much more convenient to use a Korean carrot grater. Then three potatoes in one direction so that you get long strips.
Now you need to rinse it thoroughly to remove the starch, otherwise nothing will work. We wash the potato straws in cold water 2-3 times until they are transparent.
Then you need to remove excess moisture, for which we place the straws in a colander or sieve. Now the potatoes will not darken.
At the end of preparation, lay out paper towels in several layers and distribute potato straws on top in an even layer. The less moisture there is in the potatoes, the faster and better the potato pie will cook.
Take a saucepan or any other dish, not wide and deep enough. Pour refined vegetable oil into it (I use sunflower oil) and heat it over medium heat until a slight smoke appears. You can check the readiness of the oil this way: just throw a couple of potato straws into it. If the oil begins to sizzle and bubble immediately, it means you can cook in it. You need to add potatoes in portions, otherwise they will not be able to cook properly. I did this in 5 steps. Throw some of the potatoes into boiling oil and fry over medium heat for 3 minutes. At first, the potatoes will become very soft, it will literally seem like they are crumbling into porridge. At the same time, the oil boils and bubbles very actively. But this is one of the stages of preparing potato pie. Then you will see how the boiling begins to subside (even though we did not reduce the heat), and the potato straws become dense and elastic. And finally, the potatoes will begin to acquire an appetizing blush. Attention, the most crucial moment! Just when the straw starts to brown, it will be ready in a matter of seconds, so don’t leave the stove. Using a slotted spoon, remove the finished portion of potato pie and place it on a paper towel. Prepare the rest of the potatoes in the same way.
Just half a kilo of (unpeeled) root vegetables yielded a decent amount of potato pie. Now you can add salt to it, but I'll be honest. I didn’t even add salt - and it was so delicious.
Potato pie has long ceased to be an exotic dish for Russians. This dish is often served in cafes and restaurants. However, not everyone knows that you can easily prepare these delicious potatoes at home. If everything is done correctly, guests and household members will certainly appreciate the culinary efforts of the hostess.
Potato pie is potatoes peeled and cut into thin slices, fried in a large amount of vegetable oil.
Some nutritional experts consider this dish extremely harmful to the stomach.
However, in reality this is not the case. These delicious fried potatoes only become harmful if you fry several portions in the same oil. This is usually done in catering establishments - bistros, cafes and restaurants, to save oil. But no self-respecting housewife, of course, would do that. But you should keep in mind that, like all potato dishes, “pie” is high in calories, so if you have diabetes or obesity, it is better to forget about this dish.
Potato pie - American cuisine recipe
Experts say that one of the most common American cuisine recipes in the world is the “potato pie” recipe, or simply French fries. This is the recipe used to prepare the dish in most cafes and bistros. Any housewife can also cope with this task at home.
In order to surprise your guests with real American potatoes, you need to:
- Take half a kilo of potatoes, wash the tubers thoroughly and peel them. Wash the peeled tubers again and finely chop the potatoes. You can use a special grater for cooking carrots in Korean;
- Place the resulting “chips” in a plastic bowl, add water and leave for twenty minutes so that all the starch goes into the water;
- Place in a colander and dry the potato chips on both sides so that excess water completely evaporates;
- Fry in boiling oil, stirring constantly, until nice golden brown. You can remove the finished potatoes using a slotted spoon. Serve hot.
Pie is good both as an independent dish and as a side dish. It can also be added to various salads. It is better to eat potatoes as early as possible, since their taste may deteriorate when stored in the refrigerator.
Potatoes with pink skins are not suitable for preparing a tasty dish, since such varieties contain a high concentration of starch. Also, when choosing between young and old potatoes, it is better to give preference to the old ones, for the same reason.
Salad with potato strips and chicken
Potato straws go great with chicken.
Fans of separate meals may argue that you cannot combine carbohydrates with proteins, but a salad with potatoes and poultry is an ideal option for a hearty dinner.
Here's how to do it:
- Mix the prepared potatoes with boiled chicken breast cut into strips;
- Add pickled onions;
- Place hard-boiled chopped eggs into a salad bowl;
- Add mayonnaise, salt and pepper to taste;
- Mix all ingredients until smooth;
- Garnish with cilantro or parsley.
This salad will turn out especially tasty and less caloric if you season it with homemade mayonnaise rather than store-bought mayonnaise.
Appetizer with Korean carrots
Fried potato shavings go well with Korean carrots. Thanks to the neutral taste of potatoes, carrots lose their extra pungency, so both adults and children will enjoy eating this dish.
To prepare you need:
- Cut into pieces and fry the breast or turkey until golden brown;
- Place the meat in a salad bowl;
- Spread mayonnaise on top;
- Place a layer of prepared Korean carrots and coat with mayonnaise again;
- As an additional layer, you can add “Korean” beets and (or) cabbage to the carrots), this layer is also coated with sauce;
- The fried potatoes are nicely placed on top.
If you put a couple of quail eggs in the center of the finished salad, the dish will look like a swallow's nest. This decor option is suitable for any holiday feast.
Lenten salad with potato pie
You can prepare potato pie for a healthy and tasty lean salad.
During Lent you often feel hungry, so such a hearty dish will come in handy, especially in winter.
To prepare you need:
- Cut the red onion into rings or half rings;
- Cut the pickled cucumbers into small cubes and mix them with the onion;
- Take some sauerkraut, squeeze it to remove excess water, and add to these ingredients;
- Mix all ingredients with chilled potato chips;
- Season with a mixture of mustard and olive oil.
You need to mix the salad very carefully to maintain the beautiful shape of the potatoes. You can season the dish with lean mayonnaise. Anyone who does not like mustard can only use oil; it is advisable to give preference to olive oil or a mixture of olive and sunflower oils. To add an oriental flavor, soy sauce is suitable.
Preparing an appetizer with mushrooms
Potatoes with mushrooms are a classic combination of Russian cuisine. By adding forest products, you can give an American dish a Russian national flavor.
To prepare you need:
- Sauté onions and carrots until golden brown;
- Add chopped champignons or porcini mushrooms, simmer in a small amount of water;
- Dissolve processed cheese in boiling water, pour the resulting mixture into vegetables, simmer for fifteen minutes over low heat;
- Add salt and pepper to taste, boil for another five to seven minutes;
- Gently sprinkle potato chips on top.
Thanks to the melted cheese, this dish tastes somewhat like French julienne, but, unlike julienne, it does not contain meat. Therefore, this is an excellent dinner option for those who do not eat meat products.
Smoked chicken breast salad recipe
Potato pie salad is prepared not only with boiled, but also with smoked poultry. But you should keep in mind that smoked meat is much higher in calories than boiled meat and also contains more fat.
To prepare you need:
- Chop the smoked breast and pickled cucumbers into thin strips;
- Cut the onion into half rings, pour over boiling water and drain in a colander, then it will not be bitter;
- Place the bird and onion in a deep bowl, coat with mayonnaise. It is better to apply mayonnaise in the form of a mesh so that the salad does not turn out too greasy;
- The next layer should be placed on the mayonnaise grid of pickled cucumbers, this layer is also coated with sauce;
- The potatoes are carefully placed on top and sprinkled with finely chopped cilantro (parsley, basil). It is better not to use dill; it does not go well with meat and poultry.
To make the dish more appetizing and slightly crunchy, you can add croutons to it. They are placed in the salad strictly before serving the finished dish on the table. If you put them in right away, they will become soggy and lose their crunchy properties.
Prepare delicious and crispy potatoes at home. A properly prepared dish will certainly help out the hostess in those cases when there is no time to prepare delicious dishes, and guests are already on the doorstep.
Perfectly even slices of fries, sauce and a soft drink are frequent attributes of fast food advertising brochures. And if few people admire the last two components of the banner, then potatoes are the peak of culinary perfection. How to cut potatoes into strips at home? Nothing could be easier! Let's hone our skills together.
How to create potato masterpieces easily and quickly?
The easiest and fastest way to cut slices of raw vegetables is to use a special device - a square vegetable cutter. Fortunately, today there are plenty of such devices. They come in the form of a removable attachment on a plate or jar, are part of a manual food processor, and are also represented by a special tetrahedral grater with a pointed edge.
Using such devices is quite simple:
- Using a knife, cut off the bottom so that the tubers can be placed in a vertical position on the table.
- Place the vegetable slicer on top with the sharp edge on the vegetable pulp.
- Admire the result.
Perhaps the only drawback of this method is that it is impossible to regulate the thickness and length of the bars. And the length of the straw depends only on the pressure of the hand. So if physical strength is not enough, the vegetable cutting method is not suitable for you. But don't worry, there are other options.
Sleight of hand - and no vegetable cutters
Even though potatoes are mostly round in shape, they can easily be cut into neat, thin strips using a sharp kitchen knife. True, this method is quite labor-intensive, and the process itself will take a lot of time. But the finished result is worth it. Shall we try?
So, let's do the following:
- Wash and peel the potatoes as you did before.
- Trim the ends of the tubers so that they are flat on all sides.
- Don't forget to remove the parts from the base too. The result should be a perfectly even rectangle.
- Now cut the pulp into thin slices. Each cut should be no thicker than 4 millimeters.
- Place the slices flat on a cutting board and cut crosswise into thin strips.
- The perfectly smooth and thin straw is ready. It can be seasoned and baked in the oven.
Such thin slices are suitable for making salads, although it is better to boil the potatoes first, and also as an Indian side dish with hot spices. But it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to fry such straws. Thin strips will quickly boil, and as a result, instead of fried potatoes, there will be vegetable porridge in the pan. Although this is a matter of taste.
Cutting potatoes like at McDonald's
Fragrant and crispy French fries with garlic sauce... Just the thought of them awakens your appetite. Of course, you can not bother yourself too much and just buy ready-made frozen potatoes in the supermarket. But who knows what kind of tubers they are, how long they are stored there and what they are made of?
It’s much healthier and tastier when you cook French fries at home. Moreover, the technique is very simple:
- Traditionally, we wash and peel the potato tubers. It is desirable that each of them be almost equal in length and oblong in shape.
- Cut each potato in half. Then we divide the resulting parts in half again in the longitudinal direction.
- We cut each strip into 4 parts.
- While we are cutting a new batch, we place the already prepared potatoes in a bowl of water. This way there will be less starch, and the potatoes themselves will not have time to turn black.
Now you can look for a suitable recipe for making French fries in the oven, slow cooker, microwave, or just in a frying pan. By the way, it will be very tasty if you roll the potatoes in olive oil with spices and crushed garlic before frying.
"Country-style potatoes"
Don't like French fries? Then perhaps you will like spicy country-style potatoes. This simple dish is now served even in the most fashionable restaurants.
To prepare such potatoes, you will need to find and buy tubers in the store as young as possible. Choose those vegetables whose peel in your opinion is the thinnest, smoothest and without burrs. By the way, there should be no green spots on the root crop. Often they are direct witnesses to the content of pesticides and other inedible chemicals.
In general, when the purchasing and selection process is complete, your actions should be as follows:
- Using a soft brush or an ordinary clean, preferably a new kitchen sponge, thoroughly wash the potatoes from dust and dirt.
- Without peeling the skin, cut the tubers into halves.
- Now the resulting pieces need to be cut in half again.
- Shape each quarter to the desired size. Usually it is enough to make just one transverse incision.
- These are the resulting potato slices.
- But the work doesn't end there. Place potato wedges in a flat-bottomed bowl and cover with cold water.
- Let the straw lie there for 5-7 minutes. This will help rid the potatoes of excess and unnecessary starch.
- Then transfer the slices to a paper towel.
- After all the water has drained and been absorbed into the napkin, the potato straws are ready for further use.
Remember that any of the above options takes practice. It is unlikely that you will be able to create perfectly smooth blocks the first time. Usually, novice cooks have to spend a lot of free time and mountains of spoiled vegetables to achieve ideal results. We can only wish you further success!
Fried aromatic crispy potatoes are a quick and simple dish that has been loved by many since childhood. But not every housewife knows the secrets of properly frying potatoes. Frequent complaints are that potatoes stick to the pan, some potato sticks burn, while others turn into crumbs. To avoid cooking failures, you should learn some culinary tricks.
Different varieties of potatoes have different cooking times, so in order for them to fry evenly, you need to use potatoes of the same variety for frying. The best option is medium-cooking potatoes with pinkish skin, hard and well-retained shape.You also need to skillfully cut potatoes. A tuber cut too coarsely will increase the cooking time, and finely chopped potatoes will turn into mashed potatoes during frying. The pieces when cutting should be the same. Cut into slices, cubes, sticks, strips or slices.
In order to guarantee a crispy crust on the potatoes, you need to remove excess starch from them. To do this, sliced potatoes need to be soaked in cold water for about an hour and then dried with a paper towel.
It is better to fry potatoes in a bowl with a thick, flat bottom. It must be dry and clean. A cast iron, ceramic or non-stick frying pan will work.
You need to place the potatoes in a frying pan in one or two layers at most.
Fry potatoes over high heat. Add butter, vegetable oil or other fat to a hot frying pan. The first time you need to turn the cut potatoes over after 7 minutes. Then turn over every 5 minutes. It is better to do this with a wide wooden or plastic spatula, immersing it from the edge and lifting the lowest layer of potatoes to the top in one easy movement.
You need to salt the dish at the very end of cooking. Then add onions, chopped garlic, cracklings or a beaten egg to the dish.
Some housewives cover the pan with a lid 5 minutes before the end of cooking to allow the potatoes to steam.
You can check the readiness of the dish by breaking one of the pieces in the middle. If the potatoes break easily, then the pan can be removed from the heat.
If the potatoes have just “grabbed” in the frying pan until golden brown, but remain raw inside, you can bring them to readiness in the oven.
If the potatoes are too oily, you can place them on a thick layer of paper towels before serving. They will absorb excess fat.
If potatoes stick to the frying pan, the reason is a poorly heated frying pan or poor quality oil.
Fried potatoes should be served immediately after cooking; potatoes taste best “hot and hot.”
- In contact with 0
- Google+ 0
- OK 0
- Facebook 0
