With the cold weather currently raging in the UK, people are likely to start thinking about those winter warming comfort meals – soups, stews and roasts. All of these comfort classics have one thing in common – fries.
But there’s nothing worse than rustling up a cozy evening meal and realizing that your potatoes have sprouted and grown a life of their own in the cupboard.
Anna Zita, a chef and cooking instructor at the New York Institute of Culinary Education, shared her top tips with Martha Stewart to make sure your potatoes stay fresh for as long as you need them.
First, you need to keep them away from light. Exposure to sunlight causes potato skins to turn green and any parts with this shade become bitter and unsafe to eat.
However, if you’re desperate and the green isn’t too widespread or deep, it’s possible to remove the skin and still eat them – but it’s not ideal.
So you want to store them in a dry and dark place with good air circulation, like a kitchen cupboard.
Another common mistake people make is storing potatoes near onions – an easy mistake to make as they are often found in the immediate vicinity of the supermarket.
However, this can cause your potatoes to sprout even faster due to the ethylene in the onion, which can also cause the onion flavor to permeate the potato, which may not be what your recipe calls for.
It’s also important to make sure your potatoes are breathing. If you store them in an unventilated area, such as in a plastic bag or a sealed tub, it can allow moisture to collect and make them more likely to rot.
For this same reason, Zita recommends that you never wash potatoes before storing them.
Although potatoes like cool, dark places, they should never be put in the refrigerator. Low temperatures can convert the starch in potatoes to sugars, causing them to turn dark when cooked. They also produce higher amounts of acrylamide — a cancer-causing agent, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
When properly stored potatoes are cooked, the rules for storing leftovers are largely the same as for other foods.
Refrigerate them in an airtight container, reheat them thoroughly before enjoying them, and make sure they are ready in three to four days.
