The Loving Your Leftovers Series: #2 Potatoes

[Anna N]

In my world it is not hard to find a use for leftover potatoes. Home fries, potatoes O'Brien (who knew you could buy them frozen), potato salad, fried potato planks or coins, just as a start (for boiled potatoes). 

Bubble and squeak, cheesy potato patties and salmon cakes barely skim the surface of what you can do with mashed potatoes. 

Even so it's easy to fall into a rut. 

Initially, I was inspired by  scubadoo over in the breakfast thread but then I decided to surf the web.

I stumbled across a recipe for gado-gado as a way to use up leftover potatoes. I knew  that I had neither the time, the patience nor the ingredients to go full monty but here is a leftover potato that, like Topsy, just grow'd and grow'd. 

 

 

 Leftover potato, zucchini ribbons, blanched broccoli, red onion and tomato with a peanut-based dressing.  I should've thinned down the dressing a little but I had more on the side. A larger plate would've been a good idea too. 

 

So..... How do you make use of leftover potatoes?  

Edited April 8, 2017 by Anna N
Because I didn't get the title right (log)

[MelissaH]

I've discovered that I really only care for leftover potatoes when they're baked and left whole, or mashed. For the baked potatoes, I cut them into cubes and turn them into home fries. For the mashed potatoes, I either use them in bread dough, or put them on top of a stew, à la shepherd's/cottage pie, although I don't limit myself to either lamb or beef in the filling.

 

Leftover french fries really don't do it for me.

[Anna N]

57 minutes ago, MelissaH said:

I've discovered that I really only care for leftover potatoes when they're baked and left whole, or mashed. For the baked potatoes, I cut them into cubes and turn them into home fries. For the mashed potatoes, I either use them in bread dough, or put them on top of a stew, à la shepherd's/cottage pie, although I don't limit myself to either lamb or beef in the filling.

 

Leftover french fries really don't do it for me.

I would be amazed to learn of a way to make french fries worth eating once they have cooled off. 

[Soupcon]

Actually I love left overs,  so I always cook too many red skinned or yellow fleshed (boiling) potatoes and even baking potatoes. I use them in pot pies, potato salads, many composed salads where potatoes are just one of the ingredients, for home fries where they are fried in chicken, duck or bacon fat as a component of a meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner). I also use the flesh from leftover baking potatoes as thickener is soups. I am just scratching the surface of how I use them.

[Anna N]

43 minutes ago, Soupcon said:

Actually I love left overs,  so I always cook too many red skinned or yellow fleshed (boiling) potatoes and even baking potatoes. I use them in pot pies, potato salads, many composed salads where potatoes are just one of the ingredients, for home fries where they are fried in chicken, duck or bacon fat as a component of a meal (breakfast, lunch or dinner). I also use the flesh from leftover baking potatoes as thickener is soups. I am just scratching the surface of how I use them.

Keep scratching. That is what this is all about.  Do you have any methods of using them that would catch us off guard as in make us do a double take?  

[barolo]

2 hours ago, MelissaH said:

I've discovered that I really only care for leftover potatoes when they're baked and left whole, or mashed. For the baked potatoes, I cut them into cubes and turn them into home fries. For the mashed potatoes, I either use them in bread dough, or put them on top of a stew, à la shepherd's/cottage pie, although I don't limit myself to either lamb or beef in the filling.

 

Leftover french fries really don't do it for me.

 

How can there be leftover fries?  Unless they were crap from the start of course. 

[Darienne]

Leftover potatoes?  No such animal in our house.

[kayb]

I love a potato, leftover or fresh. Leftover baked or boiled make potato cakes, or get used in hash. Leftover mashed go in potato cakes or in a ramekin to get twice baked the next day with eggs, cream and cheese, and maybe bacon, on top. Or I may use them, if I have leftover ham, in croquetas, the lovely little Cuban ham and potato fritters. I've also been known to freeze leftover latkes and heat the up in the CSO. 

[Kerry Beal]

Baked Potato, Leek, Cheddar and Bacon Soup - Anna N originally linked me to the recipe from Fine Cooking a few years back. 

 

Leftover mashed - croquettes with some sauteed onion, cheddar, usually some crumbs on them before frying thoroughly in butter and oil.

[suzilightning]

I still to this day make extra potatoes of any kind....

baked or boiled become hash browns or eggy potatoes or topping for a cottage pie or part of a fish cake(sorry folk -,from the east coast so NOT salmon)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Toliver]

On 4/8/2017 at 2:02 PM, barolo said:

 

How can there be leftover fries?  Unless they were crap from the start of course. 

When my mom would make a fish fry for dinner, there would often be leftover french fries (we'd deep fry about two big bags of the frozen crinkle cut fries). The next morning my dad would pan fry the leftover french fries with some of the leftover fish in a cast iron skillet, perhaps even topping it all with a fried egg. My brother and I carry on that tradition. 

 

Leftover mashed potatoes usually became fried potato "pancakes"/patties (add an egg and a little flour). 

[Shalmanese]

Leftover mashed potatoes can also be turned into gnocchi.

[sartoric]

Cooked and crushed potatoes are the basis for a yummy dosa filling with a little ginger, garlic, green chilli, turmeric and salt. Or, fill samosas with the same plus a few frozen peas.

[Okanagancook]

Mexican chorizo sausage cooked to render the fat and then mixed in with frying leftover potatoes topped with an egg done sunny side up.

[ElsieD]

23 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

Mexican chorizo sausage cooked to render the fat and then mixed in with frying leftover potatoes topped with an egg done sunny side up.

 

Well done!  You get to repeat this post in the leftover sausage topic.  Double whammy!

[Anna N]

On April 10, 2017 at 1:00 PM, Toliver said:

When my mom would make a fish fry for dinner, there would often be leftover french fries (we'd deep fry about two big bags of the frozen crinkle cut fries). The next morning my dad would pan fry the leftover french fries with some of the leftover fish in a cast iron skillet, perhaps even topping it all with a fried egg. My brother and I carry on that tradition. 

 

Leftover mashed potatoes usually became fried potato "pancakes"/patties (add an egg and a little flour). 

 Well, bless my soul, I never thought I would ever see a recipe that actually called for leftover French fries.  But there it is in stark black-and-white:  1 cup leftover fries.  You'll find it in:  Egg Shop: The Cookbook.  Breakfast burritos that include leftover fries.   

[Dave the Cook]

52 minutes ago, Anna N said:

 Well, bless my soul, I never thought I would ever see a recipe that actually called for leftover French fries.  But there it is in stark black-and-white:  1 cup leftover fries.  You'll find it in:  Egg Shop: The Cookbook.  Breakfast burritos that include leftover fries.   

 

Seems like I once saw an episode of Justin Wilson's show where he made potato salad out of leftover fries; I assume some sort of recipe was involved. I was a JW fan (not the least because his schtick amused me), but it looked pretty awful.

[IndyRob]

My favorite yeast rolls call for mashed potatoes.

[Dave the Cook]

One of mine, too.

[chromedome]

I've used leftover fries in frittata-style breakfast casseroles. When you have a restaurant with a fryer, leftover fries are one of those path-of-least-resistance ingredients at the end of a long day. 

 

(Yeah, I ate a lot of "breakfast for dinner")

[Toliver]

Not that I have potato pancakes on the brain but I just stumbled across this recipe for "Potato Cake Benedict" on the Pioneer Woman web site that calls for 3 cups of leftover mashed potatoes.

I haven't tried the recipe but I think I would miss not having the English Muffin involved somehow. 

[Anna N]

1 hour ago, Toliver said:

Not that I have potato pancakes on the brain but I just stumbled across this recipe for "Potato Cake Benedict" on the Pioneer Woman web site that calls for 3 cups of leftover mashed potatoes.

I haven't tried the recipe but I think I would miss not having the English Muffin involved somehow. 

I think I could cope without the muffin. Adding coconut oil to Hollandaise?  Not so much. 

[IndyRob]

23 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Adding coconut oil to Hollandaise?

 

I can't speak to this particular application, but I've recently found that mixing butter with coconut oil is a very good thing.

[Anna N]

10 hours ago, IndyRob said:

 

I can't speak to this particular application, but I've recently found that mixing butter with coconut oil is a very good thing.

I have some unopened coconut oil in my cupboard so I'm quite curious. In what way is adding it to butter "a very good thing"? 

[IndyRob]

I've been frying my eggs in coconut oil and then adding butter to the pan to fry up some toast using a slice of Texas toast bread.  I think toast out of a toaster will now be a bit of a disappointment for me

 

Of course the classic use is to use coconut oil to pop popcorn and top it with butter...