I love Costco. When I buy food or... anything really, I always compare prices. Usually, Costco has the best price per unit. If it is a PENNY less per unit, I would rather buy it. It's a penny! A hundred of those and you have a buck! That's a Toothfairy stuff, right there!
So the last time I went to Costco, I noticed the price of my favorite little red potatoes, and nabbed a bag.
I prefer these vs. Russets
because:
- When I make baked potatoes, the boys have a perfect little serving size, and they eat the whole thing. Skins included.
- I'm convinced the color in the skin = higher vitamin level.
- They hold together better (vs. Russets) when I fry potatoes for breakfast or make french fries.
Basically, I don't buy Russets. So I got a huge bag of red potatoes. Moving along....
They sat in my pantry juuuust fine for a while, then one started to smell. Have you ever smelled a rotting potato? Holy hot dogs, Batman! I'd change a thousand breastfed-baby-converting-to-solids diapers before I ever preferred smelling a rotting potato. I couldn't let my money go to waste - my solution? Freeze them.
Here's what I did:
1. Clean out the sink. Plug the sink. Put all your still-good potatoes in the sink. Fill the sink with water.2. Pour about a cup of vinegar in the water. Let potatoes soak for about 10 minutes. Shove your hand in the sink and agitate the potatoes, kinda like a washing machine.
3. Drain the sink. Assure no potatoes went down into the garbage disposal.
4. Gently scrub each potato, then set in your cutting area.
5. Cut the potatoes. Dice them, slice them, cut 'em into french fries. However you choose. I chose to dice them all, since I can use them diced in country potatoes, morning scrambles, soup, and roast them in the oven with squash in onions. It was the most versatile cut for me!
6. Rinse out the sink. Plug the sink back up. Fill it up with clean water. Dump all of your newly sliced potatoes into the clean water, and let them soak for about 10 minutes.
7. Lay a towel on the counter (I had two towels). Drain the sink and put all of your soaked, cut up potatoes on the towel and spread them into a single layer so they can dry for about 30 minutes.
8. Separate the potatoes into the portion sizes you would like to freeze. I chose to use plastic, quart-sized, zipper freezer bags. Make sure you get all of the air out of the bag before you seal it. I also suggest patting the potatoes down in the bag so they stack nicely in the freezer.
**I am a bit of a perfectionist, so I used my kitchen scale to weigh out one pound of potatoes per freezer bag. I suggest you separate the potatoes into small portions like this (but not necessarily weighed into perfect portions), so you can adjust them in your freezer around other items. This way, you don't have a giant bag of potatoes taking up a large amount of space.
I made "country-style" potatoes with my frozen potatoes a few days later (maybe I'll write a post on those, next...), and they worked beautifully. I will continue to do this from now on!
Love and crunch, 
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