Lifestyles Ideas Management - Good potatoes

Good potatoes should be dry, firm and devoid of sprouts and bruises.
Avoid potatoes that are damp, feel soft or have discolored patches. Store them in a cool, dry, well-ventilated area away from light. Put them in a box or basket with air holes and store the box in a pantry, for examples.
Never keep them in the fridge as chilling them alters their texture and increases their sugar content, which makes them denser and darker after cooking. Only wash potatoes immediately before use. Spuds that are exposed to light develop green areas. These are tinted by harmless chlorophyll, but may also contain increased amounts of a bitter-tasting glycoal-kaloid compound called solanine, which is toxic in quantity. So if a potato has only small shoots and slightly green bits, and is otherwise still firm, just carve out the shoots and green flesh, wash the rest of the potatoes well and cook it as you wish.
If the potato feels flabby and shriveled, is blatantly green and as large shoots, throw it away. As for mash: The flesh of a potato is composed of tiny cells filled with starch molecules. A fluffy-textured potato’s cells separate easily when cooked, while those of a waxy potato stick together.
So the first rule of marsh is to choose a fluffy potato, such as a russet or s Yukon gold.
Next, you want to cook the spud until its cells swell up evenly and separate, without absorbing excess water.
The best way to do this is to steam the peeled, cut-up potatoes slowly until they are soft. Then, when you mash them, do so gently and tenderly by hand.
If you use a food processor, or attack them overzealously with a masher, you break too many cells open, releasing too much starch, resulting in a bowl of glue.
The best tool for mashing spuds is a potato ricer. This looks like a giant garlic press and is named because of the holes through which it presses the cooked potatoes are about the size of rice grains.
A ricer breaks up the potato flesh without traumatizing it.
The last step before you pig out is to gently whisk ample quantities of hot cream or milk and butter into the riced potato. Ask The Foodie Chris Tan.