Modern housewives do not always have time for a long period of standing at the stove. As a result of sophisticated dishes are rare, and in usual days on the table are semi-finished products. Of course, fast food are very comfortable, but their harm to health is obvious. At the same time, there is a useful and tasty alternative to semi-finished products - potato casserole Casseroles. The variety and economy The recipe is simple and tested for a long time.

The correct choice of potatoes - the success of casseroles

Potatoes have long entered the diet of Europeans, and today almost impossible to imagine that at one time residents of the Old World do without this root. Potato dishes are present in a variety of national cuisines, and in many countries to the potatoes are treated with respect. For example, in Ireland this humble vegetable confer the ability to kindle desire, and in Belarus unveiled a monument to the potato.

Potatoes are pretty well kept, so it can be used within six months, even a year after the harvest. However, it is important to remember that the amount of vitamins in the roots decreases over time, so the new potatoes are always healthier and tastier than last year.

There are many varieties of potatoes. Soups and potato salads ideal low starch content (also sometimes referred to as "wax"). Such tubers retain their shape even after prolonged heat treatment. The low content of starch is typical of the early varieties of potatoes, such as the Adretta, Kalinka, effect, Rossiyanka, Ilyinsky. For potato casseroles are more suitable starchy, floury varieties such as weaving, Bronnitsky, The blue, Lasunak, Tempe. Generally, starchy peculiar primarily of mid and late varieties of potatoes, it should take into account when buying.

Unfortunately, the citizens who buy potatoes in the supermarket, do not always know exactly what sort of potatoes they sell. If the seller knows the name of varieties should be guided by the appearance of the potato: starchy varieties are usually oblong tubers dry flesh and skin from white to brown. Varieties with low starch content usually have a thin reddish skin. In addition, it should be noted that the potatoes are always less rich in starch than the old.

Regardless of which variety of potato used, root needs to be benign - hard, dry, with a smooth skin without greenery. Do not buy a soft, wrinkled and sprouting potatoes - probably, he had long been stored in improper conditions. When choosing potatoes, the tubers should be preferred to smooth and even skin: peeling "skin" - a sign that the potatoes are ripe.

Despite the fact that it is more convenient to clean large potatoes, root crops is better to choose small or medium size. In such tubers nutrients contained a third more than their larger counterparts. If you peel the potatoes gently crackles when you try it tore - a sign ecological purity of the product. But high humidity tubers acquire from an overabundance of nitrates.

French potato gratin

Most often, when preparing potato casserole Potato gratin: simplicity and sophistication in one dish   She added to meat, fish, mushrooms or vegetables - it makes a hearty meal. However, potato casserole can delight superb taste and without these additions. The classic French recipe contains only potatoes, cream and sour cream, and the result is a delicious dish that is good both as a garnish for meat or fish, as well as independent dishes.

To prepare a casserole need one kilogram of potatoes crumbly varieties, half cup cream or whole milk, garlic clove, forty grams of butter, sour cream and forty grams Smetana: untold riches of Russian cuisine Half a teaspoon of salt. Potatoes should be cut into thin plates with thickness up to three millimeters and rinse in cool water. Baking dish need to rub a clove of garlic and grease with butter, then put the potato slices on top of each other in the form of shingles. When the form is completed by two-thirds, the dish pour need cream or six percent fat milk in which the dissolved salt. Milk should barely cover the potatoes. Top casserole future smeared with a thin layer of sour cream. Sour cream can be positioned on top of the thin slices of butter.

Casserole set in a preheated hundred and eighty degree oven and cooked for one hour to complete absorption of milk in the potatoes and browned.

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