2017-1-30 - Boiled potatoes experiment #1 (under 40 min. prep to eat) (approx. 3 lb small potatoes)

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Wanted boiled potatoes and marinated herring for lunch. The results were not what I expected but I had plenty of potatoes to go with the herring. Quick release definitely *not* indicated with the recipe as it is below.

Ingredients:
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2-3 lbs small boiling potatoes (this time it was Wellsley Farm yellow potatoes bought at BJ's)
water (amount in question)

Directions:
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According to the picture above:
1) pricking the potato is not necessary
2) "steaming" by using a small amount of water works just fine (less water needed to bring up to pressure should cut down on the "prep to eat time"
3) potatoes were cracked on removing from pot also dry and fluffy (more like baked potatoes), however, became moist and more firm (somewhat) after chilling in fridge for a day - go figure.

manual, high, 15 min., quick release

Notes:
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Not many recipes for potatoes to be found on web.

Picked out the smallest potatoes from a fresh 10-lb. bag. This is the first experiment in "boiling" potatoes and it turned out "less than optimal".

First, the potatoes were so overdone they were dry and fluffy - just like baked potatoes. I suppose if I wanted to turn boiling potatoes into "baked" potatoes, this would be the recipe for it. Also, some/many of the potatoes had cracks in the skin. This may have been due to quick release instead of partial release or natural release.

Second, the quick release drew small particles of potatoes onto the lid and valve. Am not sure there was enough to get into the valve, but I took care to rinse it very well.

Third, as you can see from the picture, the top layer of potatoes wasn't under water. Since there was no difference, that I remember, between them as to results, it probably doesn't doesn't matter.

Fourth, I refrigerated the left over potatoes but haven't yet tried slicing them for the frying pan. Will need to remember to note results here.

Update:
-Spoke with Deb about her stove-top pressure cooked potatoes and thanks to her input have decided that it's probably not necessary to prick the potatoes. That's a habit developed when microwaving.
-I also wasn't sure if potatoes needed to be covered in water. It seems to me, after this first try, that steaming (little bit of water) works just fine. Have found a couple of recipes on-line that corroborate that
-I was also surprised by the potatoes after chilling in the fridge - they were moist! They also held up better than expected to slicing and frying although they were softer than intended.
-The potatoes were soft enough for mashing, though I'd rather peel them first if that's their purpose. 15 min. was too long for the amount of potatoes I had in the pot.
-It seems it will take some work to find a recipe that makes bulk "boiled" potatoes done enough to eat and yet firm enough to use in, for example, potato salad.
-Tracking this might boil (pun unintended) down to something like keeping track of the brand name of potato used.