How to cook potatoes

Potatoes come in a lot of different varieties and you don't always know how to cook them. I'm going to show you some main varieties from Coles and some ideas on how to use them.

First up, we've got the brushed potato. This is an all-round potato. It's still got the dirt on it, and it's really good for making fluffy mashed potato.

There's a couple of tricks to making the perfect mashed potato. Once you've cooked your potatoes for 15 to 20 minutes and they're really tender, drain them and stand for 5 minutes so any liquid can evaporate and it won't give you a watery mashed potato.

So, once you've mashed your potato, it's best to add the butter first, so that it can melt and be absorbed before any of the other liquids.

Here's something you may not know. Hot liquid is much easier to add in than a cold liquid and it'll give you a nice fluffy mash. It's got a mixture of half cream and half milk.

What potatoes are best for making chips?

I've got a washed white potato. They're sometimes called a Creme Gold potato or a Nicola. These are great because once they're fried, they're nice and crispy on the outside, but fluffy on the inside.

To make the perfect chips, you want to cut even-sized batons in the chips. They're about 1 to 2 centimetres thick. You just want to lay them on a tray lined with paper towel. It just removes any of the excess moisture. So, we just pat them dry.

The secret to the perfect chip is to fry the potato twice. The first time is to cook the chip through. The second time is to get a nice golden, crunchy outer edge of the chip.

I've got a trick for you. To test if the oil's hot enough, if you don't have a thermometer at home, put in a wooden spoon and it should bubble. And then you know your oil's at the correct temperature. Otherwise, with a thermometer it's 180 degrees.

So, add the chips in batches, and they need to cook for about five minutes, and they should float to the top when they're cooked.

Remove them from the oil and place them on a paper-towel-lined tray. Then add in another batch.

OK, now the chips have been cooked the first time, you need to rest them for 15 minutes to cool down, so we can get that nice crunch on the outside.

So, now we're going to fry them again. Into the hot oil - same temperature, 180 degrees - to crispen up. So, I've added the chips in batches. That's because if you add too many in, you drop the temperature of the oil and it takes too long to cook the chips.

Look how golden and delicious they are. And then just sprinkle with some salt.

What about baby potatoes?

They're great because you don't have to peel them and they're really yummy boiled. And all you have to do is serve them with some butter and some herbs or make them into a potato salad.

My favourite way to serve boiled potatoes is to roast them. I'm going to show you how.

Once the potatoes have been boiled, you just place them on a tray and slightly crush them with the palm of your hand. Then grab some spray oil and give them a spray.

I'm going to pop them in a 200-degree oven for about half an hour.

These are the easiest roasted potatoes you'll ever make, super crunchy and delicious.