What's your best, most delicious way to cook potatoes?

Boil em, mash em, put em in a stew!

But for real we eat a LOT of potatoes. When they're fresh and young we usually just boil them with a touch of butter and salt. But I also often use potatoes as a vehicle for sunroot as every year I have a couple stubborn jars of it fermenting in my fridge that need using before the next harvest. So some of the following are mixed ideas:
Potato & sunroot latkes
Potato & sunroot salad (either mayo or a olive oil dressing)
Gnocchi
Shepherd's pie
Mash (we eat this twice a week in the winter, with some fresh chives and parsley)
Potato, sunroot & leek soup
Smashed/roasted
And finally the dish that reminds me of my childhood with my German mother - Bratkartoffeln. Thinly sliced potatoes and onions are fried in oil. Sometimes she also added bacon but I leave it out. Simple but delicious.

Farm style stir-fry or hash browns. Farm style stir fry is just potatoes and other veggies from the garden, pan fried in butter or olive oil. Usually put the potatoes in the pan first, with lid on, add other veggies when they’re close to done.

Fried.  Bacon grease, sliced potatoes, simmer in a covered skillet.  
My wife makes them for me if I've been "good".
Neat trick because I love them and I don't know what exactly "good" means.
Gets some projects done around the house

For baked ones, I like to  either just prick them with a fork and bake them whole, directly on the oven rack for extra crispyness. This is especially good with floury ones like King Edwards. Or I cut them into chunks or wedges, heat a cast iron roasting pan on the stovetop with tallow, and mix the chunks into the tallow, sprinkle with salt, and bake for 30 minutes, stir, and then bake another 10-20 minutes, until fluffy and delicious.

For the waxy kinds, I slowly boil them whole with a bit of salt - slowly heating them up makes them stay in one piece. Once these ones are tender, we either eat them as-is, with butter or mayo, or I can roast them up in a little tallow to make them more crispy.

Now I want to go and make some potatoes...

One of our favourite potato dishes is a variation of Carol's leek and potato gratin.

Saute julienned leeks in olive oil with several cloves of crushed garlic, freshly ground black pepper and salt until just wilted.

Slice potatoes very finely with a mandoline allowing a couple of potatoes per person.

Sprinkle olive oil in bottom of a rectangular pan/pyrex dish. Starting with a layer of potato, top with 1/2 the wilted leeks, another layer of potato and leeks, top with final layer of potatoes and drizzle more olive oil over the top.

Bake @180C until golden brown, approximately 45m.

Another favourite recipe is diced baked potatoes tossed in lemon juice, lots of ground pepper, thyme and garlic baked until golden brown.

My husband makes a delicious fritatta with diced potatoes that he sautes until they are golden and fully cooked together with whatever vegetables are available - onions, mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, sliced greens (kale, spinach, silverbeet etc) sauted before combining with beaten and seasoned eggs to bind.

A one pan meal that we often have for dinner.

I have recently became fond of the simple baked potato as a canvas for all sorts of flavors. One hour in an oven at 400f does the trick. Just a little bit of salt and olive oil is all I add.

I have never had a spud blow up in the oven so I skip the stabbing with a fork part that some folks do.

A classic is dressing up the potato with sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, and some sliced scallion.

I note no one has shared their roast potato recipes yet. If you haven't cooked them, be warned that I find this a deceptively difficult dish to get 'right'.
First you need floury potatoes (like Maris piper or King Edward) that would be good for mashing or baking. Peel and cut them into smallish chunks (about 1 1/2 inch sides) then boil them for a bit less than they need to be fully cooked. They should be softening, but not soft enough to mash. Then drain and shake them in the pan to bash the edges a bit - this helps them soak up a bit of oil. At this stage you can add seasonings if you like (herbs, powdered onions, salt etc.) I don't bother and just have a bit of salt when they are cooked. Put them on a very hot oven tray with melted fat (high temp cooking oil, lard, goose fat is apparently traditional - they would originally have been cooked around the roast meat) stir them around to coat in the oil, then roast in a very hot oven (400F plus) for about 45 minutes, turning every 15 minutes or so to brown on each side. Oh my....there are never any leftovers!

Roast potatoes by baking queen

If you want more details baking queen gives a pretty good overview I think.
You can also 'cheat' a bit when giving the potatoes that shake before roasting, by putting in a little polenta flour - that also helps give a crispy coat.

Thin chip fries. I slice them thin, spray oil on them, shake some cayenne pepper on them and then bake them. Of course there is the old baked potato with vegan meat loaf. Also, I boil them, fridge them and then make home fries with onions....

I'm making a lot of mashed potatoes these days. We call them "Garlic Smash." You see, we are nearing the end of days with our stored home-grown potatoes from last year. My storage area isn't quite cold enough. They had a lot of flea beetle damage previously, and now larger sprouts are forming.

The potatoes are scrubbed, skins left on, heavily trimmed for damage and to remove the hard ends where sprouts are active, and chopped fairly small.

When tender, the potato water is drained off (and saved). When mashing, I add sea salt, seasoning salt, super fine minced onion, garlic, butter, and lots of sour cream. Small amounts of potato water are added as needed but the result is quite firm (not watery, which Dear Wife hates). I think they're mighty tasty.

Edit: I used to add milk when mashing, but that's the first thing that goes off. With the recipe above I can make a giant pot and it will keep for a week in the fridge.

Unlike Nancy, above, we do have leftover roast potatoes in our house. I love them sliced and fried the next day. Unfortunately, I do not have a very good recipe for them. When young, our children complained about my roast potatoes as they were "not as nice as daddy's". Somehow his have a lovely crispy outside and fluffy inside but even if I try and make them the same way, they turn out differently.

New potatoes boiled in chicken stock.

Douglas Alpenstock wrote:I'm making a lot of mashed potatoes these days. We call them "Garlic Smash."

Your garlic smash would make lovely fish cakes too.

We add smoked fish or a poached flaked fish, chopped chives, parsley and/or very finely chopped onion, form into patties, dip in flour, egg and breadcrumbs then shallow fry in butter and olive oil until golden brown.

They freeze well too - just free flow freeze and transfer to a bag when frozen.

Which reminds me, time to make a batch for the freezer😋

Found an old photo of a batch of fish cakes being formed in preparation for the freezer. I roll the mixture into a ball then flatten into rounds.

They have yet to be dipped in flour, egg and crumbed. I put all our stale bread through the food processor and either freeze or dry the breadcrumbs.

Megan, those look super yummy, and breaded & fried? Oh, my GOODNESS, they sound excellent!!

Thanks Carla, they are really delicious and versatile.

I make them with cold smoked fish or smoked salmon - they sell the packets of off cuts cheaper than the proper slices.

They are quick to prepare too, we grab them out of the freezer in the morning to defrost on the bench top or overnight in the fridge and serve with greens.

If small garden grown: steamed
For big winter keepers: boiled just enough, air dried a bit, and mashed with flour to make gnocchi

I like baked potatoes any way they are fixed though I do have three favorites:

Baked potatoes with sour cream, chives and a sprinkle of grated cheese.

Twice baked potatoes where the flesh of the baked potato is scooped out, add salt and pepper, butter and grated cheese.  Then the flesh mix is put back into the skin,  topped with more grated cheese and popped back into the oven until the cheese is melted.

Left over baked potatoes turn into cottage fries. the baked potato is diced then browned in butter with salt and pepper.

I grow a lot of parsley mainly for "parsleyed potatoes".  Of course, you'd have to like parsley!  I can't recommend subbing it out with cilantro or some other item.  There are only four ingredients and it is needed.

Pinch off parsley from stems until you have a pile equal to the potatoes. This can be done while the potatoes are boiling. (My mom used to use new potatoes, but I don't find it makes any difference; she also used to peel them after boiling them; again, I don't find it makes any difference, except it saves a lot of time and burned fingers to not peel, plus it's more nutritious.) Prior to boiling them, I cut them so that they are bite-sized or so; a small potato would be quartered, for example.

Once the potatoes are done, drain them and add in MANY slices of butter...for six to eight good servings, a whole stick is good. Don't be stingy with the butter or try to sub it out either; it's what makes it taste so good! To that, dump in the parsley (you can chop it somewhat, but it does not need to be minced if each 'floret' is about dime to nickel sized.  Add a generous sprinkle of salt and  toss it until all of the butter is melted and the parsley is well incorporated into the potatoes.

Oh, my gosh, you would not believe how four simple ingredients could taste so divine, but it does! It all can be made in the potato cooking pot, too, so little clean-up. I told a friend who also had lots of potatoes about the recipe.  I could tell that she really wasn't convinced.  I kept pushing her, and finally she tried it. Later that week, she sheepishly told me that she had made parsleyed potatoes three nights in a row!  That being said, it's not a recipe I dare have but a few times a year because I could easily scarf down the whole pot and none but the parsley are terribly healthy when overconsumed!

When I'm camping (and sometimes at home), I start the morning by heating potatoes in water just until it boils. Then I put the pot in the haybox cooker and let sit until it's time to cook dinner.

If I'm cooking on the stove, I slice them about as thick as my pinky and fry them in a little oil with onions until they're crispy on both sides (low heat is best).

If I'm cooking on the grill, I slice them lengthwise, brush with a little oil, and season with adobo. I place them on the cooler side of the grill face down and cook until they're crispy.

 This is my goto recipe for potato 2.5 or Rosti 2.0

The only other ingredient is butter. Not to say you cannot have variations
and other ingredients but this is the base and is complete in itself with
tomato sauce.

I call it 2.5 because it is first cooked in steam then fried and if you time
things right, the exposed skin is roasted to some degree. Just 2 phases
and you are done. Simple but satisfying. It is my comfort food except
. . . plot twist . . . my cardiologist insists I cut out potato as far as possible
along with rice, noodle and bread.

Here it is:

Although 'cooked with hot liquid fats' seems a very common theme here (and since chip shop chips [thick sticks of potato deep fried] are by definition not cooked ar home), I don't think anyone has mentioned our old family favourite: bubble & squeak?

Traditionally made with leftovers, but my dear late Mum used to cook up specially for Saturday lunch, I don't have a recipe.  

'Floury' potatoes (high starch polysaccharide content, cook fluffy with a dryish texture)
Brassica greens of your choice
Onion
Oil to fry
Lots of freshly ground black pepper

Boil the chopped potatoes as you do for mashing, drain (reserving the water for stock for another recipe) & mash with pepper. Lightly cook the chopped greens in another pot, chop the onions for frying.  Drain the greens (reserving the water as above).

In your frying pan, cook until translucent the onion.  Combine with the mash & greens with more pepper

Now fry the mixture as you like e.g. a hash, or little cakes, or as a pancake.

Serve with more pepper. These days, I might have it with home-grown broad beans or garden peas, other favourites of Mum.

Now I'm going to have to learn how to bookmark permies posts--especially since I got a good harvest this year. I've said potatoes are the number one crop to grow because they're fairly easy to grow and store, nutritious and maybe more versatile than any other vegetable...and here we have a massive load of new recipes. Barbara Manning alone contributed so much information, including details and correct spelling, that I hope she got bushels of apples for her posts.
I have a couple tips, maybe off topic slightly--the first one is what I did yesterday and this morning. I store most of my potatoes in a root cellar. They're harvested as early as early July, when it's 70 degrees F in there...far above ideal temperature. They seem to mostly keep well despite this, but nonetheless I want to get the temperature down as soon as I can. It was supposed to go down to 43 last night (actually 45) so I hauled all my potatoes a short distance to the greenhouse overnight and left the rootcellar door open (have to remove all contents so I'm not inviting mice into the rootcellar). I stopped on the way to spill each vessel onto the ground to  check for rot, which was due anyway.
On recipes, I don't have much to offer other than half baking whole potatoes, than scooping out a lot of the insides to mix with say fried burger and onions, garlic, maybe peppers, then briefly bake again.
But I will mention one of my two vegan recipes: make mashed potatoes the usual way, and meanwhile fry a whole pound of crumbled tofu, onions and garlic, and mushrooms if you've got them, the whole time the potatoes are boiling. In a small cast iron frying pan (that's what I use anyway) put in a mixture of 1/4 cup flour and 1/2 cup of nutritional yeast into a hot pan. After a minute of so, when you smell nuttiness, add a small splash of oil and 1 1/2 cups of water, and whisk to remove lumps. When it begins to bubble, add 2 or 3 tablespoons of tamari (you could probably use soy sauce or salt). Whisk most of the time until it has thickened adequately, then grate a little pepper on top, turn off the heat, and cover. Meanwhile steam some vegetable--green beans and greens both work well. Serve the mashed potatoes topped with the fried tofu mixture, topped with the gravy, and the veg on the side or mixed in.
Another one is potato chowder--I boil chopped potatoes with grated carrots (if you just chop the carrots they won't be done when the potatoes are.) Meanwhile I saute onions, garlic, a little sausage and maybe bok choy or chard stems. When the potatoes are mashable, I do that, possibly using an immersion blender if the potatoes are peeled, stir in the fried stuff, then if the texture is right (if it isn't necessary to boil off excess water) I add some milk and a bunch of grated cheese, usually cheddar. Serve with thick slices of buttered bread.

Hmm... as many recipes as there are potatoes LOL
I like potatoes in any form. However, my favorite (hard to pick) would be new, small, boiled, freshly pick red potatoes with tons of butter and  tons of finely chopped dill.
I've had a bad luck growing them 2 seasons in a row  (small yield) so I didn't bother this year.
The strange thing I noticed for the past few months, is that if I buy them from grocery stores, regardless of variety, are green while peeling !? They look normal, until I peel them. All have green color as if exposed to sunlight. Just can't win! Taste crappy too.