Potatoes for mashing and freezing

[snohare]

I was on a forum recently where someone with digestive troubles, who cannot eat many foods, was desperate for a way to make mashed potatoes that could be pre-cooked, then frozen and thawed at need, and would actually be nice to eat ! When I say desperate, I mean this is someone likely to be losing weight rapidly, spending all their money on medical bills and trying to hold down a job, while severely fatigued and lacking in appetite. As you can imagine, potatoes are excellent food for such a case, due to their high nutrition value.
Can anyone here recommend what types of potato would be best for this ? The original poster is in the States so most of our varieties are probably not available there; but if for example, only waxy potatoes will do, then that helps them find the right sort. (Must confess, I am always rather confused about what floury versus waxy is better for.)
Any help gratefully received !

[solway cropper]

My OH often makes batches of cottage pies which are pre-cooked and then frozen to be cooked later in the oven. The mashed potato on the topping is whatever variety we have lying around but would normally be a floury maincrop type.

Never tried it but I suspect potato cakes made with pre-mashed spud and grated cheese would work just as well.

[veggiechicken]

I would have thought that floury potatoes are best for mash. Never tried freezing mash though. You can freeze cooked jacket potatoes though so I guess that's much the same idea.

[Aberdeenplotter]

it would take less time to bake a spud in the microwave than it would to defrost a lump of frozen mash . Maybe float that with your contact Kenny

[bearded bloke]

Mash the spuds,let them cool,shape into cakes,coat in beaten egg,roll in breadcrumbs & freeze.
Either shallow fry or grill as you would a fishcake.

[Ananke]

I have froze leftover mash and it is pretty yukky when defrosted and reheated. That was just cheap supermarket spuds so maybe there is a variety that does freeze well.

[zazen999]

I agree with AP; 10 mins in a microwave, scoop out the spud, mash and bob's your uncle. Hot mash.

[Peppermint]

I quite often freeze left over mashed potato. Usually it's supermarket potatoes (though we hope to grow our own this year :-) ). Just pop the left over mash into a a freezer tub, cool and then into the freezer. Can be defrosted and microwaved or simply taken out of the freezer and microwaved from frozen (for those 'emergency meals' moments). Sometimes I need to make a meal at short notice and having some frozen mash potato helps (as does frozen roasties, rice etc.).

Frozen mash isn't quite as nice as freshly made, and with some varieties can be a little watery, but re-mashing it with some butter and seasoning perks it up. I make quite a lot of cottage pies for freezing and I top my mash with grated cheese which gives it a nicely browned and tasting topping. So some of the toppings and alternative ways of using mashed potatoes already mentioned would probably be very nice. It would also be worth looking at recipes for home-made fishcakes which usually have mashed potato as a base.

Using a good mashing potato helps. The Potato Council recommends Estima, King Edward, Maris Piper and Desiree Potato Varieties - Potato Council

[SarzWix]

Mash the spuds with as little added milk/butter as possible, then scoop into mounds with an ice-cream scoop. Freeze on trays, and then put into a plastic bag and exclude as much air as possible. To reheat, put as many scoops as required into a pan with a bit of milk/cream & a knob of butter and stir the potato into the heating milk/cream.

Any maincrop spuds will do really, your friend should just use the variety that they usually use.

[morverngirl]

I'm not an expert but are potatoes the ideal nutrition for someone that suffers fatigue. Mashed potatoes have a relatively high Gylcaenic index(GI) and therfore the blood glucose rises quickly and then falls which can give rise to tiredness.Baked potatoes are a bit better. I also have fatigue from my fibromyalgia and my daughter had chronic faigue for over 10 years so we have a good idea which foods help and those that don't. How about a celariac mash or squash which is low GI and not cause the fatigue

[Scarlet]

I wounld'nt go to the trouble of cooking/bagging/freezing etc. I'm also with AP a baked spud in the microwave is faster

[snohare]

Wow, lots of replies ! Ta muchly folks.
Sounds like floury potatoes are the way to go. I don't know why but I would have thought waxy. As the person posting didn't know anything about potatoes other than where to buy them, that might be a lot of the problem !
I think part of the reason that they wanted mashed potatoes is that when potatoes are reheated, there is a higher amount of a certain type of fibre that they wouldn't get from a once-baked potato. This might be something that is particularly important to this person; some people with Crohn's Disease can't cope with dietary fibre while for others it is crucial to wellbeing. Of course, if you are only able to eat a single meal, missing out on most of the fibre might be important.
In many cases roasting or frying ingredients is off the menu as well. Presumably the person who posted knew a good recipe, knew that a certain amount of butter, salt or whatever was okay, and just was not willing or able to risk experimenting with any other recipes. (All Crohnies know about "Russian roulette with food" - I was once ill for six months because a hotel gave me the wrong sort of milk.)
What you said is perfectly correct morverngirl, it's exactly the problem that I have often had. I won't eat oatmeal porridge on its own for exactly that reason (I always add buckwheat). With many Crohnies however, the short-term acute fatigue is due to electrolyte depletion caused by diarrhoea, and what most Crohnies are desperate for first and foremost is a food which stops that chronic diarrhoea, or at least does not cause it. That is partly what makes potatoes so valuable, despite other shortcomings.
Thanks for the tip about celeriac and squash, I might try growing some of that for myself.

[SarzWix]

I use Desiree for mash generally, and they're quite waxy

[snohare]

they're quite waxy

Hmm...back to square one ?

[SarzWix]

Nah, they should just use whatever they usually use for mashing. I don't think it will make a lot of difference - frozen chips are usually floury potatoes like Maris Piper? So they must freeze okay. And I've done it with Desiree which are waxy. I think it's the method of cooking/defrosting which makes the difference to the end result. I always thought frozen mash was disgusting until I did the thing of heating a bit of milk in a pan and stirring the potato into it. If milk is a problem, then it might be worth trying it with a bit of water?