Pre-preparing breakfast scramble -- potatoes

Question

I liked to cut up a bunch of onions and bellpeppers once a week so that when I make eggs in the morning I just need to put a scoop in the pan and add the eggs once they are cooked. This has been going well, but I want some more variety by adding sausage and potatoes to the mix as well. For the sausage I plan to precook it and mix it in with the veggies. However, I'm not sure what to do for the potatoes as they take longer to cook.

Should I simply chop and microwave them and add them? Or would I need to fry them a bit in the pan first so they will cook a bit in advanced?

Answer 1

You're right that they will need to cook a bit longer than your other ingredients and you should plan on cooking them separately for that reason.

If you just want them soft then I would dice them and cook them in the microwave until they are done. For the quantities that I prepare it is only 5-8 minutes and they are almost completely cooked.

If you want them crispy then you will need to fry them. Precooking them in the microwave will make the frying go faster and be more even.

After the potatoes are cooked feel free to mix with the other veggies. They will keep in the fridge for a while- the sausage will go off before the potatoes do. If your potatoes were fried you will lose some of the crispiness in storage.

If you need to keep them for more than a week then I would freeze them in individual portions.

Answer 2

When I've done this sort of thing, as I like to have my potatoes with some crunchy brown exterior, I would do the following:

1. Bake a bunch of potatoes.
2. Wrap them individually in aluminum foil, and stash them in the fridge.

On the morning of:

1. Start heating the pan, with some oil in it.
2. Cut the potato into slabs
3. Place the potatoes in the pan, and season the top.
4. Go take a shower. (I started the water before I came to the kitchen)
5. Flip the potatoes, add the other vegetables, and some more seasoning
6. Go get dressed
7. Come back, flip the vegetables over (I left the onions in slabs of rings)
8. Go and shave.
9. Use my spatula to cut everything into bite-sized pieces.
10. Crack eggs into pan, scramble & season
11. Finish cooking the eggs & plate.

In your case, I don't know if I would mix the sausage in with the vegetables, as from the sounds of things the vegetables will still be raw. You would have issues with trying to make sure that everything is cooked through to the degree you want ... whereas keeping them separate means you can add one a minute or two before the other.

Answer 3

Either method works. When you pre-fry the potatoes, they will be harder with more of a crust than if you microwave or steam them.

Answer 4

A third option is to dice the potatoes boil them for 3 minutes. They will then fry in a few minutes minutes. Compared to microwave I think you get a more even cook and you can do it in advance.