watery spuds bah!

One of our best evening meals is chicken leek casserole which im going to cook for tea, now this dish has a layer of sliced spud on top as a sort of crust.

I have made this recipe loads over this winter, the problem i have is since running out of my own spuds a few weeks ago the bought ones i buy and use make this dish very watery. It took a couple of goes for me to realize all the extra water must be from supermarket bought spuds. Also when digging last month i found a few spuds that i missed in the ground in perfect condition and when we used them lovely non watery chicken and leek casserole again.

Unfortunately i have to use our latest batch of supermarket spuds tonight, i was hoping someone could advise on how to get rid of some of the water in them before i put them on top of the dish?  I was thinking of in the oven on a tray for a bit, any suggestions would be great.

Cheers MW.

Yes i slice and add them raw as a topping for last 3/4 hr , i also add grated cheese for last 15min which is very nice.

Check what make they are before buying, mind you bought some Maris Peer new spuds from aldi on friday and they are absolutly tasteless.

I sympathise with this one!

If the bought spuds are watery try using new or waxy spuds. A lot of the old spuds in the supermarkets and at the market are pretty iffy at the moment. ANd as someone else said it depends how the grower has grown them.

A butcher friend of mine does hogroasts for private parties and I often par boil his spuds for him..... lucky beggar for the roasties.

He bought me a bag of Maris Piper to do and after a half of the usual cooking time the ........... things had gone to slush!!!!   Devasted Had to peel a load more spuds to replace the watery goo and a quick job turned into an afternoon I was also upset 'cos I thought I had done something wrong, and I hate to let anyone down.

Checked on the internet to find it was the spuds and the way they had been grown. They weren't cheap spuds either

off topic slightly, but if you don't like watery potatoes don't ever try growing 'Mayan Gold' potatoes.
I only had them on the boil for a few minutes and they turned to soup!
Crumbled to nothing in the steamer too.

They weren't even good for making soup - it was really gloopy and starchy!

Just a warning

Emma

That is a useful warning.

Am feeling disgruntled about spuds at the moment as we have just finished the last of our spuds and I am having to buy them for the firat time for months. And the spuds I have bought all looked OK but do not tast good.

The red tasted sweet and didn't cook nicely as mash or roast so I bought some new and they tasted sweet too.
 Must go to the fruit and veg market next week to get a sack of decent spuds.

I don't think its a matter of what make they are but more a matter of who grew them.  I have been told that some farmers leave there water jets on to get the spud to absorb more water making them heavy, now I don't know how true this is but the farmers always seem to have the water jets on round here.

Well they won't be able to do that this year with the 'great drought'!

Mind you it's supposed to snow in May according the Daily Express (heard via the radio this morning!!!).
Meltwater - problem solver!