It’s cold today and all my children are either out of town or overseas which is a good enough reason for me to be a little down in the dumps. On days like this, good food always helps and if it happens to be comfort food, life can only get better. I love starchy food and pasta, rice and potatoes, especially on cold days, always lift my spirits. top the bill. The potato* is a tuber and the word itself refers to both the plant and the edible tuber. I can’t think of any country where the potato is unknown and it is the fourth largest food crop; rice, followed by wheat, followed by

maize, lead the way. The potato originated in southern Peru from the solanum brivcaule and wild potatoes can be found throughout the USA down to South America (actually Chile and Peru). The most popular eating potato in the world is the solanum tubersum and the very first ones grew in the Chiloé Archipelago where it has been growing for more than 10,000 years. The potato was only introduced to Europe in 1536 when the Spanish brought them back from their New World travels and where it went down like a lead balloon at first even though it soon became one of their most important food crops. Europeans ships took the potatoes to ports throughout the world and soon potatoes were found on tables throughout the world. There are thousands of different varieties of potatoes throughout the Andes and farmers often cultivate more than 12 different varieties; so if you feel like visiting potato heaven, the Andes are the place to go.

IRISH INDIVIDUAL POTATO PIES

Pastry

• 225 g plain flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 50 g butter, cubed
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tbsp water

Filling

• 5-6 large potatoes
• 110 g butter
• A little hot milk
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley
• 3-4 fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves, finely chopped
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

• Pre-heat oven to 220 C and grease a muffin tin (one that makes slightly bigger muffins).
• Sift the flour and the salt into a bowl before rubbing the butter into the flour with your hands, making sure you aerate the mixture well, until it looks like breadcrumbs.
• Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and add the egg yolk and the water, working the flour into a smooth dough before wrapping in cling wrap and placing in the fridge for an hour.
• Boil the potatoes in their skins until they are soft but not too soft, then drain them and return them to the pot; cover the pot with a clean cloth and steam them until they’re quite cooked.
• Once cooked, return the lid to the pot and allow them to rest for a few minutes before peeling them and cutting them up into quarters, returning these to the pot and mashing them with the butter and enough hot milk to make a super smooth, lump free mash.
• Stir in the chopped herbs and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper and set aside.
• Roll out the pastry on cool, floured surface and cut out the pastry cases and lids (the lids have to be smaller than the pastry cases) with a small pastry cutter.
• Line your tin and spoon generous quantities of the potato filling into the case, put the lids in position and seal with your index finger.
• Make a steam hole in each pie, brush with beaten egg and bake in the oven for around half an hour until golden brown.
• Remove from the oven, allow to rest in the tin for a couple of minute before taking them out and serving them.

The Irish potato blight was caused by a fungus that spread like wildfire through the poorer communities of western Ireland in 1845 and it resulted in a terrible famine, known today as the Great Irish Famine. The rest of Europe wasn’t so badly affected and today Europeans plant more potatoes than anyone else in the world (even though a third of them are cultivated in China and India). Potatoes are very adaptable and grow in most places with a cool climate and enough moisture so that they can absorb water from the soil to make fat, starchy tubers. They don’t store well and they become mouldy and green very quickly so keep them in a very cold place (the fridge is great). They were first cultivated in Peru around 3000 – 2000 BC in the Altiplano where they fed Incas for centuries. “In Peru above 10,000 feet altitude, tubers exposed to the cold night air turned into chuño; when kept in permanently frozen underground storehouses, chuño can be stored for years with no loss of nutritional value. The Spanish fed chuño to the silver miners who produced vast wealth in the 16th century for the Spanish government.” Nobody’s really

sure who exactly planted the first potatoes in Europe or where but it’s assumed that sailors brought maize and potatoes to eat on board ship and when they returned home, they planted what was left. We do know that the Basque fishermen stored potatoes on board their long fishing voyages and that they introduced potatoes to western Ireland (they landed there to dry their cod). English pirate, Francis Drake, introduced them to England in 1580 and by the early 1600’s they were being cultivated in northern Italy for both humans and animals and further north to feed armies. Peasants loved planting them because the crop wasn’t stolen as often as grain was and in Germany and France, they could only be planted in garden plots (rules prescribed that only grain could be cultivated in the large open fields at the time.  By 1750, the laws had changed and everyone climbed on the bandwagon and converted everything they could to potato fields. In the early 1770’s the climate in northern Europe started to change drastically and traditional crops suffered while potatoes did very well indeed.

INTERESTING FACTS

• In Europe, the Belarussians eat more potatoes per capita than any other European and at about 380 kg per person, that’s a whole lot of potatoes.
• Queen Marie Antoinette liked potatoes so much that she even wore a turban of potato flowers at a fancy dress ball.
• The Russians were the last to accept the potatoes but when the cold got to the grain in 1838, they had no option and peasants started converting to potatoes – eventually the potatoes became the biggest crop in Eastern Europe; since they were cheaper than rye bread, it was a good addition to the grain crops.
• The Dutch potato-starch industry grew rapidly in the 19th century thanks to Willem Albert Scholten.

IRELAND

In Ireland potatoes were first cultivated by landless labourers who rented really small plots from landowners that were only interested in cattle and grain farming; just under half a hectare of potatoes and one cow could feed a poor Irish family; it would have been a pretty boring menu but nutritious enough and so anything else could be sold for cash. Then there was the famine. The critical issue was that the potato that was commonly planted (the Lumper) because it yielded really large crops, wasn’t ideal because it simply wasn’t resistant to the blight. The fungus caused a new potato to turn into a mashed mess in minutes!  Millions of people died and there was massive emigration.

BASIC POTATO PIZZA

Ingredients

• 600 g new potatoes
• 4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, mashed into a fine paste
• 1 tbsp fresh rosemary leave, finely chopped
• 2 heaped tbsp freshly grated parmesan cheese
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 2 small pizza bases (make you could make your own or buy a really good base from you local baker)

Method

• Preheat an oven to 220C.
• Peel the potatoes and cut thin slices (about ½ cm) slices, rinse them and dry them very well with absorbent kitchen paper.
• Put all the slices in a bowl and toss in about 2 tbsp of the olive oil until everything is coated (lightly).
• Arrange on a baking sheet in a single layer and roast them for 20 minutes, flipping them once or twice before transferring them onto a plate to cool down a little, sprinkle with the salt and pepper.
• Put the rest of the oil in a bowl and whisk in the garlic and the rosemary leaves, mixing well.
• Arrange the potatoes on top of a pizza base and allow them to overlap before brushing with the flavoured oil; make sure that you do so evenly.
• Scatter with the grated parmesan, check and correct the seasoning and bake in the oven for 5 – 10 minutes.
• Once the pizzas are golden brown, remove from the oven, allow to rest for a few minutes and serve.

Potatoes were introduced into China at the end of the Ming dynasty at which point the royal family fell in love with it and considered it a delicacy; it soon spread throughout China. India started cultivating them towards the end of 18th century and the USA in around 1838 and Africa in the middle of the 19th century.

NUTRITION

Potatoes are very healthy and contains loads of vitamins and minerals, phytochemicals (carotenoids and polyphenols),potassium and trace amounts of thiamin, riboflavin, folate, niacin, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, and zinc. The fiber content of a potato with skin (2 g) is equivalent to that of many whole grain breads, pastas, and cereals.

LEMON RÕSTI

Ingredients

• 2 large potatoes (of course you can double or triple up)
• 1 small lemon, grated zest only
• Extra virgin olive oil or lard
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

• Peel the potatoes and cut them in half before boiling over high heat for 5 minutes, drain and set aside so they can cool down and be handled.
• Grate the potatoes with an ordinary coarse grater, add the lemon zest and season with a little salt and pepper to taste.
• Once you are ready to cook them, heat a frying pan with a little olive oil or lard and when the oil or fat is really hot, place a rösti ring in the pan and fill it with the grated potato; or if you’re going to make a single one, simply pack some potato into the pan (making sure it’s not too thick) and press down into the pan.
• Cook about 3 minutes on one side, remove the ring (if you have one), flip it and fry until each side is golden brown.
• You can keep these warm for about 20 minutes but they will become sticky if you leave them for too long.

*the word potato is a combination of the taino batata (sweet potato) and the Quechua papa (potato). The word spud comes from the action of digging a hole to plant the potatoes and nobody knows who thought of it the first time; it could have something to do with the Dutch spyd or the latin spad (a sword) and so on. There are many etymological theories but since I’m more interested in eating them, than spending time on the origin of the name, I’ll leave that up to those of you that care.

Hint: keep potatoes in the fridge