Real food: Turning the old reliable potato into a real treat
Monday February 01 2010
Most countries have their staple food, and since its importation from South America circa 1650, the humble potato is what most of us associate with wholesome, filling food.
We may eat fewer spuds than we once did as a nation, but there's so much you can do with this versatile vegetable, and we're a long way from getting tired of it.
Steaming potatoes in their skin has to be one of the simplest and healthiest ways of cooking them.
After that, mashing potatoes requires hardly any effort -- just add a splash of low-fat milk, butter and seasoning.
If you are prone to being a little heavy handed with the butter, think of alternative ways to add flavour, such as substituting mustard, or a touch of horseradish sauce or even mixing stewed apple through your mash.
A step further is to make traditional colcannon or champ by adding kale or scallions respectively.
I rarely if ever thicken a soup with a roux (flour and butter), preferring to use a potato instead.
At this time of year, when side dishes such as potato dauphinois appear alongside joints of meat, consider making potatoes boulangere, which substitutes stock and thyme for cream to cook the sliced potatoes.
In the cookery school, our tapas courses wouldn't be complete without our students making 'patatas bravas', potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce -- a dish becoming popular with mums as an alternative to chips.
Studies promote having three tablespoons of root vegetables such as potatoes every day to stay healthy. Roots, by their nature, house useful minerals such as iron, magnesium and potassium, picked up from the nutrients in the soil.
They are a great source of antioxidants such as vitamin C and also contain thiamin, vitamin B6 and folic acid. These help the larger potato plant protect its main water and nutrient supply to fight off free-radicals.
Rooster potatoes, with their dark pink skin, are now the most popular variety sold in Ireland.
Their floury quality lends them to all methods of cooking and best of all they contain twice the amount of fibre as the equivalent portion size of brown rice.
Storing potatoes in a cool dark place helps to retain the unadulterated goodness within.
Once they start to sprout, I throw them out.
As a member of the starchy family, potatoes are given a green light in the nutritional food pyramid. That's the good news but there are some caveats.
Most of the nutrients found in potatoes are in or just below the skin, so hang a dedicated potato-scrubbing brush close to your kitchen sink rather than reaching for the speed peeler every time.
Since potatoes are full of carbohydrate they are rated as a high-GI (glycaemic index) food, providing wonderful energy if you lead an active life, but it means they tend to raise your blood sugar levels, sharply causing fat storage as they drop.
Counter this by eating potatoes with something that takes longer to digest, such as green vegetables or protein-rich foods, keeping your energy (and weight) constant.
Potatoes don't deserve to be banished from the slimmer's plate. It's portion size, how you cook them and what you serve with them that matters most.
Expand your culinary horizons and cook something a little bit special, like these delicious potato rosti for a starter with a difference.
Save those discarded nutrient-rich baked skins and crisp them up in the oven for a light snack at any time.
Potato Rosti with Smoked Salmon
Serves four
2 large baking potatoes, washed
2 tbsp olive oil
300g smoked salmon, sliced
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 tsp baby capers
4 tbsp creme fraiche
1 tbsp chopped chives
4 tsp lump fish roe (optional)
salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Method
- Preheat oven to 200C. Pierce each potato with a fork or skewer. Bake the potatoes in their skins for 40 minutes (the flesh should not be too soft), leave to cool.
- Combine the smoked salmon with the shallots and capers.
- Fold the chives through the creme fraiche and season with black pepper.
- Scoop the potatoes from their skins, coarsely grate and press into four round cake shapes.
Heat two tbsp olive oil in a non-stick frying pan and fry the rosti until golden brown on each side.
- Serve the warm rosti, topped with smoked salmon, creme fraiche and roe (if using).
Vanessa Greenwood is founder of Cooks Academy Cookery School
www.cooksacademy.com
- Vanessa Greenwood
Irish Independent
