Ingredient: Potatoes - General
Category: Vegetables
Season: All
Potato is the term which applies either to the starchy tuberous root vegetable crop from the perennial plant Solanum tuberosum and its subspecies Solanum andigena of the Solanaceae, or nightshade, family, or to the plant itself.
Potato is the world's most widely grown tuber crop, and the fourth largest food crop in terms of fresh produce — after rice, wheat, and maize (corn).
The potato was introduced to Europe around 1700 , and subsequently by European mariners to territories and ports throughout the world. Thousands of varieties persist in the Andes, where over 100 varieties might be found in a single valley, and a dozen or more might be maintained by a single agricultural household.
Today, over 99% of all cultivated potato varieties worldwide are descendants of a subspecies indigenous to Chile.
Potatoes are prepared in many ways : skin-on or peeled, whole or cut up, with seasonings or without.
The only requirement involves cooking to break down the starch .
Most potato dishes are served hot, but some are first cooked then served cold, notably potato salad and potato chips/crisps.
Common dishes are : mashed potatoes, which are first boiled (usually peeled), and then mashed with milk or yogurt and butter; whole baked potatoes; boiled or steamed potatoes; French-fried potatoes or chips; cut into cubes and roasted; scalloped, diced, or sliced and fried (home fries); grated into small thin strips and fried (hash browns); grated and formed into dumplings, Rösti or potato pancakes.
Unlike many foods, potatoes can also be easily cooked in a microwave oven and still retain nearly all of their nutritional value, provided that they are covered in ventilated plastic wrap to prevent moisture from escaping—this method produces a meal very similar to a steamed potato while retaining the appearance of a conventionally baked potato.
Potato chunks also commonly appear as a stew ingredient.
Potatoes are boiled between 10 and 25 minutes, depending on size and type, to become soft.
Regional dishes
Latin America
Peruvian Cuisine naturally contains the potato as a primary ingredient in many dishes, as around 3,000 varieties of this tuber are grown there.
Some of the famous dishes include Papa a la huancaina, Papa rellena, Ocopa, Carapulcra, Causa and Cau Cau among many others.
In Ecuador the potato, as well as being a staple with most dishes, is featured in the hearty Locro de Papas, a thick soup of potato, squash, and cheese.
Europe
In Britain potatoes form part of the traditional staple fish and chips.
Mashed, potatoes also form a major component of several other traditional British dishes such as shepherd's pie, bubble and squeak, champ and the 'mashit tatties' (Scottish dialect), which accompany haggis.
The Tattie scone is another popular Scottish dish containing potatoes. They are also often sautéed to accompany a meal.
Colcannon is a traditional Irish dish involving mashed potato combined with shredded cabbage and onion.
Boxty pancakes are eaten all over Ireland, although associated especially with the north, and in Irish diaspora communities: they are traditionally made with grated potatoes, soaked to loosen the starch and mixed with flour, buttermilk and baking powder. A variant eaten and sold in Lancashire, especially Liverpool is made with cooked and mashed potatoes.
In Northern Europe,especially Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, newly harvested, early ripening varieties are considered a special delicacy. Boiled whole and served with dill, these "new potatoes" are traditionally consumed together with Baltic herring.
In the UK, new potatoes are typically cooked with mint and served with a little melted butter - Jersey Royal potatoes are the most prized new potatoes, and have their own Protected Designation of Origin.
In Western Europe, especially in Belgium, sliced potatoes are fried to get frieten, the original French fried potatoes.
Potatoes are very popular in continental Europe as well.
In Italy, they serve to make a type of pasta called gnocchi.
Similarly, cooked and mashed potatoes or potato flour can be used in the knödel or dumpling eaten with or added to meat dishes all over central and Eastern Europe, but especially in Bavaria and Luxembourg.
Potatoes form one of the main ingredients in many soups such as the pseudo-French vichyssoise and Albanian potato and cabbage soup.
In western Norway, komle is popular.
A traditional Canary Islands dish is Canarian wrinkly potatoes or Papas arrugadas.
Tortilla de patatas (potato omelete) and Patatas bravas (a dish of fried potatoes in a spicy tomato sauce) are near-universal constituent of Spanish tapas.
North America
In the United States, potatoes have become one of the most widely consumed crops, and thus have a variety of preparation methods and condiments. French fries and often hash browns are commonly found in typical American fast-food burger joints and cafeterias.
One popular favourite involves a baked potato with cheddar cheese (or sour cream and chives) on top.
In New England "smashed potatoes" (a chunkier variation on mashed potatoes, retaining the peel) have great popularity.
Potato flakes are popular as an instant variety of mashed potatoes, which reconstitute into mashed potatoes by adding water, plus butter & salt for taste.
A regional dish of Central New York, salt potatoes are bite-sized new potatoes boiled in water saturated with salt then served with melted butter.
A traditional Acadian dish from New Brunswick is known as poutine râpée.
The Acadian poutine is a ball of grated and mashed potato, salted, sometimes filled with pork in the centre, and boiled. The result is a moist ball about the size of a baseball. It is commonly eaten with salt and pepper or brown sugar.
It is believed to have originated from the German Klöße, prepared by early German settlers who lived among the Acadians.
Poutine, by contrast, is a hearty serving of French fries, fresh cheese curds and hot gravy. Tracing its origins to Quebec in the 1950s, it has become popular across Canada and can usually be found where Canadians gather abroad.
Varieties
Potatoes have been bred into many standard or well-known varieties , each of which have particular agricultural or culinary attributes.
Varieties are generally categorised into a few main groups, such as Russets, Reds, Whites, Yellows (aka Yukons), and Purples based on common characteristics.
Most common varieties in the U.K. are:
New potatoes:
For a full list of U.K. potatoes, click here
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