Ingredients

Method

POTATOES

1. There’s not another vegetable on our culinary table whose history is so colourful. The potato these days is considered to be nutritionally beneficial, and its present cuisine super-star status has us clambering for new ways to serve it, while also finding comfort from reviving old favourites.
2. Yet history records that this popularity has been hard won. For almost 200 years after potatoes were introduced to Europe, they were considered food fit only for peasants.
3. And today as we savour our preferred potato dish, it seems strange to think that the potato’s lowly status and failure to crop during mid 1840’s in Ireland were instrumental in the dramatic social and economic change that swept Europe with everlasting affects on the USA and Australia.
4. History aside, colour up your winter with one of these mouth-watering potato dishes, and be sure to read the Potato Guide to learn more about which potato is best for what cooking style.

POTATO GUIDE

1. Have you ever purchased potatoes only to find when you cook them that they go gluggy when they are mashed or are not fluffy when baked?
2. We can buy three styles of potatoes, waxy, floury and all-purpose, and each is better in a particular style of cookery. Here’s a list of some commonly found potato varieties on the market. (However there will be local variations and I suggest you ask the grower or green grocer as to what style of cooking they require).

Waxy

1. These are early-season potatoes and they are waxy because their sugar has not yet converted to starch as it will with age. They are best for boiling, salads and casseroles. Varieties: - Draga, Frisia, Jersey Bennie, Nadine