Although a relative newcomer to the European peasant larder, the potato has nonetheless had a prodigious influence on European life.
The first potato plants arrived in Spain in the baggage of the Conquistadores returning from Peru in 1540. The resourceful Incas had long cultivated the potato to supply their mountain fortresses high in the Andes Mountains, where their usual crop of corn could not survive. Just as Amsterdam was built on herrings, so were Manchu Pichu and Quito on the potato. The Spanish court failed to see the tuber’s culinary potential, but they found the pale mauve blooms very pretty and bedded the plants in flowerpots. The English received their first plants when Francis Drake brought some back from North America. Elizabeth I was not at all sure what to make of them, and she too planted them in her ornamental flower beds.
For the next two centuries the potato as a food source was treated with suspicion. A few brave souls took a chance and planted potatoes on the stony hillsides of Galicia, in the vegetable gardens of Lyons (even then the good burgers of Lyons were in the gastronomic vanguard), and in the flat fields of the Low Countries. Over in England some progress was being made: a dish of potatoes is recorded as appearing on King James’s dinner table in 1619. Even with royal patronage the poisonous-looking roots were widely considered untrustworthy, being held responsible for a range of disasters including, in France, an outbreak of leprosy. Nevertheless, the potato patch spread slowly across the fertile fields of Europe throughout the next century. From the sunlit valleys of Spain to the frozen mountains of Scandinavia the miraculously adaptable food plant flourished.
Nowhere was it more successful than in the soft climate of Ireland. It was Elizabeth I’s favourite sailor, Sir Walter Raleigh, who took the first potato plants to the green hills of the Emerald Isle. A mere century and a half later, virtually all other crops had been abandoned in its favour. A single damp Irish acre planted in potatoes by one Irish peasant, equipped with a spade and a hoe, yielded enough food to fill his family’s black iron cooking pot all year–with some left over for the family pig. The population of Ireland tripled–from three million in 1750 to nearly nine million a century later. In 1841 the blight struck the potato. By 1846 a million and half Irish men, women, and children had died of starvation. Of those who survived thousands emigrated to the New World.
Between 1750 and 1850 not only the Irish but the whole population of Europe exploded–fed increasingly by the ever-adaptable jack-of-all-foods. An English traveller in Westphalia in 1780 reports the change in diet:
‘Peasants tire of oat bread eaten dry with salt and water. I can heartily recommend the potato boiled and then moistened with a little milk, roasted in the ashes and eaten with a little butter, or eaten cold as a salad. Grated and mixed with eggs, oats and sugar it makes an excellent rissole. On this diet the peasants of Sauerland endure hard heavy work, and yet live as healthily as fish in the sea.’
Whether boiled or baked, eaten as potato bread or in soup, used for animal fodder or fermented and distilled into alcohol, there was virtually no culinary need the potato could not supply. Just as the potato had been essential to the supremacy of the Incas in Peru, so it now dominated the politics of Europe. Revolution, war, the growth of empires–all were fuelled by the pressures of an expanding population. That curious basket of sprouting tubers in Francisco Pizzaro’s luggage has proved as powerful as any of Alfred Nobel’s explosive mixtures.
The best potatoes are those freshly dug from your own garden–the finest I have ever tasted grew in the stone-strewn, sheep-manured ‘tattie patch’ beside a shepherd’s farmhouse on the rocky Atlantic coast of a Hebridean island. They were always freshly dug and scented the kitchen with smells of peat and bracken. The soft mists seem to make Scottish potatoes particularly delicious–feathery pillows, plump and sweet. Their skins are pale gold and translucent, and stretched so tightly over the snowy flesh that they pop when you bite into them. Hebridean potatoes are scrubbed, never peeled, and cooked in boiling water with salt. They are eaten scalding hot, straight from the pot, with, if available, cold sweet butter and salt, washed down with the Scots’ favourite strong tea. Better than the finest caviar to an appetite sharpened by a long day walking the heather in search of a lost newborn lamb.
IRISH POTATOES
An article in Frazer’s Magazine of April 1847, just after the potato blight, explains the significance of the loss of so important a crop to the rural population of Ireland:
‘Easily boiled in an iron pot, served in a turf-basket or rolled on a table, peeled with the fingers, and palatable in its own sweet moisture, the Irish peasant could better spare a far better nutriment.’
Quantity: Enough for 3 (An Irish working man of the last century would have managed a daily quota of 10-14 lbs of boiled tatties.)
Time: Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 20-30 minutes
1.5kg/3 lb large old floury potatoes
Salt
To serve
Buttermilk
Utensils: A heavy saucepan
Choose evenly-sized potatoes and scrub them thoroughly, but don’t leave them to soak in the water. Put them in a heavy pot and just cover them with fresh cold water. Add a teaspoon of rough salt. Bring the water to the boil quickly, and then turn the heat down to a steady simmer. Potatoes will take 20 minutes (up to 30 if large) to cook. When the potatoes are soft right through, drain them and toss them over the heat to dry them. Their skins should burst a little, like roast chestnuts, to show the snowy flesh inside. Serve with salt and a jug of buttermilk. When the Irish turned to dairy farming after the potato famine, the butter went to pay the landlord.
Suggestions:
• Potatoes baked in the oven in an unglazed earthenware pot will be light, floury, and have their vitamins intact. Bake at 350°F/180°C/Gas 4 for an hour.
• Dress boiled, skinned potatoes with breadcrumbs fried crisp and golden in butter.
• Do not use potatoes which have green parts, or which have sprouted, as these will have developed a harmful substance named solanin. If you are fortunate enough to have a household pig, cut out and discard the green pieces from the spoiled ones, boil up the good bits, and put them in the pig mash.
POTATO OATEN BREAD
Boxty (Ireland)
A griddle bread, traditionally eaten at Halloween, the Christianised Day of the Dead, a time when goblins and elves and the restless spirits of witches are abroad. All festivities which centre on a bonfire preserve many of the elements of sun worship, a major preoccupation of those who live in a northern climate. The sharing of bread–pieces of some form of griddle cake baked in the embers–has an element of participation in the sacrificial meal, ensuring, through communal feasting, the survival of the group. This preoccupation survives in a traditional skipping song:
‘Boxty on the griddle, Boxty in the pan,
If you don’t eat Boxty you’ll never get a man.’
Quantity: Serves 4
Time: Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 40 minutes
1kg/2 lb potatoes
500g/l lb flour
150ml/¼ pint milk
2 teaspoons salt
Butter
Utensils: A grater (food processors have a useful attachment for this job), a large bowl, and a baking sheet
Peel the potatoes and grate them raw. Mix in the flour and the salt and leave the mixture to stand for an hour. Add the milk and knead the mixture well on a floured board.
Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/Gas 4.
Divide the dough into four. Roll the pieces out into four cakes, roughly 15cm/6 inches in diameter. Put them onto a buttered baking tray and mark into quarters with a cross.
Bake for 40 minutes, until cooked through and lightly browned. Serve hot with plenty of butter. Not a dish for anyone on a diet.
Suggestions:
• A lighter mixture can be made by boiling half the quantity of potatoes and then mashing them with a couple of tablespoons butter or bacon dripping. The mashed potato is then kneaded into the raw mixture.
• The Boxty batter can be softened to a dropping consistency with extra milk, and then cooked on a lightly greased griddle or heavy frying pan, as for drop scones. These are served with butter, and sometimes with molasses or sugar.
COLCANNON
(Ireland)
A Halloween food which, much like Boxty, retains elements of the pagan, since it’s designed (much like the English Christmas pudding favours) to predict the future of the participants. The favours to be hidden in the dish are a gold marriage ring, a piece of money, an old maid’s thimble, and a bachelor’s button. The kale can be replaced by peas, beans, spinach or any green vegetable.
Quantity: Enough for 4
Time: Preparation and cooking: 40 minutes
1kg/2 lb potatoes
1kg/2 lb kale or any dark green cabbage
3-4 leeks
300ml/½ pint single cream or creamy milk
Salt and pepper
To finish
100g/4 oz butter
Utensils: 3 large and 1 small saucepans
Peel and quarter the potatoes, and put them to cook in boiling salted water for 20 minutes until cooked through. Drain well.
Meanwhile rinse, slice, and cook separately the kale or cabbage in a very little water for 15-20 minutes (you need the vegetable soft for this dish). Drain well and chop fine.
Wash and slice the leeks into thin rings, and put them to stew in yet another pan with the cream or milk until soft–about 6-7 minutes should be enough.
Put the finishing butter to melt in a small pan on the side of the stove.
Mash the potatoes with the leeks and the cream. Then beat in the kale/cabbage. Beat it some more over a low heat until it is pale green and fluffy. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Put the hot mixture into a well-warmed deep dish. Make a well in the centre (and don’t forget to bury the favours). Pour the melted butter into the well. Put the dish in the middle of the table. Each person takes a helping with a spoonful of butter. Or serve in individual bowls with a piece of butter to melt into a little pool in the middle of each.
Suggestions:
• Omit the cabbage and keep the leeks, and you have a dish of champ.
Leftovers:
• Refry in the leftover butter with diced streaky bacon and top with a fried egg.
FISH AND POTATO HASH
Fischlabskaus (Germany)
A dish from the seacoast of Schleswig Holstein, where the fishermen’s wives make it from whatever of the catch fails to find a market. You’ll find variations on the theme up and down the Atlantic seaboard, from Tromso to Liverpool to Lisbon (where it’s known as roupa veijha–old clothes).
Quantity: For 4 hungry fishermen
Time: Preparation and cooking: 40 minutes
2kg/4 lb potatoes
500g/1 lb skinned and filleted fish
500g/1 lb onions
100g/4 oz lard or, better still, bacon dripping
Pepper and salt
Utensils: A heavy frying pan with a lid
Peel the potatoes and slice them thickly. Check the fish for stray bones–use your fingertips. Peel and slice the onions.
Melt the lard or dripping in the pan. Add the onions and fry till soft and lightly gilded. Lay the potatoes on top and add enough water to cover. Bubble up, add a little salt, turn down the heat and put the lid on the pan. Simmer gently until the potatoes are soft and most of the water has evaporated. Lay the filleted fish on top. Continue to cook for another 4-5 minutes, till the fish turns opaque. The base will dry out and begin to fry again. Continue until there is a golden crust underneath. Do not mix up the ingredients too much–it should never be a mush. Serve with a dish of pickled cucumbers.
Suggestions:
• Butter or vegetable oil can substitute for the lard–in which case include a bit of bacon, chopped fine.
• It’s very good made with salted or smoked fish–haddock, smoked salmon, pre-soaked salt cod.
Leftovers:
• Bind with egg and fry spoonfuls to make fishcakes.
POTATO PANCAKE-BREAD
Lompe (Norway)
A soft pancake-wrapper which serves the same function as all flatbreads–pita, tortilla, chapatti–eaten in Norway with butter and geitost cheese, or used to wrap little morsels of fenalår–salt-dried leg of mutton (Scandinavia’s prosciutto), a sliver of smoked reindeer tongue or a spoonful of berry conserve.
Quantity: 10-12 pancakes
Time: Preparation and cooking: 1 hour
1kg/2 lb mature potatoes
½ teaspoon salt
100g/4 oz rye or wheat flour
Utensils: A saucepan, a rolling pin and a griddle or heavy iron frying pan
Peel, quarter, and boil the potatoes in plenty of salted water. Drain them thoroughly and mash them. Mix with the flour and knead vigorously into a dough. (Less or more flour may be needed–potatoes are very variable. The less flour you use the better.) Roll the dough into a long sausage and chop it into 10-12 equal pieces, pat into little balls and roll out on a well-floured board so thinly you can almost see the wood grain through the dough.
Bake on a very lightly greased griddle or heavy frying pan until they blister. Turn once. Tuck into a damp cloth to keep them soft.
Suggestions:
• Lompe make an excellent sausage-wrapper. In Norway they’re sold by street vendors as wrappers for frankfurters–a great improvement on the cotton wool bun.
POTATO AND BACON DUMPLINGS
Kroppkakor (Sweden)
Simple, easy and cheap to prepare, since all the ingredients traditionally come easily to hand in the Swedish kitchen. Until recently, all rural Swedish households planted up a potato patch and kept a household pig, fattening it up through the summer on whey from the butter making, vegetable trimmings and the household’s leavings.
Quantity: Serves 4
Time: Start a day ahead
Preparation and cooking: 40 minutes
8 large potatoes
½ teaspoon salt
100g/4 oz flour
1 large egg
1-2 thick slices streaky bacon
1 small nugget butter
1 onion
To serve
A jug of melted butter or bacon drippings
Utensils: A large saucepan, a small frying pan, a bowl and a grater
Scrub the potatoes and put them on to boil in their skins–this will take 20-30 minutes depending on size. Drain them and leave them overnight.
Dice the bacon small. Peel and chop the onion finely. Put the bacon in a small pan with the butter to melt gently. As soon as there is enough fat from the bacon to fry them, add the onions. Cook all gently until soft.
Peel and grate the potatoes into a bowl. Mix in the salt, the flour, and the egg. Swift fingers make light dumplings. Roll out the dough in a sausage shape, and chop off into 20 short lengths. Roll each length into a small ball and push a nest in it with your finger. Fill the nest with a little of the bacon and onion mixture, and then close up the hole. Continue until all the potatoes and bacon are finished.
Meanwhile, set a pan of salted water to boil. When all the dumplings are made (there should be 15-20), slip them in a few at a time so the water stays at a vigorous simmer until they are light and well risen. Serve with a jug of melted bacon dripping with little pieces of bacon, or with melted butter.
Suggestions:
• Good with a pork chop and cranberry sauce.
JANSSON’S TEMPTATION
Janssons frestelse (Sweden)
The harvest of the Baltic meets the earth-apple of Peru–fish and potatoes are the best of all combinations. The dish–call it Sweden’s national dish–was named in the 18th century, after a deeply religious Swede, Erik Janson, whose name was apparently mispelt during the long Atlantic crossing. Janson, the tempted one, was forbidden any enjoyment by his devout church. This simple but delicious dish from his native land was his one transgression. The Swedish canned anchovies are usually billed as Marinated Sprats.
Quantity: Enough for 4
Time: Soaking the anchovies: 30 minutes
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 1 hour 15 minutes
1kg/2 lb potatoes
2 medium onions
20 salted Swedish sprats (or salted anchovies from the barrel)
600ml/1 pint single cream
Pepper
Utensils: A gratin dish and aluminium foil
Peel, finely slice and matchstick the potatoes. Skin and finely slice the onions. De-bone the anchovies and soak them for 30 minutes in milk to de-salt, then drain.
Preheat the oven to 400°F/200°C/Gas 6.
Layer the matchsticked potatoes with the onions and the anchovies into a deep gratin dish. Sprinkle with freshly ground pepper as you go. There should be enough salt in the anchovies. Finish with a layer of potatoes. Pour in half the cream and dot the surface with butter. Cover with foil.
Bake for 15 minutes. Then pour in the rest of the cream and turn the heat down to 300°F/150°C/Gas 2. Leave to cook gently. The potatoes will take another hour to soften. They’re ready when they yield to a knife. Remove the lid for the last 20 minutes to allow the top to gild.
That’s all. Simple perfection. No wonder Erik was tempted. A blueberry pie is a good finish in celebration of the American connection.
JACKET POTATOES
(England)
Big, floury potatoes, the last of the year’s crop to be lifted before the frost spoils them, have a special fragrance and texture when baked in the embers of a wood fire–smoky and crisp on the outside, white and soft within. The best were the ones my brother and I were allowed to bury in the hot white ash at the edge of the bonfire my grandfather would light on a cold dry November evening to burn up the dry leaves and debris of summer. The potatoes were a secret, a stolen pleasure, a conspiracy. My grandmother looked the other way when we thieved a pat of butter and a paper of salt from the larder. As the fire burnt down we would crouch, scarlet faces turned to the flames with the night wind cold on the backs of our necks, until long past suppertime. At last the potatoes, charred and crisp outside, soft and sweet within, were pronounced ready to eat. An unbeatable dish.
Time: Preparation: 5 minutes
Cooking: 60 minutes
2 large potatoes per person
Salt for the jacket (optional)
To serve
Butter and sea salt
Failing a bonfire of your own, preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/Gas 4.
Scrub the potatoes very thoroughly and puncture them with a fork. You can rub the skins with salt if you like a salty crust. Don’t wrap them up in foil or the skins will be soft. Bake them for 60 minutes or until a skewer pushed into the heart tells you they’re done. Eat the potatoes as soon as they are ready, when they are at their crispest and most succulent, with cold butter and salt.
The skins are the best part, and the most nutritious.
POTATO NOODLES
Krumpli nudli (Hungary)
Miss Ellen Browning, niece of the poet Robert, travelling through late 19th century Hungary, greatly approved the supper she was offered in a peasant farmhouse:
‘Presently the good woman began to set about her preparations for supper. We were to have krumpli nudli. I begged permission to assist in preparing them, which was readily granted. A large pot of potatoes had been boiling in their jackets. These were now strained off, skinned, mashed with salt and flour into a paste and rolled into ‘worms’, then dropped into a pan of boiling lard and thrown into a hot colander to drain as soon as they were cooked, then turned into a big dish, sprinkled with bread-crumbs and popped into a hot oven for ten minutes. These are excellent, I can assure you, and Madame Irma made them to perfection.’
POTATOES WITH APPLES
Himmel und Erde (Germany)
Heaven and earth, plain cooked potatoes with apples and crisp fried bacon, is one of those sweet-and-sour dishes which combine fruit and vegetables with salt-cured pork characteristic of the robust farmhouse cooking of northern Europe. Holland, Belgium, Alsace, Czechoslovakia, Poland, and Scandinavia all have similar dishes all of very ancient date. When German and Dutch immigrants settled in Pennsylvania, the recipes were adapted to New World ingredients–even the bacon acquired a New World flavour when a touch of sweetness was added to the cure, a taste acquired, perhaps, from the residents of the continent who already used maple syrup rather than salt to dress their meat. Peculiarly American combinations such as waffles with maple syrup and bacon, even the peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, belong to the same tradition.
Quantity: Serves 4 as a main dish
Time: Preparation and cooking: 40 minutes
1.5kg/3 lb potatoes
1kg/2 lb apples
Salt
250g/8 oz spek (streaky bacon)
Utensils: A large saucepan and a small frying pan
If the potatoes are new and small, you merely need to wash them. If they are old, peel them closely and quarter them. Put them to boil in plenty of salted water. Peel and cut the apples into chunks the size of the potato pieces. Add them to the potatoes after 10 minutes. Finish cooking both together. By the time the potatoes are cooked the apples will be soft but still hold their shape. Drain thoroughly.
Meanwhile, dice the spek small and fry it in its own fat (you may need a little butter) till crisp and golden. Remove and reserve.
Turn the drained potatoes and apples gently in the pan drippings. Pile into a hot dish and scatter with the crisp bacon. Serve immediately.
Suggestions:
• Serve with all-meat sausages (bratwurst would be most appropriate) fried with the bacon. Serve all together.
• Instead of turning the apples and potatoes in the bacon pan, use the drippings to fry a handful of breadcrumbs to add extra crispness to the topping. A handful of finely chopped parsley could be included.
POTATO PANCAKES
Kartoffelpuffer (Germany)
A classic peasant recipe, simple but good, quickly prepared–the potato equivalent of the griddle bread. Excellent as served in the German tradition, with a spoonful of apple sauce and horseradish, or with bratwurst, a pork chop, or roast chicken.
Quantity: Serves 4 or 2 hungry field workers
Time: Preparation and cooking: 30 minutes
1kg/2 lb potatoes
½ teaspoon salt
Lard or butter for frying
Utensils: A grater (a food processor saves trouble), a frying pan
Wash and peel the potatoes. Grate them through the largest holes of the grater to give noodle-like strips. Do not wash them again–they need the natural starchy juice to hold them together. Mix in the salt.
Heat the lard or butter in a frying pan. If you only have cooking oil, fry a small piece of bacon in it first to scent the oil. Drop spoonfuls of the potato mixture into the hot fat, pressing the mounds flat with the back of a wooden spoon. Fry the patties gently and steadily until they are crisp and golden underneath and soft right through–they will only unstick from the pan when the bottom is cooked. Then turn them over and fry the other side. Serve straight from the pan.
Suggestions:
• To help avoid discolouration–grated raw potato quickly turns a foggy grey–put the peeled potatoes to soak for ten minutes in water with a drop of vinegar (1 tablespoon vinegar to 600ml/1 pint cold water). Then rinse them and grate as above.
• In Franconia a more substantial dish is made by mixing the grated potato with an egg or two at the start, together with a large boiled potato well mashed. Served with a dish of stewed cranberries instead of apple.
POTATO SOUP
Kartoffelsuppe (Germany)
In Bavaria, where this is the favourite Friday soup, and throughout Germanic northern Europe, the preference is for thick rib-sticking potages–potato, pumpkin, root vegetables–flavoured with a piece of smoked meat or a few slices of boiling sausage, although the meat is omitted on fast days. The tradition includes a repertoire of wine soups, beer soups (particularly around Munich, whose brewers are held in high esteem), and fruit soups (the area around Hamburg), which make their appearance at the beginning of the meal and are followed by the hearty fruitstuffed strudel or dumpling which takes the place of a separate meat course.
Quantity: Serves 8 (or 4 Bavarian farmers)
Time: Preparation and cooking: 50 minutes
1.5kg/3 lb potatoes
1.5kg/3 lb root vegetables–carrot, turnip, rutabaga, celeriac, parsnip (any or all of these)
500g/1 lb onions
Walnut-sized nugget fresh pork lard or butter
2 litres/4 pints vegetable stock or plain water half-and-half with white wine or light beer
Salt and pepper
Fresh herbs for flavouring: lovage, basil, parsley, marjoram (any or all)
Utensils: A large soup pot
Peel and chop the potatoes into bite-sized cubes. If they are new, just scrub them and cut them in half. Wash and scrape the vegetables and cut them into similar chunks. Peel and slice the onions.
Heat the butter or lard in a large saucepan, and fry the onions gently until transparent. Add the potatoes and vegetables. Pour in the water or stock, bring to the boil, lid the pan, and simmer the soup for half an hour. Mash lightly to thicken the broth.
Season with salt and pepper. Chop the herbs finely and stir them into the soup just before you serve it. If you are using dried herbs, they should be added at the start.
Suggestions:
• As an additional flavouring, stir in a fistful of dried mushrooms (cèpes are best–they have a delicious gluey texture). Soak them in a little warm water before adding them, with their liquor, to the soup.
• The Franconians would include a crust of dark rye bread to be stewed with the vegetables and give a slightly nutty flavour–and use marjoram as the flavouring herb.
• On non-fast days, include a ring of smoked boiling sausage or a bacon hock. Or dice and fry a handful of cubed spek (firm, fatty bacon) and sprinkle it on the soup just before serving–marjoram is the right flavouring with bacon.
• Hand round a bowl of soured cream or grated cheese for people to add their own.
POTATO AND CHEESE GRATIN
Pommes de terre au gratin (France)
There are many regional variations of this dish, endlessly disputed and defended. Arguments rage over the inclusion of eggs, cheese, onions, cream and whether nutmeg is or is not an essential part of the recipe. This is one of the simplest Provençal versions. A home-made stock is essential–use chicken wings and necks–or the bouillon from the pot-au-feu.
Quantity: Serves 4-6
Time: Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 1 hour
2kg/4 lb potatoes
1 medium onion
600ml/1 pint strong chicken or meat or chicken stock
4 tablespoons grated Cantal (failing this, emmenthal or gruyère or mature cheddar)
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Utensils: A gratin dish and foil, a food processor with a slicing attachment would be useful
Peel, rinse, and slice the potatoes as thinly as possible (French housewives use a mandoline–a neat wooden board which has 1 or 2 slanted razor-sharp blades embedded in it). Peel and slice the onion finely. Grate the cheese. Heat up the stock.
Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/Gas 4.
Pour 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the bottom of the gratin dish. Put in a layer of potato, then layer in the sliced onion, then half the grated cheese, then the rest of the potatoes. Season as you go. Pour in the hot stock. Trickle a little oil over the surface, and cover with foil shiny side down.
Bake in the oven for about an hour, till the potatoes are perfectly tender (test with a knife pushed into the heart). After the first 40 minutes, remove the foil and sprinkle on the rest of the grated cheese and give the top a chance to gild a rich brown.
Serve the gratin in its own dish, bubbling hot. Exquisite with a chicken roasted with a little olive oil and rosemary and a salade de mesclun. A meal for a long leisurely Sunday lunch taken (shut your eyes and dream) at a scrubbed wooden table set on the back porch of a whitewashed Provencal farmhouse in the shade of a wisteria-twined trellis among cascades of pale blue blossom starred with swallowtail butterflies. Irresistible.
POTATO GRATIN WITH CREAM
Gratin dauphinois (France)
No cheese, no eggs, no parboiling of potatoes or nutmeg sprinkling or stabilising with flour. All you need is potatoes and cream and a baker’s oven for this, the northern French version of the potato gratin. Simple and perfect, a mountain dish, as befits the hardy potato. If the ingredients are of the best and the dish is cooked slowly, it will be as you would expect to find it in its home territory. The quantity of cream is lavish, but you will naturally serve nothing else rich in the meal, and it will be much more delicious than if you had stuffed the same amount of cream into a cake.
Quantity: Enough for 4
Time: Preparation: 20-30 minutes
Cooking: 1½ hours
1.5kg/3 lb mature potatoes
600ml/1 pint double cream
1 garlic clove
Salt and pepper
25g/1 oz butter
Utensils: A round glazed earthenware gratin dish and foil, a mandoline (see previous recipe for description) or a food processor with a slicing attachment will make the task easier
Peel and slice the potatoes as fine as a penny. Skin and crush the garlic with the flat of a knife, then chop roughly. Heat the cream to just below boiling.
Preheat the oven to 300°F/150°C/Gas 2.
Layer the potatoes into the gratin dish, sprinkling with salt, plenty of pepper and garlic as you go. Pour in the cream. Dot the surface with little bits of butter, and cover all loosely with foil.
Put the gratin to bake in a low oven for 1½ hours; uncover it and turn the oven up to 350°F/180°C/Gas 4 for the last 10 minutes to brown the crust.
Suggestions:
• Accompany with a perfect steak grilled with a crust of crushed peppercorns, or a pair of plump baby lamb chops, crisply fatted but still pink and juicy inside. A salad of bitter leaves–endive, chicory, dandelion, and rocket–will aid the digestion. To follow, a bowl of fresh strawberries or raspberries in season. No cream: perish the thought.
GRATED POTATO CAKE
Rösti (Switzerland)
Grated potato pancakes, along with toasted cheese and the cheese fondue, rank as Switzerland’s national dish. This is useful information since it’s a requirement in some of the cantons–independent counties of Switzerland–that those who wish to become citizens eat as the natives eat, and government inspectors are liable to arrive unannounced at the backdoor of tax exiles seeking citizenship to check on the dish of the day.
Quantity: Serves 4 or 1 native-born citizen of the Swiss valleys
Time: Preparation and cooking: 30 minutes
1.5kg/3 lb potatoes
4 tablespoons pork lard or butter
Utensils: A grater or a food processor with a grating attachment, and a wide frying pan
Grate the potatoes through the coarse holes of the grater.
Melt the lard or butter in the pan. As soon as it foams, spread in the grated potatoes. Fork over the mixture constantly for the first 15-20 minutes while the flakes soften and take colour. When lightly browned, flatten the cake out and leave on a low heat for the base to crisp and brown. Turn it out, crisp side up, on a plate to serve.
Suggestions:
• Delicious on a cold night with a mug of mulled wine and something good in the way of Swiss cheese. Best of all, a spoonful of deliciously runny Vacherin, the glory of autumn, a slipcoat cheese not unlike a very soft brie, though the rind is much firmer. It must be eaten before the spring.
Alternatives:
• In some households the potatoes are pre-cooked in their jackets the day before, then skinned and grated. They will take half the time to brown and crisp.
BEEF AND POTATO HASH
Labskova (Denmark)
This dish is universal fare round the Atlantic coasts of Europe. On the Baltic coast of Germany, it is made with fish and called fischlabskaus. In England, Liverpudlians make it with neck of mutton or lamb, and claim it as lobscouse–from where comes their sobriquet ‘scousers’. The link appears to be the sea: the dish was a convenient way of making ship’s stores palatable. It can be made with fresh raw food or leftovers. It can be cooked in the oven, and it used to be cooked in an old black iron cauldron slowly over the hearth fire. For the rest of us, a heavy frying pan and a low heat will do well enough.
Quantity: Serves 4 (or 2 sailors)
Time: Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 50 minutes
500g/1 lb beef (salted or fresh–a nice cheap cut such as brisket with plenty of golden fat)
1.5kg/3 lb potatoes
2 tablespoons pork lard or beef dripping
500ml/1 pint stock or water
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper
Utensils: A large frying pan with a lid
Cut the beef into 2.5cm/1 inch cubes. Peel and cut the potatoes into similar chunks. Melt the fat in a heavy pot. Put in the meat to brown gently, turning to gild all sides. Add the potatoes, and then pour in the stock or water. The potatoes should not be submerged, but should just steam above the meat. Tuck in the bay leaf and add salt and pepper.
Bring to a rolling boil, turn down the heat, lid tightly and simmer on the top of the stove very gently for 50-60 minutes. Take off the lid, stir all together and turn up the heat to allow the remaining liquid to evaporate and the base to brown. Reverse it when you turn it out. Serve with a knob of cold butter on each helping.
Suggestions:
• Make it with leftovers and it will then need less cooking–although it’ll lose intensity of flavour. Make it with green cabbage or spinach instead of meat and call it Bubble and Squeak (most delicious cooked in bacon drippings and served with a runny-yolked fried egg on top).
• The Portuguese version, Roupa Velha–old clothes–is usually made with fish instead of meat and includes onion and garlic; the frying fat is olive oil, and the finishing touch is a drop of vinegar. It’s usually eaten with a shake of piri piri, the addictive Portuguese chilli oil: just submerge a dozen malagueta peppers, whole and still with their seeds, in a small bottle of olive oil and seal down. Ready in a day or two, but will keep for a long time. The oil will be well spiked, and the chillies in turn give up some of their fire. Use with discretion–a taste for heat comes via Brazil, Portugal’s one-time colony.
HOT LIGHTNING
Hete bliksem (Holland)
The Dutch were as slow as the rest of Europe to grasp the potential of the potato. Although the tuber had been championed vigorously as a miracle food by botanists throughout the 16th century–particularly in Vienna, Frankfurt, and Leyden–it was not until the 18th century that it began to be planted widely in the countryside. By the 1750s, potatoes were being grown in all the United Provinces of Holland, and they rapidly replaced grain products and bread in the diet of the rural poor, particularly after the disastrous grain shortages of 1770-71. Although town dwellers sometimes ate potatoes–particularly with fish–the aristocrats hardly touched them. By the mid-nineteenth century they were a staple, at least in rural areas; P. H. Hough, student of peasant life in Holland in the 1890s, was served them as part of the main course at a Dutch country wedding:
‘When all the invited guests are assembled and have partaken of hot gin mixed with currants, handed round in two-handled pewter cups, kept especially for these occasions, the whole party goes about at 11 o’clock, to the Stadhuis, or Town Hall, where the couple are married before the Burgomeister … On returning home the mid-day meal is ready, and on this festive occasion consists of ham and potatoes.’
Quantity: Serves 4
Time: Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 30 minutes
1kg/2 lb small new potatoes
500g/1 lb gammon or ham from the brine pot, soaked to de-salt
A generous nut of butter
1 tablespoon honey or brown sugar
Pepper and salt
Utensils: An earthenware casserole or a heavy iron pot, with lid
Scrub the potatoes and cube the gammon or ham into bite-sized pieces. Put both into the pot with the butter and 2 tablespoons water (the soaking water, from the dried fruit, if using). Add a little pepper–you shouldn’t need extra salt–and dribble of honey or brown sugar. Lid tightly and put to cook gently on top of the stove, shaking the pan regularly to avoid sticking. Or bake in a moderate oven at 350°F/180°C/Gas 4.
Meanwhile, quarter and core the fruit, if fresh; if dried and soaked, drain. Add the fruit to the casserole after 15 minutes, when the potatoes are nearly tender. Continue to cook until all is soft–20-25 minutes in all–you may need a little more water. Serve the bacon on top of the potatoes and fruit, which should still hold their shape.
Suggestions:
• Sausages or fresh pork can replace the gammon.
POTATO AND CARROT HOT POT
Hutzpot (Holland)
The Dutch will tell you their national dish is really Spanish, though Scots will recognise is as similar to stovies. The story goes that when Dutch forces united under William of Orange to chase out the Philip II’s occupying army, the Spaniards were in such a hurry to escape, they left their dinner still simmering on the cooking fire. The Dutch claimed the contents of the pot along with the victory.
Quantity: Enough for a family of 4
Time: If using meat, start 4 hours ahead
Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 30 minutes
500g/1 lb flank steak, fresh or salted for 2 days (optional)
1 large onion (3-4 if not using meat)
2 tablespoons butter or beef dripping
1kg/2 lb old carrots
1.5kg/3 lb potatoes
Salt and pepper
Utensils: 2 medium saucepans
Slice the meat into fine slivers, if using. Skin and slice the onion into narrow half moons. Put the meat and onions with the butter or dripping in a heavy saucepan with a cupful of water and pepper and salt (if the meat is not already salted), lid tightly and leave to simmer very gently for 3-4 hours until perfectly tender (onions alone will need about 40 minutes).
Scrape and matchstick the carrots. Peel and matchstick the potatoes. Put the carrots and potatoes to cook in just enough lightly salted water to cover and leave to simmer gently until nearly done (about 15 minutes). Strain and add the juices from the meat and onion. Leave the two pans to cook side by side for another 10 minutes loosely covered, until everything is done and the onion mixture begins to sizzle. Serve the meat and onions separately; the potatoes and carrots should still be moist with the juices.
POTATO AND GARLIC GRIDDLE CAKE
La crique (France)
Also known as matafaim (‘kill-hunger’ in the Provencal), this slip of a crisp potato pancake is, exactly as its name implies, fast food for field workers–much needed on the high central plateau where the harvest is as late as possible since the crops need autumn sunshine to ripen to full maturity. As September draws down, those who share heavy machinery such as combine harvesters, as do many in the village cooperatives of la France profonde, are obliged to work from dusk to dawn in the light from the headlamps until the morning dew makes reaping impossible, and it’s time to head home to break the long night’s fast.
Quantity: Enough for 1 hungry harvester
Time: Preparation: 10 minutes
Cooking: 20 minutes
1kg/2 lb potatoes
2 large free-range eggs
Salt and pepper
1 garlic clove
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
Utensils: A grater, a bowl and a griddle with an edge, or a heavy frying pan
Peel and grate the potatoes. Beat the eggs up with the salt, pepper, and the garlic clove crushed with a little salt under the flat of a heavy knife. Stir in the grated potatoes and mix well.
Heat the frying pan before you put in the oil–pre-heating stops food sticking to the pan. When the oil is lightly smoking, pour in the potato and egg mixture, and spread it well over the pan, patting it well down with a wooden spoon to make a thin pancake. Leave it to cook gently for 15 minutes–shaking the pan every now and again to discourage sticking–till tender and soft and lightly crisped on the base. Turn and cook for another 5 minutes to brown the other side.
POTATOES WITH WINE AND RED PEPPERS
Papas a la riojana (Spain)
The gardeners of Spain were the first to receive the New World vegetables, and among the first to appreciate the possibilities of the potato and the paprika pepper. In the wine-growing district of Rioja, the two are cooked together with red wine. The vineyards and market gardens of the district skirt the River Ebro, a lush countryside where vegetables as well as grapes grow fat and sweet in the warm, chalky soil. In the folds of the small hills, ripples of terracotta and ochre and green shimmer under the summer sun.
Quantity: Serves 4
Time: Preparation: 20 minutes
Cooking: 20 minutes
1kg/2 lb large waxy potatoes
1 Spanish onion
3 garlic cloves
3-4 ripe red peppers (Riojan piquillos, for choice)
500g/1 lb tomatoes (fresh or canned)
1 tablespoon pimentón (or mild paprika)
4 tablespoons olive oil
Glass of red wine
1-2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon diced Serrano ham
Salt and pepper
Utensils: A heavy frying pan with a lid
Peel and slice the onion and garlic. Hull, de-seed and cut the peppers into strips. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes to loosen the skin, and then peel and chop them roughly.
Put the olive oil to warm in the pan. Add the onion and garlic and fry it lightly. Put in the pepper strips and let them soften in the hot oil. Add the tomatoes, bay leaves and Serrano ham, bubble up, turn down the heat and leave to simmer gently for 10 minutes while you peel and slice the potatoes into thick rounds.
Lay the potato rounds on top of the tomato mixture, add the bay leaves and pour in the glass of wine. Lid and leave to simmer for 20 minutes or so, until the potatoes are soft. Taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve the potato stew on its own, or with a fried egg for each diner, or with baby lamb chops grilled over vine twigs. To finish the meal, thick sheep’s milk junket with honey. Accompany, naturally, with the good red wine of Rioja.
Suggestions:
• Artichoke hearts, beans, leeks, courgettes, red and green peppers can all be added to make a pisto manchego.