Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being mentioned (along with some of my favourite spuds) in Fionnuala Fallon’s piece in the Irish Times magazine on the dilemma of picking potato varieties (and yes, it’s the kind of thing that can keep a girl awake at night).

Then today, in what might just be the most epic Spud Sunday to date, a piece written by my good self appeared as the cover story in the new Sunday magazine supplement published with the Irish edition of the Sunday Times (sadly the Sunday Times implements a pay-wall, so I can’t link directly to an online version of the article, which was on the topic of the falling consumption of potatoes in Ireland).

What with editors and sub-editors involved, the piece that ran is not as I had written it, but that’s newspapers for you – an addition (not one of mine) which noted the occurrence of a National Potato Conference on Valentine’s Day was, alas, erroneous (the conference, in fact, takes place on February 22nd, with more information for any interested parties available here).

Below is the story as originally submitted. Enjoy.

Spuds on the cover: now that's what I call a real Spud Sunday

“that which was heretofore reckon’d a food fit only for Irishmen, and clowns”

So wrote English garden designer Stephen Switzer in 1733, reflecting a popularly held opinion of the time. He was referring, of course, to potatoes, which were not much liked in 18th century England. They were the food of the Irish and food of the poor.

In a 1998 episode of The Simpsons, that modern-day clown Homer Simpson, a sack of potatoes slung over his shoulder and whistling an Irish air, blags his way into the backstage reaches of a U2 concert by identifying himself as Potato Man. Hundreds of years may have passed, but potatoes are still seen as the food of the Irish, poor or not. The two are so closely bound, in fact, that news, last November, that the legendary Irish love of the spud might be on the wane became the stuff of international headlines.

Prompted by declining potato sales, An Bord Bia had issued a tender for market research into Irish consumer attitudes towards potatoes. The story was picked up by media outlets in Ireland and, like word of some shocking celebrity split, spread to the world news pages of the New York Times and thence to newspapers ranging from the Sydney Morning Herald to the South China Morning Post. It’s not a new story, however. The fact is that sales of fresh potatoes in Ireland have been trending downward, probably since the late ’80s. Since 2005 alone, retail sales of fresh potatoes here have dropped by 25%, according to research by Kantar WorldPanel.

Sounds dramatic, no? Lorcan Bourke from An Bord Bia advises caution: “We only have figures for the household purchase of potatoes and not the whole foodservice/catering end of the market. So figures like this would not give the full picture.” Significant also is that the figures do not include purchases of processed potato products. Liam Glennon, President of the Irish Potato Federation, whose members together handle around 75% of the potato trade in Ireland, points out that sales of processed products, often made with potatoes sourced outside of Ireland, have, in all likelihood, been on the up. “We don’t have comprehensive figures for potato consumption but I’m just saying that it’s probably not as bad as it seems.”

The point remains, though, that we’re not buying bags of spuds like we used to. It might be tempting to view this as some kind of psychological break with our past, but is it perhaps just the case that plain old spuds are seen as plain old-fashioned? Undoubtedly, potatoes have had to put up with a lot more competition from other carbohydrates, and the anti-carb sentiment engendered by certain diets in recent years will have done sales of potatoes no favours. Is it, therefore, natural to expect the downward trend to continue or is there a path back for the fresh potato? Can we Irish re-invent the spud?

We can, according to Pádraic Óg Gallagher, but it’ll need “marketing, marketing, marketing and education.” Pádraic Óg is the owner of Gallagher’s Boxty House in Temple Bar in Dublin. With a menu based around traditional Irish boxty, the restaurant, which has been in operation for over 20 years, goes through more than a tonne of potatoes per week. “We don’t make eating potatoes look sexy enough,” he says. “Look at how pasta and rice are marketed – through sauces.” Sexy and saucy – ’tis a far cry from the spud image of old. Pádraic Óg also stresses the importance of education “because the humble potato is a much superior carbohydrate to processed pasta or rice – personally I will toss baby potatoes in a pesto sauce for a dish that is as convenient and far more nutritious than either fresh or dried pasta.”

The inside scoop on spuds, including Fergal Phillip's great picture of Pádraic Óg Gallagher at Gallagher's Boxty House

Convenience, or the perceived lack thereof is, according to An Bord Bia’s Lorcan Bourke, the big issue that the potato industry here needs to tackle. “Potatoes are still our number one carbohydrate,” he says, “and consumers regard potatoes as nutritious and as a value for money product, but convenience is a very big issue for them.” He says that growers here are looking to address this issue with new and innovative products. “It will take a few years, but we’ll crack it,” says he.

But crack it how, exactly?

One company taking a very pro-active approach is Keogh’s, based in North County Dublin, who have developed a line of ‘Easy Cook’ steam-in-the-bag microwaveable rooster and baby potatoes, available in Superquinn, Eurospar and other independent outlets. Their 1kg pack of roosters do the easy-cook thing in around thirteen minutes; smaller 400g packs take less than ten. According to General Manager Tom Keogh, “the introduction of the ‘Easy Cook’ range has really helped to attract consumers back to potatoes, sales (of this range) are increasing 4% per month.” Marketing strategies adopted by the company have also included the launch of the first ever National Potato Day last August “in an effort to heighten younger consumers’ awareness of potatoes and rejuvenate the potato’s perceived old-fashioned image – it worked extremely well and we hope to build on this in future.” Keogh’s are also members of the aforementioned Irish Potato Federation which, since 2008, has part-funded Agri-Aware’s Incredible Edibles program in primary schools. This gives growing packs and raised beds to schools so that they can grow vegetables, including potatoes. A total of 1,700 schools participated in 2011.

And growing your own spuds is certainly one way of developing a renewed appreciation for our national tuber. Hans Wieland, who runs the Organic Centre at Rossinver in Co. Leitrim, will tell you that we are not so much re-inventing the spud as rediscovering the habits of the past, with increasing numbers of us using our back gardens to grow potatoes once more. The centre runs an annual Potato Day – which takes place this year on Sunday, March 11th – and is a one stop shop for seed potatoes, potato growing advice and planting demonstrations, as well as an opportunity to see some of Dave Langford’s fascinating collection of heritage potato varieties. “Sales of seed potatoes to family growers and individuals are up or steady, that means more people have their own potatoes and buy less. In the past 3-4 years sales of early varieties have gone up, especially,” says Hans. Rumours of the potato’s demise, then, are greatly exaggerated. In gardens across the country, we’re getting back with our spuds.

I had the pleasure, yesterday, of enjoying my second all-potato menu in as many weeks (and yes, I know what you’re thinking – some gals just have all the luck).

The occasion was a cookery demonstration given by Pádraic Óg Gallagher at Gallagher’s Boxty House as part of this weekend’s Temple Bar Trad Fest, and the subject, naturally enough, was boxty, the traditional potato speciality that gives the restaurant its name. And Pádraic, who has run The Boxty House for some 23 years, knows more than most about boxty. His making of boiled, baked and pan versions of same (which have featured on these pages before) was accompanied by a potted history of the spud in Ireland and elsewhere. For the lunch which followed the demo, you could, if you so desired, indulge in boxty for starter, main course and dessert (and for those who persist in thinking that you shouldn’t put potato and dessert in the same sentence, let alone on the same plate, all I can say is don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it).

Boxty on the menu - it's almost as versatile as the spud itself

For good measure, the event – which was mostly attended by visitors of the non-Irish variety – included a helping of soda bread making and the pouring of a few Irish coffees, and Pádraic hopes that these demos may become a regular feature at the restaurant during the summer months. If, as a result, some tourists leave the country with the urge to make boxty, then that is no bad thing. If some natives were to discover its charms (as I first did here), then so much the better. It doesn’t, I think, need to be made because it’s traditional or Irish, but because it is simply a very good thing to eat.

Pádraic Óg Gallagher talks boxty
under the watchful gaze of the Sacred Heart

Tempting tipples...

Several of my work colleagues, it seems, are off the jar for January (meaning, for those unfamiliar with that particular turn of phrase, that they are giving alcohol a miss for the month). One did confess, though, to having fallen off the wagon the other day by way of a mid-week glass of wine and, like any forbidden fruit, it was all the sweeter for that. Now, several days later, I can’t say if that conversation was what prompted me to (a) buy a bottle of white wine or (b) add a glass of same to these potatoes, but it might just have been a factor. What I can tell you is that the potatoes are, without doubt, all the better for the addition.

Note: There is a print link embedded within this post, please visit this post to print it.

Potatoes with Leeks and White Wine

This is an utterly simple preparation – potatoes cooked in a pan with some leeks, garlic, thyme, olives and of course that white wine. If you’re like me, you’ll just eat these on their own for lunch, or they would make a nice accompaniment to a plain omelette, some baked mushrooms or a piece of grilled white fish, along with a glass of that white wine you had to open…

You’ll need:

• olive oil for frying
• butter for frying
• one large leek, white and light green parts finely sliced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3 medium-sized potatoes (about 600g total), peeled and cut into approx. 2cm cubes
• 0.5 tsp dijon mustard
• 0.5 tsp salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 150ml dry white wine (one you’d like to drink yourself)
• 150ml hot water
• 3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 3-4 tblsp green olives, sliced
• 1 tblsp brine from the olives (optional)

You’ll also need:

• A good-sized frying pan – mine was around 26cm diameter – with a lid

The Steps:

• Place your frying pan over a medium heat and, when hot, add about 0.5 tblsp butter and 0.5 tblsp olive oil. When the butter has melted, add the leeks. Stir and fry for 3-4 minutes or until softened. Add the garlic and stir for about a minute more.
• Add the chunks of potato, mustard, salt and pepper and stir briefly, then add the white wine, hot water, thyme, olives and, if the olives have been stored in brine, add about a tblsp of the olive brine. Stir again and bring the potatoes to the boil, then cover the pan, lower the heat and simmer gently until the potatoes are cooked through and the liquid had reduced considerably – this will take around 30 minutes or so.
• Enjoy these potatoes on their or with eggs or fish or whatever else you fancy.

The Variations:

• You could certainly add some parsley to good effect here or some parmesan cheese if you felt like it. A few capers wouldn’t go astray either.

The Results:

• Makes 2-3 servings

]]> http://www.thedailyspud.com/2012/01/22/potatoes-leeks-white-wine/feed/ 12 http://www.thedailyspud.com/2012/01/15/potato-menu/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=potato-menu http://www.thedailyspud.com/2012/01/15/potato-menu/#comments Sun, 15 Jan 2012 19:32:00 +0000 Daily Spud http://www.thedailyspud.com/?p=34362 For some reason, it was the cause of much mirth amongst my work colleagues when I mentioned that, as part of my general spud research, I was meeting the president of the Irish Potato Federation for lunch (an organisation of wholesalers, importers and exporters of potatoes and whose members together handle around 75% of the potato trade in Ireland).

I suspect that the sniggerati’s mental image of two potato heads lunching may have had a certain cartoonish quality to it. I had to laugh myself, really. What was once a vegetable is now a vocation – I have become The Daily Spud and this is the kind of thing I do.

An all-potato menu at The Clarence

As for the lunch itself, I was, unsurprisingly, tickled pink by the all-potato menu, which Liam Glennon, president of the aforementioned federation, asked the chef at The Clarence Tea Room to prepare. Feasting on leek and potato soup, gnocchi and chocolate potato cake was as good a reminder as any that being The Daily Spud is no bad thing. In fact, it’s a very good thing indeed.

White winter vegetable soup: potato, celeriac, cauliflower and roasted garlic

Ah yes, it’s that time of year where we resolve to swap the excesses of Christmas eating for regimes that are altogether more virtuous. Quite how many of us manage to stick to those resolutions for any length of time is another matter entirely (and far be it from me to judge – I have left a trail of failed resolutions in my wake over the years).

Still, I can do my little bit and, this year, it starts with this white winter vegetable soup.

Time, that is, for the old year to pass the baton to a sprightly new successor, but not before a last backward glance at the year that was and, with it, my top ten picks from The Daily Spud files. Suffice to say that if the year to come is even half as good, it’ll be a very good year indeed.

#1: Winning Best Food and Drink gong at the Irish Blog Awards. Again.
A clear choice for this year's number one if you ask me.

#2: The Daily Spud features in Food and Wine Magazine's Hot 100
(so I can now refer to myself as one hot tattie - ooh, err missus!)

#3: Having recipes included in the lovely Farmhouse Cheeses of Ireland book was a thrill,
even better that they came sandwiched between contributions from Catherine Fulvio and Rachel Allen

#4: Well, who wouldn't be flattered by an invitation to act as
Chief Spud Ambassador at the first Irish National Potato Day. I know I was.

#5: The travel highlight of the year was Lebanon
and this Lebanese apricot jam was nothing short of sunshine in a jar

#6: A visit to the Annual Spud Tasting at Jacksie's Bar
in Taghmon definitely rated as the spud adventure of the year

#7: The Daily Spud's Paddy's Day Food Parade returned for a second outing in 2011
and brought with it yet another fine collection of Irish-themed dishes to mark our national day

#8: Individual potato cups were, I think, the spud creation of the year.
With the recipe receiving over 20,000 page hits, you seemed to think so too.

#9: Ok, so I know you saw this in my last post, but
appearing along with my roasties on the pages of
Irish Country Living was always going to make my top ten

There’s little chance that I’ll forget. It being Christmas Day, this is no mere trifle (though mère trifle, on the other hand, it most certainly is). It will add to the already too much food that will be prepared for today’s family gathering, and Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a heaving, over-stuffed table.

As I’m writing this, the conversation in the kitchen has turned to turkey prep and Ma is consulting with Darina Allen, or one of her cookbooks, at least.

You know it's Christmas when...
you're at home and flicking through the Ma's well-thumbed copy of Darina Allen's
Simply Delicious Christmas

Over the next few hours we’ll ready the full gamut of Christmas edibles, from bread sauce to brussels sprouts (and yes, we are lovers, not haters, of that most divisive of vegetables), and of course there will be freshly prepared roasties. And though it feels not a little strange, I might even flick through the pages of the recent Irish Farmer’s Journal Country Living supplement, which, I’m flattered to say, features an interview with yours truly on the subject of Christmas spuds. That, in my world, is no mere trifle either.

A Spud Revealed:
Me, my roasties and my favourite apron on the pages of
Irish Country Living

Suffice to say, dear readers, that it’ll be a happy, spud-filled Christmas here, and I hope that it’s the same for you, wherever you are and however you celebrate. Merry Christmas one and all.

'Tis the season to be roasting...

You’d think, having published my 12-step roastie program two years ago, followed by last year’s investigation of the best spud for the roastie job, that when this Christmas rolled around, I’d really have no more to say on the subject of roast potatoes for the big day. I might even have thought as much myself but, as it turns out, both you and I were wrong. I realised as much last Monday morning, as I was listening to the John Murray Show on RTE Radio One.

Brenda Costigan, longtime cookery writer, was a guest on the show and some listeners has asked for her tips on roast potatoes, as you do at this time of year. What followed was something I certainly didn’t expect, because she suggested that you could prepare your roasties ahead of time and freeze them.

The idea fairly stopped me in my tracks, because I’ve just never thought that a spell in the freezer did a cooked potato any favours. I somehow imagined that roasting a spud that had been previously frozen was a recipe for sogginess, but there was only one way to be sure – a taste-off between potatoes cooked, frozen and roasted the Brenda way and my own freshly prepared version. I donned my roastie lab coat and went, once again, into investigative action.

The After Thoughts

While practical experiments like this are one way of answering certain kitchen questions, I always like it better if I understand what’s really going on.

I had wondered, for one thing, about Brenda’s comment that organic varieties of potato would tend to blacken less after cooking. According to Harold McGee, renowned food scientist and author of McGee on Food & Cooking, the development of gray or blackish pigments in potatoes when left to sit after cooking is caused by a reaction of iron ions, phenolic compounds and oxygen. Shirley Corriher in Cookwise describes the same reaction and also notes that some varieties of potato may be more susceptible to this than others. I would guess, in that case, that the organic varieties that Brenda mentioned are less susceptible to this effect, though whether that is down to the specific variety or their organic cultivation is an open question. In any case, both Harold McGee and Shirley Corriher note that this blackening effect can be minimised in boiled potatoes by making the water distinctly acidic halfway through cooking e.g. by adding some lemon juice or cream of tartar. Coating the cooked potatoes with butter, as Brenda does, also seems to inhibit blackening and my guess is that this may be due to the presence of antioxidants in the butterfat.

As regards the freezing of cooked potatoes, the graininess which I could discern is no doubt due to the formation of large water crystals which rupture internal membranes within the potato. Commercially frozen potatoes are generally frozen rapidly and at a much lower temperature, forming smaller crystals, so there is less internal damage. Home frozen spuds, however, are not so lucky.

In general, and as you may have observed yourself, cooked potatoes can develop a stale flavour after a few days (or even after a few hours if kept hot for service). Harold McGee notes that aromatic compounds in the potato are temporarily stabilised by the potato’s antioxidant vitamin C, but with time, the vitamin C is used up and the compounds become oxidised, producing less pleasant aldehydes and that resulting cardboard-like taste. As my own experience confirms when it comes to spuds, fresh is always best.

It’s not like it was a difficult decision. Joe Macken, serial restaurateur and the man behind (among others) the ever-popular Jo’Burger in Rathmines and CrackBird, the restaurant that popped-up-and-stayed, had invited a small band of bloggers to visit his latest Dublin eatery, Skinflint, to see his operation and (of course) try the food.

To be honest, the mere fact that there was a potato pizza on the menu meant that I was in like flynn. I’m easy like that. At least when it comes to spuds. And the opportunity to eat, among others, with Aoife from I Can Has Cook, Catherine from The Runcible Spoon and Bill and Sharon from Gunternation was not one to be passed up either.

Skinflint, Crane Lane, Dublin 2

As for the restaurant, Skinflint is a cool, casual joint. Unsurprisingly, given the name, it boasts a value-for-money menu, which is based around creatively designed grilled pizzas. They make their dough using flour from Irish millers Odlums, and ferment it for three days to develop its flavour. It’s passed through a roller to create an oblong pizza base, and then grilled on a large roller grill. The toppings, which for this type of pizza must be pre-cooked, are added while the dough sits on the grill and it can all be put together very quickly. The restaurant also features a meatballs dish, which changes daily, and a one pot wonder from Mondays to Fridays, as well as snacks like hummus and an excellent beetroot caviar.

A selection of Skinflint pizzas (which, if you were wondering, are named after staff members' mothers):
the eithne (butternut squash, rosemary, ricotta, capers)
the sadie (roast garlic confit, toasted hazelnuts, tomato, fontina, spinach)
the tess (pulled pork, fennel seeds, braised fennel, mascarpone)

Behind the scenes, the kitchen is small, simple and functional. “I don’t usually let photographers in here,” Joe said, just as I had come in to watch the creation of my potato pizza, the Maria. And granted, there really is nothing flashy about the kitchen space, but that, to me, was neither here nor there. I was more concerned with the progress of my pizza, as it was scattered with slices of potato, mushrooms and mozzarella, and drizzled with truffle oil and cream. I beat a swift path back to my seat once it was ready and got stuck in. At Joe’s recommendation, Skinflint’s chilli-spiked honey, Firebee, was providing a popular finishing touch to pizzas all around the table.

Inside the Skinflint kitchen:
the roller for the pizza dough, the dough on the grill, the array of toppings and the finished Maria pizza

Joe sat with us for a while as we munched, though truth be told, you quickly get the impression that Joe does not sit still for long, if ever. His enthusiasm, drive and inescapable hipness give both energy and style to his various eateries, and he doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. “In the office, we’ll have ten different mood boards with different restaurant themes,” he tells us, and though Skinflint is only newly open, there are exciting plans in the works for parent restaurant Jo’Burger, as well as another new project which he can’t tell us about – so hush-hush, in fact, that even close associates don’t know the details yet. All in all, it’s not the kind of story we’re used to hearing about in these tortured economic times.

“I am a skinflint,” Joe laughs, “and recession sharpens the mind.”

His businesses have to make commercial sense, so they are conceived with a keen eye on cost. Keeping things simple helps – in Jo’Burger, it’s all about burgers, in CrackBird, it’s nothing but chicken, in Skinflint, it’s grilled pizzas that can be turned around very quickly. Acutely aware, too, of the importance of sustaining the local economy, Joe is big on sourcing from Irish suppliers where at all possible – “if you’re not doing that, you may as well forget it.”

Plenty, then, to chew on over lunch and even after the pizzas were long gone – pizzas which, to judge by the satisfied looks on everyone’s faces, had gone down an absolute treat.

My point, of course, was not to teach anybody how to make a crisp sambo per se, but to acknowledge the fact that it sits proudly in the pantheon of spud classics, as much as any buttery mash or creamy gratin. And the same, it has to be said, goes for its close cousin, the crisp toastie.

This week's crisp toastie

This particular toastie featured some of the new Keogh’s crisps that I sampled last week. What better place for a handful of the salt and vinegar variety than smushed between two slices of toasted batch bread, with some mature cheddar, tomatoes, spring onions and mayonnaise for company. It was a little piece of midweek lunch perfection.

Figuring that you might fancy making some toasties of your own, Keogh’s have offered to send one lucky Spud reader a sample of their new range, which includes Dubliner Cheese and Onion, Atlantic Sea Salt and Irish Cider Vinegar and Roast Beef and Irish Stout flavours. The rest of the toastie is, naturally, up to you.