Potatoes

The potato is undoubtedly the world’s number one vegetable. Yet its almost universal acceptance today dates from only the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Sir John Hawkins gets the credit for introducing the potato into Ireland in 1565; Sir Walter Raleigh planted it there in 1585. But it was not until the mid-nineteenth century that the potato became the important staple crop that it is today in Northern Europe, the British Isles and North America.

There are hundreds of ways of preparing potatoes. Some of the simplest ones are the best. Baked in the oven and rushed to the table, where they are slashed open with a quick cross-cut, to receive a pat of fresh butter and a sprinkling of coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper; or puréed with double cream and fresh butter; or crisp-fried in hot lard and oil - they are hard to beat. I like, too, to serve new potatoes no bigger than walnuts, hot and dry, in their jackets, with lashings of fresh butter, and pepper and salt. Or try the more sophisticated gratin dauphinois (new potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced, and cooked in the oven with double cream, and freshly grated Gruyère and Parmesan); pommes de terre Anna (new potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced, arranged in concentric layers in a well-buttered thick casserole, each layer brushed with butter, and baked in the oven until a crisp golden crust has formed); and potatoes O’Brien (sliced raw potatoes sautéed in butter and olive oil with finely chopped green pepper and pimento).