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2008:- THE YEAR OF THE POTATO… WITH SPICES (AND VITAMINS)
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Do you know? The U.N. has declared 2008 to be the “year of the potato “ (We also say say patata and cartouflette. Yes, oui, si, ja, sim, da!this filling and cheap food has nourished the working class and pigs for centuries. The fact that it can be grown in various climates and with little water has caused the U.N. to declare it to be “the food of the future fro humanity”.
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With Miam Miam it’s the year of the potato every day. From Ireland to Idaho, from Andean range to the ural plains and recently Hindu villages African Allotments and Chinese terraces…
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No more prejudice! The potato is chic, the potato is popular. Not only for the delicate violet flowers for the fat king Louis (16th) his Antoinette and his courtesans to decorate their buttonholes, but for the hundreds of varieties that solanum tuberosum (it’s latin name) boasts.
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Patate story: it’s 5000 years since the Incas around lake Titicaca cultivated yellow ochre truffle, rich in carbohydrate, well stocked with protein, vitamin C, magnesium, amino acids and potassium. Under its compact appearance and its bland taste (but what about rice or maize?) the potato concentrates a variety of necessary nutritional elements. Take note! It is not a complementary food (on sale at the pharmacy) but a basic food (on sale from the market gardeners). The conquistadors came back to Europe with coffee beans, maize, haricot beans, the tomato, the marrow… and the potato.
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Thank you to that generous Indian and the agronomist olivier de Serres, a contempororary of the good king Henri (4th) who introduced them to France on his farm in the Vivarais to accompany the chicken casserole each Sunday.
Then , the cunning Parmentier, who gave his name to the famous “hachis parmentier” (shepherd’s pie) grew the potato and had them guarded by soldiers in Sablon plains ( remember your history books) in order to convince the people that the precious vegetable was not only edible, but did not give you leprosy, since the nobility kept them from themselves.
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People who don’t understand say, yes but the potato is a boring dish, a little like the flat plains of Poland or Picardy.
No, it’s those people who are boring; the potato offers the most surprising variety of combinations amongst the basic foods. In salads with ratte, roseval, belle de fontenay; with the mona lisa and the samba as side dishes; baked with cheese (gratin) in rissoles or sauted pan with bintjes caesars manons and victorias. Need we say more about the diversity of the tubers concealed behind the simple potato?
The uninitiated :- “yes but potatoes make you fat”.
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The potato admirer: -“You are talking about mass produced chips, trans fats, fast foods, butter and cream based sauces. However spices immerse and flavor potatoes with their diverse tastes, refined and delicate, all of this adding to your heath and pleasure.”
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The uninitiated :- “Really? But how? Where to learn this sophisticated art and all the nuances of potatoes with spices?”
The potato admirer: -“my dear chap, have you heard about the cookery courses from the Miam Miam association?”
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Obviously not. He doesn’t know. But as for you dear reader, from now on there is no reason why you can’t discover the secrets of 21 potato salads and how they are harmonized with spices and the 20 potato dishes devised by Antoine Augustin Parmentier for the royal court.
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These recipes can be found on the Miam Miam association website
Stuffed parcels with herbs, dill, tarragon; oregano; Gratin (tian) with coriander, cumin and paprika, Indian massala’s mild or hot; Indonesian sweet and sour satay sauce and the tasty Japanese perilla with seven spices…
See you soon in our kitchen at aulas for a hedonist review of the potato with spices. A tour of the world of spices around potato.
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Patrick du Cros
Miam Miam association for cooking advice which introduces you to 80 spices
For every day cooking courses
From Saturday afternoons only to long weekends
An original idea for a present
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