Lucy Madden - The Potato Year

THE POTATO YEARTHE POTATO YEAR 300 Classic Recipes Lucy Madden MERCIER PRESS Cork www.mercierpress.ie Lucy Madden, 2015 Foreword: Susan Jane White, 2015 ISBN: 978 1 78117 310 7 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information or retrieval system, without the prior permission of the publisher in writing. Printed and bound in the EU. Forewordby Susan Jane White Lucy Madden is among the greatest of our country-house cooks. As Darina Allen of Ballymaloe said recently, Lucy turns out some of the most delicious and appropriate food Ive tasted anywhere. Writing as someone who has unapologetically wrestled leftovers from other guests at Hilton Park, I have to agree.

There, too, I have finished one meal only to dream about the next. No wonder the Observer has called this redoubtable Englishwoman one of the most inspired cooks in Ireland. Lucy grew up in London, but in her early twenties she made the decision that haunts so many women: she married an Irishman! Johnny is the ninth generation of Maddens to own Hilton Park, near Clones. There must have been days when Monaghan felt oppressive. (Patrick Kavanagh said of it: My black hills have never seen the sun rising, eternally they look north towards Armagh.) Yet here in border country, Lucy and Johnny who is an equally thoughtful, amusing host have reinvented the Irish country-house experience, offering foodie pilgrims legendary hospitality in a part of Ireland that rarely finds its way onto the travel pages. Hilton Park is nearly 300 years old.

Its a grand very grand property, yet the hosts could not be more engaging. Over lunch at the kitchen table you might spend an hour debating the mating preferences of mussels, the antics of adulterous politicians or the behaviour expected of people in obscure religious cults. This is a kitchen full of flavour. An enthusiastic chronicler of the oddities of Irish life, Lucy has a neighbour who was once asked why he had a washing line erected across his farmyard from which hung a row of empty plastic oil cans. The farmer looked astonished to be asked the question. Because a man has to have what no other man has, was his explanation.

And this attitude, says Lucy, is what we once had in Ireland. Bring back the oddballs. Lucys culinary philosophy is simply expressed. The dishes, she says, are inspired by the fruit, vegetables and herbs grown in the garden. And while her talented son, Fred, has taken over the reins in the kitchen, Lucy is still to be found in that four-acre walled garden, with a stiff cup of coffee and a shovel, digging spuds. The Potato Year is a celebration of the most modest vegetable in our shopping basket, the story of a garden and a record of our shared heritage as potato growers and lovers. The Potato Year is a celebration of the most modest vegetable in our shopping basket, the story of a garden and a record of our shared heritage as potato growers and lovers.

Freshly boiled organic potatoes, with a lick of sea salt and pan-fried garlic? Guaranteed to do all sorts of funny things to my nostrils and my toes. Kale is so 2013. Turnip is yet to find a patron. And blueberries are in rehab. Spuds are the national superfood, almost buzzing with goodness. Indeed pasta and rice would blush in the presence of potatoes, which are a terrific source of potassium otherwise known as the hangover-healer! If you eat them with the skin on, vitamin C can also help the body repair any damage done the night before.

And finally, vitamin B6 and iron can help to strengthen red blood cells. Isnt it great to find a food you love that loves you back? The recipes in this book do the Irish potato a memorable service. If you havent submitted to their call, prepare to embark on a pilgrimage. And remember to savour the writing. Always interested, ever looking for the right combination of flavours and words, Lucy is a pleasure to read. She inspires us to experience food as one of the great gifts of life, and that spirit of celebration informs every page of this homage to the humble spud.

It looks set to become a classic. Acknowledgements There are so many people who have helped with the production of this book to whom I truly owe thanks. Ive discovered that the potato is a great leveller and the very mention of this book has struck a responsive culinary chord in all sorts of gatherings while I have been collecting and collating potato recipes. Heartfelt thanks are due to An Bord Glas (now Bord Bia) for the help and patience they showed over the years of putting the first edition of the book together. Id also like to thank my daughter, Amelia Raben, for her work on the manuscript, Mike OToole for his photography and exceptional patience, Gary Smyth of R&S Printers Monaghan, Roberta Reeners, Ally Bun-bury and of course my husband, Johnny, for stoically eating his way through numerous potato dishes, sacrificing his waistline in the process. Where possible, specific credits appear through the book, but I would like gratefully to acknowledge and thank the following for their kind permission to reprint copyright material: Cambridge University Press for extracts from The History and Social Influence of the Potato by Redcliffe Salaman, published 1949; the estate of James Joyce for a quote from The Dead; Jill Norman for the lines from An Omelette and a Glass of Wine by Elizabeth David, published 1989; Curtis Brown for an extract from Some Experiences of an Irish R.M. by E..

Somerville and Martin Ross, published 1899; Sophie Grigson for an extract from Jane Grigsons Fruit Book, published 1991; Michael Joseph Ltd for extracts from The Ladies of Llangollen, a Study in Romantic Friendship by Elizabeth Mavor, published 1971; Elizabeth Lambert Ortiz for extracts from The Book of Latin American Cookery, published 1969; and Professor Kevin Whelan of the Royal Irish Academy for material from the Thomas Davis Lecture series. Unfortunately I have not been able to credit some of the original writers of the recipes since some of these I have been unable to trace. Many of the recipes in this book were sent to me hand-written, but relayed from books and magazines over the years, by friends and often the original sources of the recipes were lost. For omissions I am sorry. Introduction What is this? an American visitor asked recently, indicating a row of plants growing in our kitchen garden and dotted with purple and white flowers in full bloom. That an adult should not be able to identify what is without doubt one of the worlds most important crops, was a shock.

To look down on the flowers that Marie Antoinette had once worn in her hair, and not to know them, was this possible? Add to this the fact that the visitors existence on this planet had not a little to do with the one-time failure of the crop, which caused the great Irish famine that sent his ancestors on their diaspora to the New World, and the lack of knowledge was even more bewildering. But then, sadly, we dont all know our potatoes. Extraordinarily, many people prefer pasta, rice or couscous. Not I. My father, a man whose relationship with the soil could only be described as reluctant, and who once planted a hedge of fuchsia cuttings upside down, managed to produce a crop of potatoes that, steamed with mint then gilded with butter, were as epicurean as anything I have eaten since and began a life-long love affair for me with the vegetable. When I had the good fortune to marry a man whose family owned Hilton Park in Co.