Marlena Spieler - Yummy Potatoes: 65 Downright Delicious Recipes

65 Downright Delicious Recipes

by Marlena Spieler
Photographs by Sheri Giblin

Text copyright 2007 by Marlena Spieler.
Photographs copyright 2007 by Sheri Giblin.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.

ISBN: 978-1-4521-2528-2

Designed by Vivien Sung
Typesetting by Pete Merison
Prop styling by Leigh Noe
Food styling by Dan Becker

Chronicle Books LLC
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To Alan, whose inner happiness is full of potatoes.

To Dr. Leah Spieler, Jonathan Potatoes Rock Harford, potato-loving Kitty, Gretchen Spieler, Lucy, and the late Big Boy.

To Manuela Barzan and Michele Lomuto, my Nepolitan Chamber of Commerce buddies who have opened the door to that crazy delicious place called Naples and its surrounding countryside of Campania; and to Flavia Vitale, Luca Giordano, and Sonia Carbone, who have helped us discover, and revel in, all of its tasty goodness; Soritis Kitrilakis and Rochelle Jolley of Zakynthos, Greece, the King and Queen of artisanal Greek cheeses from Mount Vikos; Alexandra Sofis, who has a marvelous appetite, an artistic soul, and a heart of gold; Katie Goodwin and Jane Miltonthe traveling Spud Queens; the legendary Clark Wolf, who makes good things happen and is fun to share a pile of New York City french fries with; Bruce Blackman, for bowls of his deli-delish potato salad, and his slender wife Etty, who looks as if she has never ever eaten a potato; the potato man at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, for the most divine tiny marble potatoes ever; the Old Krakow Polish Restaurant and Art Caf, in San Francisco, for inspiring my passion for potatoes combined with pickles; Sue Kreitzman, whose book Potatoes is as good an old friend as Sue herself; Trish Kelly, who grew up with an Irish mother and a kitchen full of potatoes (if you look in Trishs fridge, youll always find leftover potatoes, just right for something); Cary Rudman, who has autographed more books than any author I know; and Deborah Goldstein, who once looked at me, and apropos of nothing, exclaimed: I could do without anything but potatoes!

To Michael Bauer, Miriam Morgan, and all my wonderful colleagues at the San Francisco Chronicle, which I am enormously pleased to be part of, each and every time I e-mail a column or drop in for Thursday lunch.

To my brother in bacon, Pete Wells, New York Times Dining In editor; Nick Fox, deputy Dining In editor, for assigning me fascinating subjects to explore and working with me to get it right; my potato-loving buddy Kim Severson, New York Times writer and formerly of the San Francisco Chronicle, coolest of the cool chicks; and fellow food lover, New York Times writer Julia Moskin, always an inspiration.

To Erik Bruun Bindslev, the International Man of Mystery; HRH Prince Charles, for the organic potatoes I harvested from his garden; Paula Wolfert, for inspiration all the way; Herta Peju of Peju Winery; Bee Wilson; Paul Richardson; Diona Kochilas; Deborah Elliot; Kiwi McLaughlan; Kamala Friedman; Sandy Waks; Carolyn Tillie, Josephine Bacon, Chimicha and Karim Acharki; Steve Sando (also known as Rancho Gordo for his company that grows and sells New World foods, from heirloom beans to pozole); Amanda Hamilton-Hemeter and her love for all things potato; Darrell Corti, wine/sake/olive oil expert, who, hand on heart, says: I love potatoes as much as anyone could ever love potatoes!; and Joyce Jue and Wayne Strei, for mashing more garlic-smashed potatoes than seemed humanly possible.

To Zahidul Hakim, the famous NYC cheesemonger, who grew up farming and loving potatoes in Pakistan; to Susie Morgenstern, (I love potatoes more than anything else in the world); to June and Cindy, the angels of Prince of Wales Close. To the British Potato Council; Jennifer John; chef-owner Roland Passot of La Folie Restaurant in San Francisco, who prepares potatoes elegantly, and his brother Georges Passot, sommelier, who inspiringly pairs them with wine; Catherine Baschet for sharing potatoes in Pariss Le Cordon Bleu kitchen; and to Dr. John and Nichola Fletcher, as well as Thistle the deer, who also truly loves potatoes.

To the French National Potatoes Committee; agronomist and writer Caroline Guinot; chef Charles Soussin; and Alexandre Parmentier of Pariss Le Cordon Bleu (Yes, I am related to the potato Parmentier).

To Mr. Potato Head for endless childhood joy.

To Edouard Cointreau, Bo Masser, and the World Gourmand Awards, a truly international gathering of food lovers from the far corners of our world, through which Ive met many, many wonderful people from all over our planet and come to know so many fascinating places.

To Redzuanan Bih Ismail, known to all in Malaysia as Chef Wan, for sharing with me the wealth of potato dishes I discovered on a recent visit; Mridula Baljekar and David Reay for maken-maken throughout Kuala Lumpur; Mauricio Asta, as always delicious and nutritious; and to friends and fellow potato connoisseurs John Chendo and Esther Novak, and to Esthers late father, Harry Novak, the kugel-king of potatoes.

To Mai Pham of Sacramentos Lemongrass for peaches and pho, though, so far, no potatoes, and her husband, Greg Drescher of the Culinary Institute of America, who organizes splendid international gatherings at the Greystone CIA, where I have been hugely inspired potato-ly; to Athena Vorilla, chic and stylish woman-about-town (the town being Athens, Greece); and to U.K. TV producers Simon and Toby Welfare. To Ted and Roberta Plafker of Beijing, China, and their friends, those potato-loving Russkies Alexey and Anna Nekhzer, who are convinced that the best potatoes in the world come from Irkutsk, Siberia.

To Peruthank you for the potatoes; and to James Shenk and his restaurant, Destino, for his passion for all goodies Peruvian; as well as fellow Peruvian Dr. Noah Stroe, who always has a potato recipe to offer when I mention his childhood home country; to Sara Beatriz Guardia of Lima.

Bill LeBlond and Amy Treadwell: Once again, its been great fun... and this time, fun with potatoes!

With grateful thanks to Mark Phillip Mawson and his Tara, beautiful in every way.

Thank you, Madeleine, best friend and wonderful cat that you are.

Hearty and sustaining, they are full of potassium and vitamin C, rich with A, B1, and B6, with a nice dose of iron and fiber, too. They have only 90 calories on their own and are bereft of any fatthough we all know how alluring a big pat of butter is, when it comes to spuds.

On average, Americans eat 142.7 pounds of potatoes each year. In Ireland, and some other parts of Europe, the average annual consumption is over 200 pounds per head. The Irish, and Scottish, are justifiably proud of their potato-eating ways. With their renowned sweet tooth, the Scots even use potatoes to make a chocolate marzipan-like sweet: simply knead a little mashed potato with lots of confectioners sugar and cocoa. But Eastern Europe, too, is a potato-eating land. Without potatoes, goulash would just be soup. Without potatoes, Russian pot roasts would just be meat and gravy. And once, in a German market, I thought a potato festival was in progress, as every member of the community seemed to be gathered together in the throes of potato eating. There were big mounds of potatoes, fried with onions; great griddles of sizzling potato pancakes; vats of mustardy potato salad. But no, it was not a special occurrence; this potato festival was simply the weekly marketplace among the potato-loving townsfolk.