International Year of the Potato

The United Nations General Assembly declared 2008 to be the International Year of the Potato. What a silly idea, you may say, to honour such a common, lowly edible. Yet, historically speaking, potatoes are relatively new on our tables. The only corner of the world where they were known, cultivated and consumed, for some 7000 years before they became even known to us, was way up in the Andes Mountains.

The Spanish first brought some samples over to Europe sometime around 1570. But it was considered just a curiosity, studied by botanists, until good old Monsieur Antoine Parmentier, a French apothecary, started to promote it, eventually persuading the royal court to start using it. He spent several years in a German prison earlier where they fed the inmates potatoes, food which at the time was only seen fit for pigs and prisoners.

It took a while for the general population to start using it, but when they did, they did it to such an extent, that when the potato blight wiped out potato crops for a while, famine ensued. The famous Irish potato famine reduced the population of Ireland by 20 to 25 percent between 1845 and 1852.

Today we are facing a different sort of problem. There are new varieties showing up in our markets daily, so much so that sometimes we have a hard time deciding which variety should we choose.

In my childhood I ate lots of potatoes in different shape and form. During Communism this lowly tuber became a daily fare on every table. We ate it in soups, breads, side dishes, casseroles, even desserts. Then my children advised me that I should not cook it often because it "makes us fat", it is at the top of the "high glycemic food list", so I neglected it lately. Now that this year is declared to be the Year of the Potato, I will try to incorporate it more into our diet. And what better way to do that in the least obvious and visible way (so as not to draw the attention of my children) is by incorporating them into some lovely rolls. I have yet to get around to making them, but I think I am getting rather inspired by this lovely photo I found on FLICKR.

And now to an appropriate recipe from Cooks.com:


POTATO ROLLS

1/2 c. lukewarm water (105 degrees)
1 pkg. dry granulated yeast
1 c. mashed potatoes
1 1/2 c. potato water
2/3 c. sugar
1 c. shortening
1 tbsp. salt
2 well beaten eggs
8 c. sifted all-purpose flour

Allow yeast to soften in lukewarm water. Combine hot, freshly mashed potatoes (very smooth and free from lumps) with potato water, sugar, shortening and salt. The heat of the potatoes and potato water will melt the shortening. When cooled to lukewarm, add softened yeast, beaten eggs and 4 cups of the flour and mix well. Then sift in all but 1/2 cup of the remaining flour and mix until smooth. Rub the 1/2 flour into a bread cloth or board, turn dough onto the board and knead until the dough is as smooth as satin.

A bit more flour may be sprinkled on the cloth in the dough is at all sticky, but don't work in a lot more.

Round up into a ball and place in a well greased bowl. Grease top of dough well and cover with damp cloth. Keep cloth damp. Place in refrigerator.

This is enough for about 4 dozen small rolls. If you would like a dozen tonight, cut off about 1/4 of the dough before refrigerating. All this fourth to rise until double in bulk. Then roll out the dough to about an inch thick and form them into small loaves. Brush tops with melted butter, let rise until nearly double, slash the tops across, then bake in a hot oven about 20 minutes.

To make rolls later on, cut desired amount off the refrigerated dough, make into rolls and let rise until doubled. This cold dough will take longer to rise. Bake in hot oven (about 400 degrees) about 15-20 minutes.