Signing Off on Potatoes

With the semester coming to a close, so too is this blog. I hope you have enjoyed reading and have learned some facts, history, and recipes of all kinds of potatoes. Thanks for reading!

Potato Famine

More than a million Irish people--about one of every nine--died in the Great Potato Famine of the 1840s. When the famine hit in 1845, the Irish had grown potatoes for over 200 years--since the South American plant had first arrived in Ireland. During this time, the lower classes had become increasingly dependent on them. Potatoes provided good nutrition, so diseases like scurvy and pellagra were uncommon. They were easy to grow, requiring a minimum of labor, training, and technology--a spade was the only tool needed. Storage was simple; the tubers were kept in pits in the ground and dug up as needed. Also, potatoes produce more calories per acre than any other crop that would grow in northern Europe. This was important to the Irish poor, who owned little, if any, of their own land. Often, a whole family could live for a year on just one acre's worth.

In 1845, the fungus Phytophthora infestans arrived accidentally from North America. A slight climate variation brought the warm, wet weather in which the blight thrived. Much of the potato crop rotted in the fields. Because potatoes could not be stored longer than 12 months, there was no surplus to fall back on. All those who relied on potatoes had to find something else to eat.

The blight did not destroy all of the crop; one way or another, most people made it through winter. The next spring, farmers planted those tubers that remained. The potatoes seemed sound, but some harbored dormant strains of the fungus. When it rained, the blight began again. Within weeks the entire crop failed.

Although the potatoes were ruined completely, plenty of food grew in Ireland that year. Most of it, however, was intended for export to England. There, it would be sold--at a price higher than most impoverished Irish could pay.

In fact, the Irish starved not for lack of food, but for lack of food they could afford. To buy food, many sold or pawned everything they owned. Often, this included the tools by which they made their living. Other people ate the food intended for rent, and the landlords quickly evicted them. By the next planting season, many farmers had no land to plant on, nor tools to plant with. Those who did often had nothing to plant. There were few potatoes, and no money with which to buy seed.

The Irish planted over two million acres of potatoes in 1845, according to Ó Gráda, but by 1847 potatoes accounted for only 300,000 acres. Many farmers who could turned to other crops. The potato slowly recovered, but the Irish, wary of dependence on one plant, never again planted it as heavily.

[http://www.victoryseeds.com/news/irish_famine.html]

Health Benefits

Whether mashed, baked or roasted, people often consider potatoes as comfort food. It is an important food staple and the number one vegetable crop in the world. Potatoes are available year-round as they are harvested somewhere every month of the year.

The potato belongs to the Solanaceae or nightshade family whose other members include tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, and tomatillos. They are the swollen portion of the underground stem which is called a tuber and is designed to provide food for the green leafy portion of the plant. If allowed to flower and fruit, the potato plant will bear an inedible fruit resembling a tomato.

Potatoes are a very popular food source. Unfortunately, most people eat potatoes in the form of greasy French fries or potato chips, and even baked potatoes are typically loaded down with fats such as butter, sour cream, melted cheese and bacon bits. Such treatment can make even baked potatoes a potential contributor to a heart attack. But take away the extra fat and deep frying, and a baked potato is an exceptionally healthful low calorie, high fiber food that offers significant protection against cardiovascular disease and cancer.

Potatoes are a very good source of vitamin C, a good source of vitamin B6, copper, potassium, manganese, and dietary fiber.

Potatoes also contain a variety of phytonutrients that have antioxidant activity. Among these important health-promoting compounds are carotenoids, flavonoids, and caffeic acid, as well as unique tuber storage proteins, such as patatin, which exhibit activity against free radicals.

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=48

Skin

Lately when I have been eating potatoes, I notice that even though I love them, I am still picky. It has been a while since I had mashed potatoes that I made and have mainly had them in the dining hall or at restaurants. The dining hall potatoes, to me, are bland and sometimes almost sour tasting. I confess I still eat them sometimes just to get a potato fix. One thing I dislike is when the skin is left on potatoes, which the dining hall always does. Whether they are mashed or just cut into chunks, they always have skin. Restaurants also leave the skin on sometimes and I am really not a fan. I usually end up peeling all the skin off with my fork or pushing it to the side. I say I looove potatoes, and I do, but I'm finding that I really don't love everything about them. For dinner at my aunt's house last week, we had mini potatoes that were boiled with the skins on. I wasn't sure how to eat them at first, so paid attention to what others were doing. My cousin cut hers into smaller bites and ate it as it was. My aunt kind of mashed hers and the skin kind of fell off and mixed in. I followed her way and then realized at the end of the meal I had mashed the potatoes and then picked through to remove the skins and there was a pile of them on my plate. I think that in a way, I'm so used to being picky that I don't even realize when I
separate my food into piles.

Fast Food vs Real Food?

I think that a lot of times, people think of fast food as bad for you and a restaurant like Boston Market as a better option for your family. I decided to look into the potato options offered there to see if it really is all that good for you. Here is what I found.


Boston Market

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

221

7

340

180

19

12

0

75

820

35

4

1

5

Garlic Dill New Potatoes LF

156

5.5

140

30

3

1

0

0

120

24

3

2

3

Mashed Potatoes

221

7.8

270

100

11

7

0

30

810

36

4

2

5

Sweet Potato Casserole

198

7

460

150

17

6

0

20

210

77

3

39

4

Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls

I saw this recipe posted on Sugar Plum's blog last week and thought it would be a really different twist on potatoes to share. The blogger describes it as "the dough is made out of mashed sweet potato, the filling is made with toasted pecans, plump raisins, brown sugar, and cinnamon, and the glaze is made out of maple syrup, brown sugar, and butter."


Sweet Potato Cinnamon Rolls (Recipe by Emiline)

Ingredients:
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar, plus an additional 1/4 cup
1/4 cup warm water (100 to 110 degrees F)
1 tablespoon active dry yeast
3/4 cup finely mashed cooked sweet potato
1/2 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 -3 cups all-purpose flour

Filling:
6 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted*
1/3 cup jumbo raisins, soaked in hot water
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Glaze:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1/4 cup whole milk
3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions:
Stir together 1/2 teaspoon sugar in warm water, in bowl of mixer. Sprinkle yeast over water and mix; let stand 8 minutes until foamy. Add the additional 1/4 cup sugar, sweet potato, 1/2 cup milk, 2 tablespoons melted butter, egg, and salt to mixing bowl and mix with dough hook, on low speed, until just combined. Add 2 1/2 cups flour, and mix on medium speed for 8-10 minutes, until elastic, adding the additional 1/2 cup flour, if necessary. Dough should be sticky, but pull away from the bowl.

Pat dough into a ball, and lightly dust with flour. Place dough in a well-greased bowl, turning to grease top. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place, 1 hour to 1 hour and 30 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Stir together 6 tablespoons butter pieces, 1 cup brown sugar, pecans, raisins, and cinnamon, until well combined.

Grease a 13x9-inch baking dish.
Punch dough down; turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and roll into a large rectangle, with a 1/4-inch thickness, using a rolling pin. Spread evenly with filling, leaving a 1-inch border. Roll up dough, jelly-roll fashion. Trim off ends, cut into 12 equal slices, and line up in baking dish. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise in a warm place for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the glaze. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan, over medium heat. Stir in 1/2 cup brown sugar, maple syrup, and 1/4 cup milk, until well combined, and bring mixture to a boil; remove pan from heat, and whisk in vanilla.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Remove plastic wrap from baking dish, and bake rolls for 10 minutes. Remove rolls from oven; drizzle glaze evenly over rolls.

Return rolls to oven, bake for 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Cover with foil, and bake an additional 5 minutes.
Cool for 15 minutes before serving.

*To toast pecans, place in a dry skillet, over medium heat. Cook for 5-6 minutes, stirring often, until lightly browned and fragrant; cool.

Yield: 12 cinnamon rolls

Sign Language

In sign language today, one of the signs we learned was for potato! If anyone would like to know how it's done, http://www.aslpro.com/cgi-bin/aslpro/aslpro.cgi has videos of tons of signs! Unfortunately, the potato video would not post but you can go to that site and choose P in the alphabet and learn how to say potato and potato masher! Here's a little illustration..