Book shows lowly spud a food for all seasons

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ONE POTATO, TWO POTATO, by Roy Finamore with Molly Stevens, Houghton Mifflin Co., New York, 2002, 590 pages, $35.

Taken at face value, the potato is far from the most attractive of vegetables. It’s blocky, knobbly and – vampirelike – prone to rapid degeneration when exposed to daylight, sprouting arthropodal legs, wrinkling, and disintegrating unpleasantly.

Indeed, on its arrival in the Old World from the New in the 16th century, the potato was little loved, slandered as poisonous by the Sicilians (actually a partial truth), and derided as “slave food” by almost everyone else except the Irish. Even by the late 1700s, French encyclopedist (and one of the leaders of the Enlightenment!) Denis Diderot scorned the spud, decrying it as “tasteless and starchy,” and “rightly reproached for causing gas.”

How times have changed. Sure, the ubiquity of the common spud ensures it will never have the same cachet as asparagus or artichokes, but there can be little doubt that it is currently America’s, if not the Western world’s, most popular vegetable.

Which is deserved, because to me, the potato is a beautiful thing. Under the skin lies a starchy canvas, begging to be painted. It aches to showcase its adaptability and versatility as a pedestal on which other flavors may be heaped, or spotlighted with merely a dab of butter as face paint.

Even that superficially blemished skin can display star quality, bursting from the oven, crisp-armored and irresistible.

It is the vegetable for all seasons, sweet in the early summer, peeking from a brushing of mayonnaise in the potato salad. In the winter, it soaks in stews, exchanging nuances with carrots, meats and dumplings.

And I haven’t even got around to mentioning America’s inaptly named national dish – french fries.

Yeah, I love potatoes, but even I am forced to stand back in awe of the breathtaking breadth of uses to which Roy Finamore, with help from Molly Stevens, puts our bumpy hero in “One Potato, Two Potato,” a book that surely should be every spud fanatic’s bible.

“One Potato, Two Potato” is an initiation into a subterranean wonderland where people never speak simply of potatoes, but of Rose Golds or Red Garnets. While many of us would hesitate to delineate the clear differences between a Kennebec and a California White, true fanatics, such as Finamore, have no problem waxing excitably about the waxiness of a French fingerling or praising the pale skin of an Ozette.

As no-nonsense as its subject matter, this book provides an excellent solid grounding in potato basics: what to buy what to make, what to look out for, and why. Skipping through a little potato chemistry you may have missed in school, “One Potato, Two Potato” expounds on the role of starch in the success of side dishes. It then hops through some pantry basics, and plunges into the deep end of a very deep pool of recipes for potatoes (and botanically unrelated sweet potatoes) of all shapes, sizes and colors.

I’ve hardly had time to scrape the surface of what this book offers, but what I’ve tried so far roundly justifies my faith in potatoes as one of nature’s most generous gifts.

Borrowing flavors from the traditionally more grain-based cooking of the Middle East, Persian Potato Croquettes with Spiced Meat Filling are a delight of understatement, sweet and soft, yet warmed with allspice and cinnamon.

Or take the Farmhouse Chocolate Cake (take two slices; I did.) with its healthy cup of creamed potatoes in the batter providing a velvet texture and a subtle moistness, thankfully well short of the cloying stickiness that accompanies many such confections.

Or pick just about any favorite ingredient of yours, and look for the book’s suggestions for how best to pair it with potatoes. If Finamore is hoping to make a point with this book – that there is nothing that can’t be a culinary companion for the potato – it is a point well made.

With hundreds of recipes featuring almost any ingredient you could imagine (or find glowering forgotten at the back of your fridge), Finamore shows the potato to be the ideal supporting cast member, and no slouch when given the chance to take center stage. For crunch or creaminess, for thickening, for texture, or just for flavor, the potato can do it. And if this book had just been published a mere 250 years earlier, it may have even enlightened the venerable Monsieur Diderot.

Persian Potato Croquettes with Spiced Meat Filling

2 pounds russet potatoes scrubbed

Coarse salt

For the meat filling:

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped

3 tablespoons pine nuts

1/2 teaspoon ground coriander

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

Freshly grated nutmeg

1/3 pound ground lamb or beef

Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup dried bread crumbs

Vegetable oil for frying

Put the potatoes in a saucepan, cover with cold water by at least an inch, add a good pinch of salt, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, cover part way, and cook until the potatoes are very tender. Drain the potatoes on a rack set in the sink and let cool briefly.

As soon as the potatoes are cool enough to handle, peel and rice them into a large bowl. Spread them out and leave to cool.

Meanwhile, for the meat filling: Heat the olive oil and onion in a skillet over medium heat and cook until the onion is translucent, about 7 minutes. Stir in the nuts and all the spices (a grating or two of nutmeg is all you need), and cook until the mixture is very fragrant and the nuts are beginning to toast, about 4 minutes. Crumble in the ground meat and season with salt and pepper. Cook, breaking up the meat with a wooden spoon, until the meat is cooked through, another 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Add the flour and egg to the riced potatoes and mix well with your hands or a wooden spoon. Season with salt and pepper. Dump the potatoes out onto a lightly floured board, and knead into a smooth and cohesive dough. Divide it into 16 even portions.

One by one, shape each portion into a ball and flatten it in the palm of your hand to form a thin round, about 3 inches across. Put about a tablespoon of the meat filling in the center of the round, and pinch the edges together to seal. Smooth into a football shape, check to make sure no filling is peeking out, and put it on a tray. Roll in the bread crumbs to coat.

Heat 1/2 inch of oil in a heavy saucepan, to about 375 degrees. Slide the croquettes into the oil in batches – if you crowd the pan, they won’t brown well. Fry, flipping once, until deeply browned and crisp, 3 to 5 minutes. Drain on a cooling rack set over a baking sheet. Serve immediately, or keep warm in a 250-degree oven for up to 20 minutes. These can also be held at room temperature for a few hours and reheated – but they really are at their best right after frying.

Farmhouse Chocolate Cake

3/4 pound all-purpose potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

Coarse salt

Cocoa powder for dusting

5 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

2 tablespoons honey

1/2 cup boiling water

13/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4-1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

8 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

2 cups sugar

5 large eggs at room temperature

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Confectioners’ sugar for dusting (optional)

Put the potatoes in a saucepan, cover with cold water by at least an inch, add a pinch of salt, and bring to a boil. Cook until potatoes are tender. Drain well, put the potatoes through a ricer and measure out 1 cup.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch tube pan and dust it generously with cocoa.

Put the chocolate and honey in a small bowl. Pour in the boiling water and leave the chocolate to melt and cool, stirring occasionally until it’s very smooth.

Sift the flour, baking soda, a pinch of salt, and the pepper together.

Cut the butter into chunks and put it in a large mixing bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until light. Add the vegetable shortening and beat until combined and light. Gradually pour in the sugar and beat until this mixture is very light and fluffy. Add the eggs one by one, beating for at least a minute after each addition. Beat in the chocolate, then the potatoes, then the vanilla. Scrape the sides of the bowl.

Add the dry ingredients to the batter alternately with 1/2 cup of cold water, stirring just until combined and smooth. Scrape the batter into the pan, shake the pan and rap it lightly on the counter to get rid of any air bubbles and bake until the cake tests done (a skewer will come out clean), about 50 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes or so, then turn out the cake, flip it right side up, and leave it on a rack to cool completely.

If you want, dust the cake generously with confectioners’ sugar right before serving.