"potatoes" news and stories

Beautiful fresh leeks. Photo by LollyKnit/Flickr

In this weekly series, home cook Bruce Watson works his way through a decades-old family cookbook, adapting the best recipes exclusively for Slashfood.

My father loved to cook, but few of the recipes in his regular repertoire could really be described as "gourmet." The major exception was his vichyssoise, a cold potato-and-leek soup that he would pull out when the weather got hot and he was in the mood for something refreshing.

Of course, "refreshing" is a relative term; after eating a bowl of his rich, cream-laden soup, I would usually feel like I'd covered my lips in a thick layer of grease. While my version could hardly be described as "low fat," it uses a fraction of the heavy cream that his required and is a lot lighter on the palate. Best of all, it really lets the flavor of the leeks and potatoes shine through. Although this requires a lot of advance time, it refrigerates beautifully and makes a great summer soup!

Get the recipe for vichyssoise after the jump!

Multi-colored potatoes. Photo: me and the sysop, Flickr

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• Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions and a wad of pastrami?
• Some say tomato leaves are poisonous, but the Gray Lady reports there's no solid proof of this and that they're delicious.
• The Minimalist makes an easy pie crust.
• California vineyards are suffering as people stop sampling new wine.

Sick and tired of scraping potatoes from the bottom of your pan?

Fritattas -- those remarkable hybrids of potatoes and eggs -- are a bit like the girl with the curl in the center of her forehead: When they're good, they are very very good, and when they are bad, they are awful.

The dull, lifeless, underseasoned frittata is kept at bay by Tim at Lottie + Doof, who took advantage of the abundance of scallions and chives at his local farmers market. His creation is so vibrantly green, in fact, you might swear this is a closeup of a salad. It puts the "victory" in "victory garden." Note the ratio of greenery (there's also plenty of chard packed in here) to egg: this is one of the scant few dishes that could double as breakfast and salad.

[Via Lottie + Doof]

By now, we're all familiar with the wonder that is garlic and mashed potatoes. It's so prevalent these days that I'm almost surprised when I get the option to have garlic-free taters. (Not that I'm complaining -- potatoes and garlic are always welcome in this mouth!) But sometimes it's nice to change things up -- especially with something as friendly as potatoes. They go with almost anything!

So another easy way to amp your taters is to add a nice cup of sauteed mushrooms. It's simple -- dice up some of that tasty fungus, and saute it while your potatoes boil. Since the shrooms are diced, they won't take very long to cook and should be fragrant, brown, and delicious by the time you're ready to mash. Just throw them in with the milk, butter, and anything else you add to your mashed potatoes, and mash away.

It gives your potatoes a wonderful earthy flavor, and is an excellent way to use up leftover mushrooms before they dry up.