The potato is a wonderful vegetable.
I have no data to support this but my guess is that almost everyone who has a vegetable plot grows potatoes. Joe Maiden, that late, great, gardening guru always asserted that a meal was not a meal without potatoes.
Sir Francis Drake or Sir Walter Raleigh’s employee, Thomas Harriot, is credited with bringing the potato into England from Virginia sometime around 1586 to 1588. It was not an instant success as a food item. It took several decades before it became popular, initially among the poor, and then at all levels of society until it became a national staple.
Potatoes can be prepared for the table in numerous ways but perhaps my favourite way is baked. No – not in the microwave but the way my executive chef serves them, the old-fashioned way, baked in the oven for that succulent, soft interior contrasting with the lovely crunchy, chewy skin. With lashings of butter. Heaven.
So, three cheers for the humble spud.
Tags: baked, heaven, potato, spud