Hot Potatoes, Cold Potatoes and Maori Potatoes

My niece Sarah was my advisor when it came to decorating my potato salad mountain for a barbecue dinner with the family in Napier. I have discovered that potato salad is particularly good to eat if you are consuming bbq meats....more on why later

"Pick em up, pick em up hot potatoes...."  Mart would chant and whistle on our back steps on Christmas day while carefully cleaning and scraping the new potatoes for lunch.  Potatoes have been cultivated for 2000 years but my first connection with new potatoes was at Christmas time when I was a child.  Every Christmas my great aunt and uncle, Nell and Mart, would arrive at our farm on Christmas Eve with freshly dug Jersey Bennies (new potatoes) from the Taieri Plains just outside Dunedin. To this day someone in the family is appointed to be "Marty" and prepare the new potatoes for Christmas lunch - and whistling is encouraged.

Cooking Hint: For a big occasion when timing could be problematic then you can pre-cook half an hour before your guests arrive. Test with a fork and when nearly done quickly drain off the water, add some butter, take off the stove top and wrap in a towel...pot and all. The potatoes will keep hot for ages this way and the remaining heat will ensure the potatoes will be perfectly cooked when eaten.

You know if your new potato is freshly dug - just rub the skin with your finger and if it peels off it means the potato hasn't long been out of the ground.  This is one of the main reasons you want to grow at least some new potatoes in your own garden.

New potatoes if really fresh are best simply prepared and presented. Gently boil with a sprig of mint and salt until tender and then for serving add butter or olive oil drizzled over them and a fresh sprig or two of mint for decoration.  My friend Heather from Whangarei Heads recently presented her freshly dug new potatoes with the delicious addition of finely chopped preserved lemon and chopped parsley.

The Jersey Bennie is a variety that is specifically grown as a new potato. New potatoes are harvested as soon as they start the flower and if you are lucky this could be in time for Christmas.  Although, if you are careful, you can do some "robbing" before you harvest.  If you want potatoes that will keep over the winter then you need to allow them to grow until autumn and harvest once all the foliage has died away.  These are called main crop potatoes.

Kerry grew her early Swift potatoes in tyres.

Funnily enough when potatoes were first introduced in Europe late 16th century from South America they were viewed with suspicion and considered "evil food".  In Scotland  people refused to eat them because potatoes were not mentioned in the Bible.

Well our Scottish ancestors may have had misgivings about this exotic import but in the Mackay family the arrival of new potatoes are so looked forward to that we have just had to make it competitive to see who can grow the best potatoes for Christmas? My sister Kerry easily won the potato growing competition in 2014 with her Swift potatoes.

Swifts (as their name suggests) are a fast growing new potato variety that can be ready for harvest in 60 days so are a good option if you are aiming for an early summer harvest.

Kerry was able to do some "robbing" of her Swift potatoes back on the 9th of December by gently lifting the mulch and picking a sample. This gentle robbing will allow the plant to continue to grow and once they start to flower you know it's time to dig up your new potatoes.

My entry into the Mackay potato growing competition was woeful this year.  I have had to rely on our Sanctuary Community garden for our supply of fresh new potatoes.

The Community garden decided to grow Swift potatoes because of the short growing period and we were allocated on Christmas week 2  kilo bags of potatoes in return for the time we gave to the community portion of the gardens. Delicious the Swifts were too!

Four rows of Swift potatoes in early November on the left and the earlier planted Maori potato varieties at Sanctuary Community Garden.

Before the Swifts three varieties of Maori potatoes were harvested as young potatoes at the gardens.  Space is at a premium in our community growing areas so we grew new potatoes not main crop.

There is no one name in Maori language for the ancient potatoes grown here and the varieties are various as they have been selected and grown by families for generations.   Taewa is one name and when translated means "foreigner" that hints at its origin.  So where did Maori potatoes come from?

Three varieties of Maori potato that were grown at Sanctuary Gardens: top Kowiniwini, left Maori potato and right perhaps the most common variety Urenika.

In the later part of the 18th century explorers, Captain Cook from England and Marion du Fresne from France, stopped long enough in New Zealand to set up gardens that grew potatoes and other European vegetables. Maori, unlike the Scottish a century earlier, soon realised  potatoes were easier to grow and produced a higher yield than the Kumera (sweet potato) they brought from Polynesia. The arrival of the potato replaced the only other form of starch the fern root.

Potatoes were also introduced to New Zealand directly from South America via sailors and whalers.  New Zealand Maori potatoes therefore have a much stronger genetic base making them stronger and more resistant to disease and fungal infections ... like that which caused the potato blight in Europe in the 1840s. In Europe all the potatoes actually came from a few potato varieties. So when the potato blight hit in Europe there was little resistance and the potato crops were devastated.

Not only are they more disease resistant they have a higher nutritional value.

Researchers at the Riddet Institute in Palmerston North have discovered that Maori potatoes have different attributes to modern potato varieties, which makes them useful for developing new food products.  When testing four varieties of Maori potato against the modern potato Nadine they found,

"Overall, taewa have more antioxidants than modern Nadine potatoes (for example, 6-10 times more in the case of Tūtaekurī). Antioxidants are thought to protect cells from damage and may reduce the risk of cancer and slow the effects of ageing. Taewa are also rich in essential amino acids, minerals and anthocyanins. The skin of all the cultivars has higher protein, fat, minerals and dietary fibre than the flesh. All four cultivars showed significant nutritional advantages over the modern potato, Nadine."  http://biotechlearn.org.nz  

The potatoes before being put in the oven. You can vary the flavouring - a favourite of mine is to put in unpeeled garlic cloves.

I have found Maori potatoes are far better cooked in the oven than boiled.  They tend to disintegrate when boiled.  I also like using the following method of baking with any new potato variety as I think it brings out the earthiness of the potato.

Place washed potatoes into an oven dish, slice half a lemon into segments and place on top, Add some mint leaves and I like to also add a couple of bay tree leaves. Season with salt and pepper and either dot with butter as I have above or your favourite oil.  Cover with foil and cook in an oven for around 50 minutes at 180 Celsius.

The cooked potatoes do loose some of the intense colour - all except for the purple sausage shaped Urenika.

Cooking time varies depending on the number of potatoes  and how they are stacked in a dish - single layer being quicker than layers.

I really enjoyed the Kowiniwini variety with its medium deepest eyes, and is distinctive with its yellow patches of skin.  The potato has a purple-red skin but the fleshy is creamy white.

The variety simply called Maori potato is quite similar to other modern varieties in appearance and it has shallow eyes and a uniform round shape.  The only real difference is the rough texture of the pinky-red skin.

The Urenika is probably the most commonly planted variety of Maori Potato simply because it's a real survivor as you will soon find out if you grow any in your garden.  The purple skinned knobbly sausage-like tubers will persist in the ground for long periods and this is the potato that you can still find growing in the wild probably in old abandoned Maori occupation sites.  The potato plants have purple stems and white flowers with grey in the centre of the petals.  It is a very floury potato with purple flesh.  If you keep them for a while before cooking they are less floury.  The Urenika is probably similar to the Purple Congo that is cultivated in Australia and used by the Italian community to make gnocchi (potato pasta).

So for you gnocchi lovers out there why not try the Urenika.

I did have some leftover potatoes cooked this way and was pleased to see they did keep their shape when cut old into a salad the next day.

I have only recently learn't that cold potatoes are really good for you.  I have never been a fan of potato salad but since learning that it is a very healthy option I have decided to perfect my potato salad recipe.  Cold potato is especially good for you if you are eating red meat and a barbecue is probably the setting where you are most probably going to find a potato salad lurking.

So what is the difference between a hot potato and a cold potato?

When a potato cools down much of the potato starch turns into "resistant" starch.  Resistant starch is not digested in your stomach or absorbed in the small intestine but passes into your large intestine, where it becomes food for a host of beneficial bacteria ... these starches will also line and strengthen the walls of the colon.

The trouble I have with potato salad is that it's such a boring unappetising colour so I decided to make a potato salad mountain and decorate it with other salad vegetables for a recent family barbecue.

Green additions can be any herb such as parsley, coriander, basil or chopped chives. A nasturium always adds colour and a feel of summer. This variety is called "Empress of India" - it is supposed to be red but its a very dark orange. The good thing about this nasturtium is that it has a compact habit so is good for those that don't have room for the rambling standard nasturium.

For a quick dinner I wouldn't go to these lengths  but I would always have some green in the dressing and pop on a colourful edible flower. At our barbecue young Julie who is 6 really loved the peppery flavour of the nasturtium.

Cook the potatoes ahead of time so they can cool down before eating. They don't need to be chilled but do need to be cold. Cook them with their skins on as it helps keep them together and besides a lot of nutrients in potatoes are in the skin.

Osprey potatoes I purchased at the Tauranga Farmers Market. I am always keen to try a different variety of potato and these Osprey with their pink eyes were intriguing. I later found out that the soft moist texture makes them an ideal potato salad candidate.

There are two camps of opinion when it comes to how to dress your potato salad - whether you use an oil and vinegar based dressing ... or a creamy dressing.  Around the same time that I discovered cold potato was good for your gut health I was given some Kefir grains to produce the fermented milk product Kefir that is also great for promoting gut health.  I will follow up with a posting dedicated to kefir and if you haven't got kefir on hand you can just use yoghurt for this dressing.

I bought the Arataki clover runny honey en route from Tauranga to Napier as I thought it would come in handy for the Christmas catering and it has been great for sweetening the kefir and for dressings.

Kefir, Yoghurt and Mustard Dressing

One cup of Kefir (you can just use yoghurt instead)

3 Tbsp of Yoghurt

2 tsp Tahini paste

one garlic clove crushed and made into a puree in some salt

1 tsp grainy whole mustard

1-2 tsp of honey - add one at a time and taste

1-2 Tbsp of your favourite oil.

Shake and mix - taste and see if you need more honey. Kefir is tart and acid so you may need 2tsp of honey if using kefir or a particularly tart yoghurt.

Here I have just added the garlic that has been crushed with salt to become liquid. This is optional but I love garlic and especially now that new season's garlic is around.

The tahini is the thickening agent as kefir is the consistency of cream - just using a tsp or two will not give you a dominating flavour of sesame.  I add yoghurt to get a creamy taste and texture. If using all this dressing in one go then you can also chop in herbs. To give an aniseed flavour, chop up a small amount of tarragon (no more than one sprig).  Parsley is a great addition and you can use lots of parsley.  I have also used fresh coriander and a good pinch of ground cumin. Flavour it however you like. If you are using just yoghurt you may wish to either grate some lemon zest or add a squeeze of lemon to give it more zing.

This dressing can be used for any salad ... not just potato.  It's a healthier option to replace a mayonnaise dressing and everyone in the family enjoyed it in combination with the potato.

The Maori gardeners became excellent cultivators of the potato and soon began trading their surplus potatoes to our growing cities and to Australia.  The early European settlers would have relied on these potatoes for food until they could establish home gardens. In the US Thanksgiving remembers the kindness of Native Americans who provided starving settlers with food. Pumpkin and turkey are part of their Thanksgiving celebration meals, but perhaps in New Zealand we should give thanks to the early Maori gardeners and the potato affectionately called "the spud".

Most of the information on the history of the potato in Europe and the Maori potato here was from the published work of  "Nga Riwai Maori - Maori Potatoes" by Graham Harris and Poai Pakeha Niha" funded by NZ Open Polytechnic.

Just how traditional is your Christmas cake?

It’s a Christmas tradition that isn’t sensible in New Zealand. Why do we choose to make and eat a rich dried-fruit cake in summer? I reckon one of the reasons so many of us have taken to having a mid winter alternative ‘christmas’, in June, is that we can enjoy rich, dark fruit cakes while sitting in front of a roaring fire… or heat pump!!

We all think Christmas Cake recipes are pretty traditional and much the same as our great grandmothers, but are they?

In our house my husband Peter usually makes the Christmas cake – now that’s a tradition I am happy to encourage.  The Christmas cake is a big baking number where failure is expensive and long lived.  Anyone visiting the house over the holiday period will be offered a piece of this cake.  Kudos or embarrassment? The tension about the cake is only relieved on Christmas Eve when keeping to tradition we cut the first slice.

If Peter could choose a favourite Christmas cake recipe then he would say that Charmaine Solomon’s Sri Lankan Christmas Cake from “The Complete Asian Cookbook” is very hard to beat.  I have rediscovered the book “The Twelve Cakes of Christmas” and have managed to convince him to make Joan Bishop’s Festive Fruit Cake (No. 12 in the book).  It’s a modern take on the Christmas cake that promises to be healthier and perhaps a lighter option for a summer Christmas.  As usual we have thrown caution to the wind and have decided to use part of another recipe,  Christmas or Wedding Cake (No 5 in the book) first published in 1951. This recipe starts with whole spices cinnamon stick, mace blades and nutmeg and are freshly ground and soaked in brandy “producing a delightful mellow taste“.  Peter also suggested he use more brandy so we did.

“The Twelve Cakes of Christmas” gives you more than 12 cake recipes. Helen Leach, Mary Browne and Raelene Inglis have researched 828 Christmas cake recipes from a variety of sources including 158 community fundraising cookbooks that span from 1900 to 2000. Why you ask! They wanted to find out if any of the major ingredients varied over the century and what social and economic factors could be affecting the changes. I will scatter their findings through the recipe in Christmas green starting with…

Christmas cakes have become progressively smaller through the century. Cakes were heavier over the troubled times of the Depression and two World Wars than later in the century. This decrease in size corresponds with the decrease in family sizes.

Festive Fruit Cake (with additions)

(Preheat the oven to 150C)

1 kg mixed dried fruit,

100 g crystallised ginger

100g dried apricots (preferably from Central Otago), chopped

90g dates, chopped

90g pitted prunes, chopped

zest of one orange

2 eggs, size 7

150g dark brown sugar (we used Panela or Muscovado sugar)

300g bread flour (strong or high grade flour)

1/2 tsp baking powder

150ml whisky, brandy or dry sherry (plus extra to feed the cooked cake)

200ml freshly squeezed orange juice – 3-4 oranges (we used tangelos)

1 Tbsp treacle, warmed

200g whole unskilled almond or Brazil nuts cut into halves or quarters plus extra almonds for decoration

1 1/2 tsp of freshly ground mace blades

1 1/2 tsp freshly ground cinnamon from a stick of cinnamon

1 freshly grated whole nutmeg

Grind the spices.

Add the spices to the brandy (or chosen alcohol) and mix through the dried fruit, ginger and apricots.  Stand overnight covered.

There was a change in the main ingredient proportions. We are making our cakes a lot fruitier these days.

The most popular dried fruit in 20th century Christmas cakes were sultanas closely followed by currants and raisins.

The next day put the dates, pitted prunes, orange zest and orange juice into a pot and cook until softened.  Puree with a stick mixer or by just beating with a wooden spoon until it turns into puree.  This puree replaces butter in the recipe.

Good news is that there has been a fall in saturated fats and halving in sugar…but then the natural sugars in the increased dried fruit has nullified this decrease.

Ideally in a mixer beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the treacle and mix again.  Add the fruit puree to this mix.  Mix the soaked dried fruit and spices into this mix.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a large bowl and add the fruit mix along with the chopped almonds or brazil nuts.

There has been a steady decline in the amount of flour being used since the 1920’s and this is due to the increased dried fruit that needs less flour to stick together.

Now it’s ready to go into the tin that has been duly prepared as outlined below.

In 1900 91% of recipes contained citrus peel and this has steadily reduced to only 39% of recipes contained peel in 1999.

Place into an oven preheated to 150C and cook for up to  2 1/2 hours.  Opt for traditional bake rather than fan bake if you have that option.  If you only have fan bake then reduce the temperature to 140C and check the cake 20 minutes earlier than standard bake. Place just below half way in the oven to avoid the top getting too overcooked. At about 2 hours test the cake with a skewer to see if cooked in the centre. Other tests are that it suddenly smells cooked and that it starts to shrink from the sides of the tin.

In the recipe it suggested placing the almonds to decorate before putting in the oven but another recipe said to do this one hour before the end. I decided to try for the latter so that the almonds wouldn’t get too overcooked.  This is unnecessary if you are planning to ice the cake.   In our case I wanted the almonds on top because Peter had omitted putting the nuts into the mix, so this definitely made me decide that we would use almonds instead of icing.

The use of nuts in Christmas cakes have increased since 1985 because of increased availability from imports and New Zealand grown walnuts and hazelnuts coming onto the market.

Perhaps I should have added the almonds a little earlier because by the time I tried to place them on the top of the cake, the cake had developed a stiff surface and they wouldn’t stick!!  This crisis was averted after the cake was cooked by heating up about 3 tablespoons of Marmalade Jelly (any jam jelly will do) and painting this over and under all the loose fitting almonds.  It certainly gives the cake the attractive gloss.  You can also add fruit at this stage.

Preparing the tin…

Peter being a seasoned Christmas cake maker knows the importance of lots of layers of paper.  The Sri Lankan Christmas cake recipe has about 12 layers of paper but that is because the cake is larger and is in the oven for much longer.  The reason to line with extra paper is to protect the edges and bottom of the cake from drying out too much and becoming hard.

The recipe called for a 20cm square cake tin (I always remember our Christmas cakes being square rather than round) or a 22cm round tin.  I only had a 20cm round so I knew the cake may take slightly longer to cook through and could need a little more height so we kept the paper barrier higher than the tin just in case.

The top photograph shows two layers of brown paper (Peter used a large tick paper bag). Cut circles slightly larger than the base of the tin. Place the 2 bases into the tin and run your fingers along the inside edge of the tin.  A small paper return should go up the side of the tin. Next cut a long strip of brown paper and and fold in half lengthwise and arrange around the tin. The small return will hold it in place. Make that outside ring about 5cm higher than the actual tin. This makes it easy to rest a foil hat on the cake should it be browning too much on the top in the later stages of cooking.

Most Christmas cakes are iced and Joan’s original recipe suggested almond icing followed by   royal icing. My favourite Christmas icing is butter brandy icing but I thought why go to all the trouble of creating a healthier cake and then spread all that sugar over it (delicious as the icing can be).

Pound cake type Christmas cakes make up 80% of 20th century Christmas cakes. (The pound cake has been around since the 18th century and generally has equal measures of butter, sugar, eggs and flour).

To my surprise I discovered Christmas cakes as we know them have only come into existence during the reign of Queen Victoria in the mid 1800’s. Other Christmas Day traditions were introduced at the same time including gift giving on Christmas Day, Christmas trees were introduced by Queen Victoria’s German husband Albert, people began to send Christmas cards and light candles.

Before Christmas cakes there were Twelfth cakes that were cut on the 12th day after Christmas (6th January).

The type of cake (a fruit cake) that became the Christmas cake we recognise today came out of bridal cakes that were fruit cakes with intricate icing.

If you want a holiday from baking a Christmas cake or just prefer to buy then I suggest sourcing your cake from a cafe or deli where the cakes will taste like a homemade cake. I was particularly impressed with the painted Pohutukawa on this cake on sale at Foxtrot Parlour cafe in Ponsonby.

In countries all over the world red and green plants are used as symbols for Christmas. In Mexico the Poinsettia Euphorbia pulcherrima is a favourite as it is said to represent the Star of Bethlehem.  The Pohutukawa Metrosideros excelsa has been widely embraced as New Zealand’s Christmas tree as it is usually in full bloom at Christmas time.

You are greeted when you arrive at Waiheke Island on the ferry by Pohutukawa trees along the shoreline. I couldn’t resist taking a photo with the blue summer sky against the intense red of our Christmas tree. (I have to admit this summer so far these days are rare.)

We shall have to see if the Festive Cake will become tradition in our household.  But from the research in “The Twelve Cakes of Christmas” recipes keep evolving. They counted the common recipes in New Zealand’s oldest and most used Edmonds Cookbook comparing the 1910 edition with the 1955 edition and found only 11 recipes were the same. And look at the way we have changed Joan’s recipe – we used the spices from another recipe, more brandy and heated jelly marmalade to stick the almonds on top. Let’s hope the changes work.  With so many recipes to choose from in “The Twelve Cakes of Christmas”  I think there is a high probability that we will be trying a different recipe next year.

So with the different symbols of Christmas – almonds, artificial holly, red and green Christmas ribbon, a Christmas card from my niece Jessie in Australia and a big bowl of what are to me the ultimate summer Christmas flowers Sweet Peas – here’s wishing you all a very happy and peaceful Christmas and holidays wherever you live.

Please note that Jeannie's Kitchen blog has a new address: www.Jeannieskitchen.me