potato

The potato (also referred to as tater, tattie, and spud) is a root vegetable that is part of the plant Solanum tuberosum. This perennial is part of the family Solanaceae or the nightshades. In many contexts, the word potato refers to the edible starchy tuber portion of the plant, but it can also refer to the plant itself, which is native to the Americas.
Wild potato species can be found throughout the Americas, from the United States to southern Chile. The potato was originally believed to have been domesticated by indigenous peoples of the Americas independently in multiple locations, but later genetic testing of the wide variety of cultivars and wild species traced a single origin for potatoes. In the area of present-day southern Peru and extreme northwestern Bolivia, from a species in the Solanum brevicaule complex, potatoes were domesticated approximately 7,000–10,000 years ago. In the Andes region of South America, where the species is indigenous, some close relatives of the potato are cultivated.
Potatoes were introduced to Europe from the Americas in the second half of the 16th century by the Spanish. Today they are a staple food in many parts of the world and an integral part of much of the world's food supply. As of 2014, potatoes were the world's fourth-largest food crop after maize (corn), wheat, and rice.Following millennia of selective breeding, there are now over 1,000 different types of potatoes. Over 99% of presently cultivated potatoes worldwide descended from varieties that originated in the lowlands of south-central Chile, which have displaced formerly popular varieties from the Andes.The importance of the potato as a food source and culinary ingredient varies by region and is still changing. It remains an essential crop in Europe, especially Northern and Eastern Europe, where per capita production is still the highest in the world, while the most rapid expansion in production over the past few decades has occurred in southern and eastern Asia, with China and India leading the world in overall production as of 2014.
Being a nightshade similar to tomatoes, the vegetative and fruiting parts of the potato contain the toxin solanine and are not fit for human consumption. Normal potato tubers that have been grown and stored properly produce glycoalkaloids in amounts small enough to be negligible to human health, but if green sections of the plant (namely sprouts and skins) are exposed to light, the tuber can accumulate a high enough concentration of glycoalkaloids to affect human health.

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  1. karadekoolaid

    Recipe Potatoes with Chorizo and Cream

    Ingredients: ( Serves 2 ) 3 medium potatoes 1 small dry chorizo sausage* 2 cloves garlic 100 mls cream splash of milk butter parsley salt and pepper * I found these in the supermarket. They were about 4"long. Use cut chorizo and chop it smaller; same effect. Method: Slice the potatoes thin...
  2. Timenspace

    Recipe Hokkaido squash and potato mash with Saffron infused oil

    A simple, beginner friendly, delicious side. The Saffron and the roasted sesame oil elevate it to a bit more of a special mash. If you are sensitive to/dislike garlic, you can omit it and still get a lovely mash. Ingredients: 1 whole garlic (10 cloves) Half a Hokkaido squash ( you can bake the...
  3. blades

    Recipe Roasted Garlic, Ham and Potato Soup

    An entry for a recipe challenge about garlic should have a lot of garlic. This blades original recipe covers that belief. It can be a one pot meal or a side dish to accompany virtually any entree. Ingredients 4 large heads garlic, roasted 1 large onion 2 cups ham cubed 3 Yukon Gold potatoes...
  4. medtran49

    Recipe Green-spring garlic potato soup

    4-6 servings Soup can be served hot, warm, room temperature, or cool. Soup can be made vegan by using a butter substitute, vegetable stock, and omitting or substituting cream. If omitting cream, I would use just a little cornstarch or a similar thickening agent dissolved in additional stock...
  5. C

    Recipe Smashed Potatoes

    DW came up with a internet recipe for "smashed potatoes" uhmmm, this is my idea of smashed potato: this recipe - it is superbly delicious, highly recommended - but I'd label it more as "lumpy mashed potatoes" for two + minor left overs . . . (reduced from 3 pound recipe . . . ) Ingredients &...
  6. Timenspace

    Recipe Clear Swiss chard stalks, ginger, potato and carrot soup

    Ingredients: 300 g of Swiss chard stalks (you may use the whole vegetable, I had only the stalks left, used the green part for another meal, but wanted the delicious flavour) 25 g of fresh ginger 1 medium onion 40 g parsley root 2 carrots grated 4 medium potatoes grated vegetable stock 4...
  7. Timenspace

    Recipe Creamy Kohlrabi, potato, parsley root and ginger soup

    Ingredients: 1 large German turnip (Kohlrabi), about 250 g 4 medium size potatoes 2/3 of a parsley root, about 100 g 20 g of fresh ginger root (about the size of half a standard garlic clove) 1 garlic clove 1 smaller onion salt (4-6 pinches, to taste) 400-500 ml vegetable stock 200 ml of cooking...
  8. Morning Glory

    Burns Night

    Tonight is Burn's night! Anyone for haggis? Traditionally a Burns night supper is haggis, neeps and tatties. But you could start with a classic cullen skink (soup) and maybe finosh with a clootie dumpling.
  9. karadekoolaid

    Recipe Potato & Carrots, South Indian style

    This recipe is adapted from the book "660 Curries", by Raghavan Iyer. Ingredients: 3 medium potatoes, cut into chunks 1 tbsp vegetable oil 1 tsp black mustard seeds 1 tbsp urid dal 2 medium carrots, cut into strips 1 1/2 tsps salt 1/2 tsp turmeric 2 tsps coriander seeds 1/2 tsp fenugreek...
  10. grumpyoldman

    sweet potato pie VS pumpkin pie

    i grew up in the southeastern part of the U.S and had never even seen a pumpkin pie intil i was in my 30s but i did taste one about that time , i didn't care for the taste of the pumpkin pie i know many of you will say that you like the pumpkin pies but having said that have you ever tasted a...
  11. Yorky

    Stuffing Baked (Jacket) Potatoes.

    I obtained some decent size spuds (c. 350 gms each) from the market last week. I stuffed two of them viz: Precook the scrubbed potatoes in the microwave for 4 minutes each. Then cook in the halogen oven for around 40 minutes until the skin is crisp. Allow to cool slightly then carefully...
  12. Morning Glory

    Recipe Roasted aubergine, potatoes, Padrón peppers and caper berries

    This is essentially a simple tray bake. You could serve it as a side with grilled meat, chicken or fish or as I did, with and egg added for a vegetarian main meal/breakfast. Caper berries taste slightly milder than capers and have a little crunch. They are the immature fruit rather than the bud...
  13. blades

    Recipe Natasha's Loaded Potato Soup

    If you like a soup with lots of calories and lots of flavor, this one is for you. It isn't my recipe. It came from Natasha's Kitchen. I've made it several times and love it. The recipe results in a soup that is thicker than I prefer so I cut back a little on the flour and add additional...
  14. Yorky

    Potato Peeler

    I've had my current potato peeler for around 18 years. And it's never been sharpened. My chef's knives are sharpened probably before ever third use unless cutting meat then they are sharpened every time. Why is it that my potato peeler doesn't appear to ever need sharpening?
  15. karadekoolaid

    Recipe Perkedel (Indonesian potato cakes)

    Ingredients: 500 gms potatoes 1 small onion (or 2-3 shallots) 4 cloves garlic 1 whole stalk (with leaves if possible) celery 1/4 tsp nutmeg Salt and Pepper to taste 1 egg Oil for frying Method: Peel the potatoes and cut into 1" chunks. Fry in hot oil until the potatoes barely start changing...
  16. TastyReuben

    Recipe La Chorizette (Chorizo & Fried Potatoes)

    La Chorizette (Chorizo & Fried Potatoes) Makes 4 servings Ingredients 2 lbs/1 kg waxy potatoes 1/4 lb/125 g bacon, cut into pieces 1 onion, chopped 1-2 TB unsalted butter 1 TB olive oil 1/2 Spanish chorizo (about 5 oz/150 g), or more if you like, sliced 6 garlic cloves, chopped 1 TB herbes de...
  17. M

    Would you eat this mashed potato?

    This is maybe a bit of a mean thing to post and just to put in to context my mother in law is a good cook and pretty much everything she makes is delicious. However her mashed potato is always really gloopy. Maybe it's the potatoes she uses but she always adds a lot of milk and butter and then...
  18. Herbaceous

    Recipe Christmas potato salad

    This is the recipe for my husband’s family’s traditional Christmas potato salad. I was introduced to this when we first started dating (almost 20 years ago now!). There’s no source for this recipe - we just copied how his family made it. Note that we never measure anything for this recipe -...
  19. P

    Cooking "aloo-matar". Potato and hard lentils indian style?

    I'm Indian and wondering how to cook it. I've never cooked them before. Do I cook it like soft lentils? I cook soft lentils like this way. 1) 1:5 lentil to water ratio (after being soaked for some time). 2) Put it in pressure cooker, add salt and wait for 3 whistles. What else do I need to do...
  20. Oven-Baked Potato and Onion flavoured with Saffron and Marjoram.jpg

    Oven-Baked Potato and Onion flavoured with Saffron and Marjoram.jpg

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