SECTION ONE Potato Recipes

It may seem strange to start with the common spud — what could be more English — in a book full of international recipes?

Well, let me set you right. The potato comes from Peru, and was brought to Europe by the Conquistadores, who came from Spain, in the early fifteenth century.

To the Incas the potato was almost a sacred object. It was grown in potato patches fertilized with human blood, and it figured prominently in their rituals.

It was Raleigh, or was it Drake, or, as some scribes have it, Hawkins, who brought the potato to Britain in 1578. Anyhow, whoever it was, the British have been eating it with practically everything ever since.

Contrary to most housewives' menus — which tend to dismiss the potato with a wave of the masher or the chipping knife, the potato is a very versatile item. I think you'll agree when you've tried some of the dishes I've selected for you.

It really is international too. Take the first dish. The recipe comes from Savoie, and the dish is called 'Pommes de terre Savoyarde'. It's a delicious combination of cream, and cheese, and potatoes. That part of the world, high on the French-Italian border, is famous for its dairy produce, and this simple, inexpensive dish is one of the nicest things to come out of that region.

POMMES DE TERRE SAVOYARDE

Potatoes in Cream au Gratin

Serves 4

* Potatoes
* Light cream
* Butter
* Salt
* Pepper
* Cheese
* Garlic (optional)

Slice 8 medium potatoes very thinly. Put into a saucepan with salted boiling water to cover. Bring to the boil and boil for 3 minutes. Drain.

Rub garlic clove around buttered oval baking-dish, about 12 in. long, put a layer of half the potatoes. Sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt and freshly ground pepper. Sprinkle with 4 oz. grated cheese, and cover with remaining potatoes.

Add 1 pint of light cream and sprinkle with 4 oz. grated cheese. Bring to the boil, over directed heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Put under grill for 2 or 3 minutes or until browned.

Potatoes, because they're found in just about every country, can cross frontiers recipe-wise. Take the vichyssoise, or chilled potato soup. I suppose it is French in origin because of the name, but, of course, it is found all over Europe.

In New York, they have a variation of this recipe which they call Manhattan Vichyssoise, the trick here is the addition of carrots. This gives the basic soup a delicious originality.

MANHATTAN VICHYSSOISE

Serves 4-6

* Potatoes
* Carrots
* Leek
* Chicken stock
* Salt
* Pepper
* Cream

Soup:

Into a saucepan put 12 oz. peeled, diced potatoes, 6 oz. sliced carrots, 1 leek, sliced (white part only), and 1½ pints of chicken stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 25 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

In an electric blender puree half the vegetables and liquid at a time of 30 seconds on high speed. Empty into mixing-bowl.

Stir in a pinch of white pepper, 1 teaspoon salt and / pint of cream.

Presentation:

Serve in chilled bowls, icy cold, with a topping of shredded raw carrot.

Holland, as you all know, is famous for its sea-walls, or 'dikes'. As land is reclaimed from the sea, massive earthwork walls are set up to keep out the water.

Well, I know a Dutch recipe which celebrates the construction of these walls in a unique way. In this dish, which is called Fish Fillets Noord Zee, creamed potatoes are used to represent the dikes, while the sea is represented by fish in sort-of lakes, made by the potato walls.

I think the important thing here is that it shows how important the method of presentation is to a meal. Fish and mash needn't always be a spoonful of mashed potato on one side of a plate and the fish piled up on the other. A little imagination, and you can create all sorts of dishes of your own — just by the design of the food arranged on the platter.

Another thing to be learnt from the preparation of this dish is the importance of using the juices the food was originally cooked in, to make the sauce. This way, you give the sauce a really good flavour.

If you don't feel like cooking fish, however, other foods can be placed between the potato walls — for instance, you can serve all your vegetables beautifully arranged on one large dish, or, a mixture of meat and vegetables can be divided by the walls. Anyhow, the important thing is to use your imagination!

FISH FILLETS NOORD ZEE

Serves 4

* Potatoes
* Butter
* Cream
* Salt
* White pepper
* Fillets of plaice
* Dry white wine
* Lemons
* Mushrooms
* Shrimps
* Scallops
* Herring roes
* Eggs
* Flour
* Parsley

Cook 4 medium potatoes in salted water until very tender. Drain and mash. Beat in 3 tablespoons butter and enough hot cream to make fluffy potatoes that are still stiff enough to be pressed through a fluted pastry tube. Season to taste with salt and white pepper. Keep warm over simmering water.

Poach 4 fillets of plaice (about 1¼ lb.) in a cup of water with ½ pint of dry white wine, the juice of 1 lemon, ½ teaspoon salt and ¼4 teaspoon white pepper for 5 minutes. Remove fillets and keep warm. Boil liquid over high heat until reduced to ¼4 pint.

Heat 1 tablespoon butter in each of 4 small frying-pans. In one sauté 4 oz. button mushrooms for 5 minutes. In another, 4 oz. shrimps for 5 minutes. In a third, toss 4 oz. herring roes floured for 5 minutes; in the last, cook 4 sliced scallops for 5 minutes.

Fill a forcing bag, fitted with a large fluted tube, with the mashed potatoes and press out a fluted ribbon down the centre of a large serving-platter. On one side press out 3 ribbons from centre to edge of platter, making 4 evenly divided compartments. Arrange the fillets on the other side in the long compartment. Put platter into a warm oven to keep warm.

Sauce:

In saucepan beat 2 eggs with 1 tablespoon flour and / pint cream. Strain 1/4 pint of reduced fish liquid into the egg-cream mixture and cook, stirring rapidly until sauce is hot and slightly thickened. Be careful not to let it boil. Stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste, and 1 tablespoon lemon juice.

Presentation:

Pour sauce over the fish fillets only and garnish with parsley.

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