The Potato
a Master-Class
Marilyn Le Breton 2013 (c)
Potatoes get a really bad press.
They are not even considered to be a vegetable in the ‘5 a day’ ideal potions scheme. To those trying to lose weight, they are deemed public enemy no.1. Generally they are seen as nothing more than a lump of starch & carbohydrates – a food to fill up on but of no nutritional value.
But for those with children on the diet, potatoes can be a very valuable source of fibre and nutrition, IF they are grown correctly, stored correctly & cooked correctly.
For just how nutritious it can be see the picture below.
The Potato basics for the diet
Frozen potato products including chips,wedges and waffles are NOT suitable for the diet.
Not only are they usually covered in the 'wrong' oil (only sunflower oil is suitable), or contain off diet ingredients, they are usually almost always coated in sulphur dioxide or other chemical/s to keep the potato from discolouring.
Dried & instant potato products are also off diet for the reasons given above for frozen potato products.
Only ever use white skinned potatoes.
Red skinned potatoes are not tolerated as well as the white skinned ones are and so should be avoided like the plague. The reason for this is not 100% sure but I suspect it is the chemical that gives the potato skin its red pigment. But whatever the reason, if you have been using red skinned varieties of potatoes with your child, swap over to the white as soon as possible. They do not cost any more (usually less) and they are usually easier to come by.
Always make sure that the potato that you serve to your child has been peeled.
Although many extol the virtue of the potato skin (and yes they are high in fibre), they are not good news for our children, they contain phytochemicals the children can not tolerate.
If you serve jacket potatoes make sure your child knows not to eat the skin.
Also when you peel the potatoes make sure you peel them well and by that I mean peel them deeply. If you are using a vegetable peeler rather than a paring knife, it is worth peeling them twice. It may be wasteful but it is good practice to be careful.
The 'peel deep' also applies to new potatoes. As fiddly as it is, they need to be peeled not cooked in their skins or given a gentle scrub.
This 'potatoes always need to be well peeled' rule, also applies to crisps. Many premium brands of crisps are potatoes that are NOT peeled - the ingredient label wont highlight this but reading the marketing blurb on the back of the packet usually indicates that this is the case. If in doubt phone the company up and ask.
Whilst on the subject of crisps (which seem to be a beloved part of our children's diets) the crisps only crisps that are suitable for the diet are those that are just potato (unpeeled!!!) sea salt and sunflower oil - nothing else.
Never ever use potatoes that have skins which are turning green.
Throw away all potatoes that are going green, even it is just a teeny weeny bit green. Cutting the green bit out isn’t good enough, it really must be thrown away.
Green potatoes are poisonous. And they are poisonous to everyone not just those on the diet (seriously they are).
One of the phytochemicals a potato contains is Solanine. Solanine occurs mainly in the leaves, stalks of potatoes. But when the skin of a potato turns green it indicates that the solanine level in the potato is increasing.
Solanine can cause headaches, diarrhoea or cramps - severe solanine poisoning leads to coma & death. The good news is that death from solanine poisoning is now very rare as potatoes are being bred to have a reduced solanine
level.
Although it would take about a kilo of green pots to cause problems in an adult with no health problems (is there such a person?) but for children it takes substantially less & for our children with their increased sensitivities, a very little green potato can cause problems.
Also discard potatoes
which are bendy or soft, or that have shrivelled skins or are wet - these are way past their best andy they are likely to be harbouring mould on/just under the skin & so should not to be chanced.
Do not store potatoes in the fridge.
Keeping potatoes in the fridge or below 4C converts the potato starch into sugar and this will alter the taste of the potato.
Keeping potatoes in the fridge will also increase the levels of another phytochemical, acrylamide. The level of acrylamide will increase again if the potato is fried or roasted.
Acrylamide is a known carcogen (it is also found in coffee & cigarettes).
The danger of acrylamide levels in chilled potatoes being fried is currently being assessed (I am waiting for the results to be published).
How to store potatoes:
Potatoes last longest when stored between 5-10 C, & kept dry & frost free.
Potatoes need to be kept away from strong daylight or artificial light - they turn green (see above for
the problem with green potatoes.
As tough as they look, potatoes do bruise, so do not stack too many bags on top of one another or rest anything heavy on top.
Even though potatoes are sold in plastic bags, these will only serve to speed up the rotting of the potatoes. Make sure you rip plenty of holes in the bag so that air is let in and can circulate or better still remove the potatoes
form their plastic wrapping & store in a special potato bin, wicker potato bins are particularly good.
A cheap and cheerful storage solution for potatoes (especially if you buy as many as I do a week) are the large, heavy duty, plastic parcel sacks that delivery companies use. As long as they are dark in colour or lined in black (most seem to be) they make great storage for potatoes.
The dark/black inner means the potato is slower to ripen/go green/mouldy.
Just remember to pierce some holes around the sack to allow the air to circulate.
As with everything else, always buy the best potatoes you can afford (organic is always preferable but not always affordable) and only ever buy what you need.
Which variety of potato should you use?
There are zillions (well over a hundred) of different varieties of potatoes, so which are the best to use?
You can reduce the headache of choosing a good variety by discarding all red skinned potatoes (see above).
Most recipes that include potatoes will ask for either waxy or floury potatoes.
Two good white skinned potatoes that are available all year round & in all supermarkets are King Edwards & Maris Pipers. The King Edwards are a floury potato & the Maris are waxy. Both of these varieties are considered to be
good 'all -rounders' meaning they are suitable for mashing, boiling, roasting & chipping.
Perfect Oven Chips:
Unfortunately perfect oven chips for those on the diet do not come from the freezer section of the supermarket as the are usually coated with sulphur dioxide or other food grade bleaching agent to keep them from discolouring & rarely are they coated in diet friendly sunflower oil.
(I will discuss the problems with sulphur dioxide and suitable oils in later articles but for now – avoid sulphur dioxide like the plague & only use sunflower oil- preferably cold pressed organic sunflower oil to cook with)
peel the potatoes & cut them into thick chips (the thicker the chip the healthier - less fat)
roll the chips in 2-3tbsps of cold pressed organic sunflower oil
spread evenly over a baking sheet
bake at GM6/200C for approx 40 mins
turning once after 20 minutes
Perfect Roast Potatoes
Peel the potatoes & cut them to the required size (as for chips the larger the potato the healthier as less fat is used as there is less overall surface area).
Par boil the potatoes in boiling water for approx 10 mins (will obviously depend on size of pots - we prefer jumbo roasties & they take 20 mins of par boiling)
Drain the potatoes well.
Carefully place them in a roasting tin of preheated cold pressed organic sunflower oil (use approx 1tbsp/25g oil for each 1lb of pots used).
Roast in a preheated oven at GM6/200c/400f for 1 hr turning once, after 30 minutes.
I also like to add crushed garlic cloves to the oil when I add the pots - 2 for each person being served as it flavours the potatoes beautifully.
For extra crispy roasties - roughen the outside of the potato after par boiling with a fork.
Although its currently all the rage to cook pots in duck fat, please be warned duck fat gets very smoky, very quickly
and you may need to open windows to prevent the smoke alarms from going off.
Frozen potato products including chips,wedges and waffles are NOT suitable for the diet.
Not only are they usually covered in the 'wrong' oil (only sunflower oil is suitable), or contain off diet ingredients, they are usually almost always coated in sulphur dioxide or other chemical/s to keep the potato from discolouring.
Dried & instant potato products are also off diet for the reasons given above for frozen potato products.
Only ever use white skinned potatoes.
Red skinned potatoes are not tolerated as well as the white skinned ones are and so should be avoided like the plague. The reason for this is not 100% sure but I suspect it is the chemical that gives the potato skin its red pigment. But whatever the reason, if you have been using red skinned varieties of potatoes with your child, swap over to the white as soon as possible. They do not cost any more (usually less) and they are usually easier to come by.
Always make sure that the potato that you serve to your child has been peeled.
Although many extol the virtue of the potato skin (and yes they are high in fibre), they are not good news for our children, they contain phytochemicals the children can not tolerate.
If you serve jacket potatoes make sure your child knows not to eat the skin.
Also when you peel the potatoes make sure you peel them well and by that I mean peel them deeply. If you are using a vegetable peeler rather than a paring knife, it is worth peeling them twice. It may be wasteful but it is good practice to be careful.
The 'peel deep' also applies to new potatoes. As fiddly as it is, they need to be peeled not cooked in their skins or given a gentle scrub.
This 'potatoes always need to be well peeled' rule, also applies to crisps. Many premium brands of crisps are potatoes that are NOT peeled - the ingredient label wont highlight this but reading the marketing blurb on the back of the packet usually indicates that this is the case. If in doubt phone the company up and ask.
Whilst on the subject of crisps (which seem to be a beloved part of our children's diets) the crisps only crisps that are suitable for the diet are those that are just potato (unpeeled!!!) sea salt and sunflower oil - nothing else.
Never ever use potatoes that have skins which are turning green.
Throw away all potatoes that are going green, even it is just a teeny weeny bit green. Cutting the green bit out isn’t good enough, it really must be thrown away.
Green potatoes are poisonous. And they are poisonous to everyone not just those on the diet (seriously they are).
One of the phytochemicals a potato contains is Solanine. Solanine occurs mainly in the leaves, stalks of potatoes. But when the skin of a potato turns green it indicates that the solanine level in the potato is increasing.
Solanine can cause headaches, diarrhoea or cramps - severe solanine poisoning leads to coma & death. The good news is that death from solanine poisoning is now very rare as potatoes are being bred to have a reduced solanine
level.
Although it would take about a kilo of green pots to cause problems in an adult with no health problems (is there such a person?) but for children it takes substantially less & for our children with their increased sensitivities, a very little green potato can cause problems.
Also discard potatoes
which are bendy or soft, or that have shrivelled skins or are wet - these are way past their best andy they are likely to be harbouring mould on/just under the skin & so should not to be chanced.
Do not store potatoes in the fridge.
Keeping potatoes in the fridge or below 4C converts the potato starch into sugar and this will alter the taste of the potato.
Keeping potatoes in the fridge will also increase the levels of another phytochemical, acrylamide. The level of acrylamide will increase again if the potato is fried or roasted.
Acrylamide is a known carcogen (it is also found in coffee & cigarettes).
The danger of acrylamide levels in chilled potatoes being fried is currently being assessed (I am waiting for the results to be published).
How to store potatoes:
Potatoes last longest when stored between 5-10 C, & kept dry & frost free.
Potatoes need to be kept away from strong daylight or artificial light - they turn green (see above for
the problem with green potatoes.
As tough as they look, potatoes do bruise, so do not stack too many bags on top of one another or rest anything heavy on top.
Even though potatoes are sold in plastic bags, these will only serve to speed up the rotting of the potatoes. Make sure you rip plenty of holes in the bag so that air is let in and can circulate or better still remove the potatoes
form their plastic wrapping & store in a special potato bin, wicker potato bins are particularly good.
A cheap and cheerful storage solution for potatoes (especially if you buy as many as I do a week) are the large, heavy duty, plastic parcel sacks that delivery companies use. As long as they are dark in colour or lined in black (most seem to be) they make great storage for potatoes.
The dark/black inner means the potato is slower to ripen/go green/mouldy.
Just remember to pierce some holes around the sack to allow the air to circulate.
As with everything else, always buy the best potatoes you can afford (organic is always preferable but not always affordable) and only ever buy what you need.
Which variety of potato should you use?
There are zillions (well over a hundred) of different varieties of potatoes, so which are the best to use?
You can reduce the headache of choosing a good variety by discarding all red skinned potatoes (see above).
Most recipes that include potatoes will ask for either waxy or floury potatoes.
Two good white skinned potatoes that are available all year round & in all supermarkets are King Edwards & Maris Pipers. The King Edwards are a floury potato & the Maris are waxy. Both of these varieties are considered to be
good 'all -rounders' meaning they are suitable for mashing, boiling, roasting & chipping.
Perfect Oven Chips:
Unfortunately perfect oven chips for those on the diet do not come from the freezer section of the supermarket as the are usually coated with sulphur dioxide or other food grade bleaching agent to keep them from discolouring & rarely are they coated in diet friendly sunflower oil.
(I will discuss the problems with sulphur dioxide and suitable oils in later articles but for now – avoid sulphur dioxide like the plague & only use sunflower oil- preferably cold pressed organic sunflower oil to cook with)
peel the potatoes & cut them into thick chips (the thicker the chip the healthier - less fat)
roll the chips in 2-3tbsps of cold pressed organic sunflower oil
spread evenly over a baking sheet
bake at GM6/200C for approx 40 mins
turning once after 20 minutes
Perfect Roast Potatoes
Peel the potatoes & cut them to the required size (as for chips the larger the potato the healthier as less fat is used as there is less overall surface area).
Par boil the potatoes in boiling water for approx 10 mins (will obviously depend on size of pots - we prefer jumbo roasties & they take 20 mins of par boiling)
Drain the potatoes well.
Carefully place them in a roasting tin of preheated cold pressed organic sunflower oil (use approx 1tbsp/25g oil for each 1lb of pots used).
Roast in a preheated oven at GM6/200c/400f for 1 hr turning once, after 30 minutes.
I also like to add crushed garlic cloves to the oil when I add the pots - 2 for each person being served as it flavours the potatoes beautifully.
For extra crispy roasties - roughen the outside of the potato after par boiling with a fork.
Although its currently all the rage to cook pots in duck fat, please be warned duck fat gets very smoky, very quickly
and you may need to open windows to prevent the smoke alarms from going off.