New potatoes are a real treat
They need only salt and pepper and maybe a fresh herb
Creamy white and still shiny from their brushing and washing on the farm, new potatoes from Quebec growers have appeared in stores and markets in sizes ranging from very small (grelot or grenaille) to medium, the 1½- to 2-inch size. Most are a creamy white, but the first new, red-skinned potatoes are also appearing.
No matter the colour, new potatoes are a treat. Boiled or steamed, then buttered, they have a natural sweetness and need only salt and pepper and maybe a sprinkling of a fresh herb to make them the most popular food on your menu.
No long preparation, no mashing, no peeling because the skin of new potatoes is as delicate as silk, writes Michèle Serre, author of the excellent guide Les produits du marché au Québec (Trécarré, 2005) and dispenser of recipes on her Saveurs du Monde website.
The only trick to enjoying this food at its best is that you respect its perishable nature. Lise Pinsonneault, member of a potato-growing family in St. Michel, considers summer potatoes as delicate as strawberries. Moist and waxy inside their paperthin skins, they dry out and wrinkle if kept for more than about a week. Shop often for these potatoes and cook them before their skins darken, she recommends.
Take note in IGA stores of small bags of Quebec potatoes labelled with their variety. Grown at the big Réal Pinsonneault et Fils farm southwest of Montreal, and labelled with the store’s Compliments name, these bags, holding only three pounds (1.36 kilograms), include a suggestion about their best use, a recipe and photograph. Right now, the variety is the early Jemseg and the suggestion is potato salad. The farm’s bags have netting on one side, so you can check that the potatoes look fresh.
Lise Pinsonneault, who helps her father and brothers run the farm, wants us to consume her potatoes within a week. If you have to keep them longer, they’ll stand brief refrigeration, she says.
It’s the fourth year IGA has offered potatoes in this form and customers appear to like buying by variety and in bags smaller than the usual five- or 10-pound size. Next variety to appear will be Belmont, another early type. It will be followed from August through October by six more varieties: Norland, Vivaldi, La Rouge, blue, Chieftain and Gold Rush.
Another way to enjoy summer potatoes without much work is to coat them with oil and seasonings and bake them in a hot oven for half an hour.
I adapted this recipe from one in the excellent 2010 French cookbook Châtelaine: 100 recettes exquises, by food writers at both the French and English editions of the magazine (Les Éditions Rog- ers, $34.95). Good with grilled meats, the editors suggest. Potatoes roasted Indian style: To serve four, scrub, but do not peel 16 to 18 baby potatoes or four to five large potatoes, cubed. Oil a large, heavy ovenproof pan. In it, blend 1 teaspoon curry powder, 2 tablespoons olive oil, ½ teaspoon ground cumin and ½ teaspoon salt. Add potatoes, stirring until all are coated with the oil mixture. Spread out in an even layer, cover with aluminum foil and roast at 425 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes, turning once, until tender to the fork. Serve hot, sprinkled with chopped, fresh mint.