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You can feed a lot of people with the humble potato
(Fresno Bee (CA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 7--What can the world do with potatoes?
In Ireland, you'd simmer them in a soup called anraith pratai. In Peru, you'd make ensalada de papas, or potato salad. And in Kenya, you'd mash them with peas and maize in a dish known as irio.
In short, you can make a lot of dishes -- and feed a lot of people -- with one of the world's leading staple foods.
That's the point made by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, which sees the potato as one healthy and cheap way to feed a growing population amid skyrocketing food prices. It deemed 2008 the International Year of the Potato and launched an extensive campaign to promote the tuber.
Campaign events include the Lincolnshire Sausage and Potato Festival in the United Kingdom and the eighth World Festival of Sauteed Potatoes in northern Slovenia. Then there's the International Symposium on Living With Potatoes at California State University, Fresno -- the last U.S. event linked to the 2008 campaign.
The symposium helps publicize efforts to create a potato sustainability research center at Fresno State, says Nitaigour Premchand Mahalik, coordinator of the symposium and an assistant professor in Fresno State's Department of Industrial Technology. Donations to the symposium would help nonprofits buy potatoes for the poor and pay for other activities supporting the International Year of the Potato cam- paign.
The symposium, which drew more than 120 attendees Tuesday, underscored the need for a larger potato supply. The U.N. estimates that more than 2 billion people will be born during the next 20 years.
"The time has come to do more scientific research in order to meet the demand," Mahalik says.
Tuesday's event fell in line with much of the U.N.'s message.
Speakers' topics included ways to improve soil on potato farms, boost potatoes' disease resistance and preserve potato varieties.
The symposium also touted the potato's benefits. Its high content of vitamin C, potassium and dietary fiber make it a healthy food -- as long as folks skip the large cartons of french fries or bags of potato chips.
"We just don't need the whole big serving," says Lisa Herzig, the dietetic program director of Fresno State's Department of Food Science and Nutrition. Instead of high-fat potato products, she advises choosing a small baked potato topped with salsa or low-fat sour cream.
Klaus Tenbergen, an assistant professor of culinary science at Fresno State, showed other healthy ways to eat potatoes. He mixed mashed potatoes with blanched apple pieces to make the German dish himmel und erde.
"It is nice to have another serving of fruit," Tenbergen says.
And he created a version of Duchess potatoes by rolling cold, mashed potatoes between his palms, coaxing the mound into a small pear shape.
After rolling the molded potato in bread crumbs, he chose to bake it -- a healthier cooking method than deep- frying.
Tenbergen finished off the mock pear with a bay leaf and a broken spaghetti strand for a stem. "It is an upscale version of a croquette," he says.
Unfortunately, all this advice to eat healthy potato dishes likely won't change people's eating habits. The U.N. says fewer folks cook fresh potatoes; instead, more people eat potatoes in fast food, snacks and convenience products.
This trend, well-established in rich countries such as the United States, is spreading to developing countries. And that creates an ironic situation for the U.N.: It advises farmers to sell potatoes to the fast-food and snack industries, which transforms this healthy food into products nutritionists dislike. An example is the Nyabyumba United Farmers group, which grows potatoes for fries in fast-food eateries of Kampala, the capital of Ugan- da.
"This isn't the best use for potatoes," says Raj Patel, author of "Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System," (Melville House, $19.95). "It's the way of getting the least possible nutrition out of them."
Patel believes corporate control of the food supply simultaneously starves 800 million people and creates 1 billion overweight folks. His view is relevant to the processed-potato problem. With companies creating food products that are addictive and convenient, it's hard for the fresh potato to compete.
"Food system corporations are merely providing the sugar, salt, fat and flesh that everybody wants to eat -- or so they claim," Patel writes.
He also advocates programs that support poor, small-scale farmers, as long as they control the land. When more farmers sell potatoes in local markets, it strengthens an area's food supply and leaves people less dependent on expensive imported products.
Indeed, this is why the U.N. likes potatoes. The tubers are sold mostly within the country in which they're grown, so they're often less expensive than staples such as rice, maize and wheat. (These grains are globally traded commodities and suffer from more food inflation due to poor harvests, high transportation costs and demand from the biofuels industry.)
In the end, however, eradicating hunger depends on many factors other than the potato.
"It's a little odd to have a particular vegetable or particular anything present itself as the way out of poverty for farmers in the developing world," Patel says. "The potato is just one vegetable in the whole salad that will lift people out of poverty."
Contest results
Fresno State's International Symposium on Living With Potatoes included contests for young students. Here are the results.
Stuff Your Potato Art contest: First place, Kendall Veatch, second grade. Second place, Grant Kel- logg, fourth grade. Third place, Andrea Kellogg, third grade. All attend Century Elementary School in Clovis.
Create Your Own Potato Recipe contest: First place, Mexican potato soup by Leslie Hernandez. Second place, Il Bolgio soup by Jennifer Bustos and Kelly Solis. Third place, stuffed potatoes by Beyra Bautista. All are seventh-graders at Parlier Junior High School.
Pear-shaped potato croquettes
Makes 6 servings
1 egg
1 cup fine, plain bread crumbs
3 cups cold mashed potatoes, divided (see note)
1-2 strands uncooked angel hair spaghetti or regular spaghetti
6 dried bay leaves
Vegetable oil, for frying
Preheat the oven to 375 de- grees if baking the croquettes. (Alternatively, you can use a deep fryer to cook them.)
Lightly beat the egg in a shallow dish. Set aside. Pour the bread crumbs onto a plate. Set aside.
Using an ice cream scoop or a piping bag with a wide tip, divide the mashed potatoes into 6 mounds about 1/2 cup each.
Roll a mound between your palms to mold it into a pear shape. Coat the molded potato in the beaten egg, then bread crumbs. Place upright onto a baking sheet. Repeat with remaining mounds of mashed potatoes.
If baking, cook the potato croquettes in the oven until bread crumbs are golden brown, about 15-20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
If deep frying, heat oil in a deep fryer to 375 degrees. (Test the temperature with a deep- fry thermometer.)
Place 2 or 3 croquettes into the oil and cook until bread crumbs are golden brown, about 3-5 minutes. Transfer to a paper-towel lined plate to drain. Repeat with remaining croquettes.
Transfer croquettes to a serving platter. Break off 6 pieces from a spaghetti strand. (Each should be a little longer than a pear stem.) Insert a spaghetti strand into the top of a croquette to mimic a pear stem. Then insert a bay leaf into the top of the croquette to mimic a leaf on a pear.
Repeat with remaining croquettes, then serve immediately.
Note: This is a great way to use up leftover mashed potatoes made the previous day. For best results, use starchy potatoes such as Russets and make sure the potatoes are well seasoned. Be sure not to use runny mashed potatoes for this recipe; the croquettes won't hold their shape if the potatoes aren't stiff.
-- Klaus Tenbergen, Fresno State
Himmel und erde (Heaven and Earth)
Makes 6-8 servings
2 pounds well-seasoned, mashed potatoes (see note)
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch dice
Place hot mashed potatoes into a large bowl, then cover and set aside. Bring a pot of water to a boil, then blanch the diced apple. Cook them just to al dente. The apples should not be mushy.
Mix the drained, hot apple pieces into the mashed pota- toes.
Serve immediately as a side dish with pork chops and caramelized onions.
(Traditionally, this dish is served with German blood sausage.)
Note: Be sure to use mashed potatoes with flavors that pair well with apples. A good example is Yukon Gold potatoes seasoned with cream or milk, butter, salt, pepper and a dash of nutmeg. Avoid seasonings such as garlic or chives.
-- Klaus Tenbergen, Fresno State
The reporter can be reached at jobra@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6365.
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Copyright (c) 2008, The Fresno Bee, Calif.
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