RECIPES FROM STAFF, STUDENTS, YOU (?)
Our magazine editor invited all college faculty, staff, and students to share favorite family potato recipes. Here are five.
We’ll add your story/photo/potato recipe if you’ll send them to P&P@uidaho.edu.
Remembering Mom’s favorite July harvest dish in
Wisconsin
by JOE GUENTHNER, UI POTATO ECONOMIST, MOSCOW
Carol Guenthner and sons Joe (center) and Bob
pose in the 1950s at their Wisconsin farm where
they grew, packed, and shipped potatoes.
THIS RECIPE WAS A SPECIAL TREAT my mother made during summers when I was growing up on a Wisconsin potato farm. I remember back in the 1960s, when farming involved hard physical work, the biggest meal of the day was at noon. We called it dinner and we ate a lighter meal—supper—in the evenings.
Potatoes and peas were some of the crops we grew on the family farm. The canning peas were at their most tender for only a shor t period. My best memories of this dish were in July when the weather was hot and muggy. My mother's “New Potatoes & Peas” and homemade lemonade make my mouth water in reminiscence.
My mother, Carol Guenthner, still lives in the house she and my father built more than a half century ago. I phoned her about the recipe, and she said she never used precise measuring cups or spoons. Here is what I got from her.
NEW POTATOES AND PEAS: Steps from field to table
-
1. Harvest new red potatoes before they have been vine-killed. (Freshly harvested potatoes are best eaten the same day they are dug!)
- 2. Wash potatoes but do NOT peel them.
- 3. Boil in water until tender, probing with a fork.
- 4. Put freshly shucked peas in the boiling water with the potatoes. (Use frozen peas if fresh are not available.)
- 5. Turn off heat when potatoes are tender.
- 6. Drain.
- 7. Add milk and butter and mix.
- 8. Add salt, pepper, parsley, paprika, or other seasonings.
Quick Potato Fudge
This fudge recipe was printed on a Guenthner Potato Company bag back in the 1960s.
My grandfather Joseph S. Guenthner and father Joseph F. Guenthner owned and operated several agricultural businesses—a dairy that included milk cows, bottling plant, and home delivery service in our hometown of Antigo, Wisconsin; another was the potato farm; a third business was a fresh potato packing and shipping operation.
We sold fresh potatoes to grocery stores including one big customer, the chain known as A & P. The Guenthner Potato Company brand was “Lake of the Woods.” A popular pack was a 10 or 20-pound paper bag with a mesh window. Printed on the paper was a colorful lake scene and potato recipes including this one for potato fudge.
Ingredients
-
3 squares of bitter chocolate
- 3 Tbs. butter
- l/3 Cup mashed potatoes
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1 lb powdered sugar
Instructions
- 1. Melt chocolate and butter over hot water in double boiler. (Note: this was before microwave ovens.)
- 2. Add mashed potatoes, salt, and vanilla.
- 3. Mix thoroughly.
- 4. Blend in powdered sugar.
- 5. Stir and knead until smooth.
- 6. Press into buttered 8-inch-square pan.
- 7. Cool.
- 8. Cut into squares and enjoy!
Grandma’s prize-winning potato pancakes—a family favorite
by KELSEY QUINN, SOPHOMORE, ANIMAL SCIENCE
MY MOTHER HAS 8 SISTERS and 3 brothers. Growing up, they lived in a 5-bedroom and 3-bathroom house. At times, it was very cramped, but they always found ways to spend time together as a family. One of my grandmother’s traditions was making potato pancakes.
A couple of the girls would help in the kitchen, and as a family they could enjoy the pancakes together. I hope you enjoy this as much as my family has over the years!
Ingredients for 12 pancakes
- 2 cups grated raw potatoes
- 2 eggs, separated
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. salt
- 2 tbs. flour
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
Instructions
- 1. Peel potatoes and soak in cold water for at least two hours.
- 2. Grate potatoes and drain well to remove the starch.
- 3. Beat egg yolks until pale yellow and add to the grated potatoes.
- 4. Sift together the baking powder, salt, and flour.
- 5. Add to the potato mixture and blend thoroughly.
- 6. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into the potato mixture.
- 7. Heat vegetable oil in a fry pan until very hot. Drop in batter by the
spoonful and cook until golden brown.
- 9. Drain on absorbent paper and serve immediately.
Eleanor Radoslovich, grandma to UI pre-vet student Kelsey Quinn, right,
wears ribbon won for a cooking contest at a local (Cashmere, Wash.) fair.
Parma researcher learns to cook like Mom in India
by SUNDARARAJ PALANISAMY, UI SOUTHWEST IDAHO R&E CENTER,
PARMA
USUALLY, IN INDIA, men won’t cook at home! It is the job of women. However,
after arriving in Parma, if I wanted to eat favorites from my homeland, I had to
learn to cook.
Most dishes I now prepare are based on recipes I learned from my mom. Almost
all Indian recipes rely on dif ferent combinations of spices. Nearly 25 Indian spices
are used in everyday dishes. Curry leaf is very common. Almost ever y house will
have one curry leaf tree, different from the combination of spices known as curry
in the United States.
I was born and raised and completed my studies in southern India’s picturesque
city Coimbatore in the state Tamilnadu. I worked as an assistant professor in India
before accepting my University of Idaho job in 1998.
Raj Palanisamy learned to cook Indian-style after he moved to Idaho as a university researcher in Parma. Here he is enjoying a ferry ride out of Seattle.
SOUTH INDIAN STIR-FRIED POTATOES
This easy-to-make potato dish tastes great as a filling in dosas (crispy rice-batter pancakes) or eaten with hot chapatis (Indian flatbread) or parathas (pan-fried Indian flatbread) or with Western-style wheat bread. This is a dish people pre- pare almost daily. They eat it with rice
during lunch or with dosas for dinner. Try it with coconut chutney.
Ingredients
- 6 large potatoes
- 2 tbs. vegetable/canola/sunflower cooking oil
- 1 tsp. mustard seeds
- 7-8 curry leaves*
- 2 green cayenne peppers chopped fine
- 1 large onion chopped fine
- 1/2 tsp. turmeric powder
- Salt to taste
*NOTE: Curry leaves are most likely available at Asian-specialty grocery stores.
Preparation
- 1. Boil potatoes, remove skins, and mash (need not be so smooth).
- 2. Heat oil in a pan on a medium heat. Add mustard seeds, green chilies, and curry leaves and fry till spluttering stops.
- 3. Add onions and fry till soft.
- 4. Add potatoes, turmeric powder, salt to taste. Mix well.
- 5. Cook for 10 minutes.
- 6. Serve with bread.
- Serves 6 to 8.
NORTH INDIA’S ALOO PARATHA
This dish—wrapping spiced potato balls as a filling in a triangle of wheat dough—is prepared as a snack during special occasions, mostly in northern India. In some states it is also eaten as a main dish, accompanied by other dishes.
Ingredients
- Wheat flour 2 cups
- Potatoes 3 medium-size
- Salt 1/2 tsp
- Cumin powder 1/2 tsp
- Paprika 1/2 tsp
- Oil of your choice
- Coriander leaves 1/2 cup
- Water
Preparation
- 1. Wash, dry, and chop coriander leaves into fine pieces.
- 2. Boil, peel, and mash potatoes.
- 3. Add cumin, paprika, salt, coriander leaves to mashed potato and mix.
- 4. Make small balls of the mashed potato and keep aside.
- 5. Mix flour, salt, and enough water to make soft dough (consistency
should be like bread dough).
- 6. Rub a teaspoon of oil over the dough and let it rest for one hour.
- 7. Take dough about the size of one lemon and roll it into small circle,
(About the thickness of tortilla)
- 8. Place one potato ball on the small dough circle and cover all the
sides and roll to triangle shape.
- 9. Heat a flat pan. When it gets hot, add the paratha (rolled-out dough
filled with potato ball) and let it cook for a minute.
- 10. When the dough starts to get small bubbles turn over and add a
small teaspoon of oil around it. After brown spots appear, remove
dough from pan and keep it warm in a covered box or in the oven
(on warm).
- 11. Serve hot or warm.
Please share your favorite potato recipes and family stories/photos with us by e-mailing P&P@uidaho.edu, and we’ll share your story and recipe online, too.
RECIPE CAPTIONS
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