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New Potato Day: Eat and Plant Potatoes Today

2009_03_17-Potatoes.jpg2009_03_17-PotatoesThumbs.jpgDid you know that today is a big day for potatoes? Not only are they a featured part of most St. Patrick's Day menus, but this is also the day when potatoes are traditionally planted! Potatoes go into the ground earlier than most garden seeds, at least in the northern parts of the world. Those new potatoes, dug fresh from the ground in the spring, are so delicious! Here are five fresh ways to eat new potatoes, which are turning up at the markets soon.

 
 

Here are a few good ways to eat fresh new potatoes. They are delicate and tender, so delicious! Each of these recipes takes a slightly different route to showing off that delicate potato taste.

New potatoes with...

• 1 Crème fraîche and chives - Classic, elegant combination. Doesn't that photo make your mouth water, too? At Sunset.

• 2 Saffron and parsley - A simple preparation of new potatoes, with one exotic ingredient for color and flavor. At Gourmet.

• 3 Ginger, cumin and sesame - Another exotic combination, these potatoes aren't just a side dish - they're dinner! At Martha Stewart.

• 4 Honey and basil - This is my favorite potato salad, with the fresh tang of yogurt, the sweetness of honey, and fresh sweet basil. Oh, and crunchy pink shallots too. Very colorful!

• 5 Thyme and carrots - This would be a great St. Patty's dish - simple carrots and potatoes, enlivened by fresh thyme. At Sunset.

Related: Sixteen Kinds of Potatoes

(Images: Maria Robledo for Sunset Magazine; John Kernick for Gourmet; Martha Stewart; Faith Durand; Annabelle Breakey for Sunset)

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Ingredients - Vegetables, Spring, potato salad, potato, new potato

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Comments (6)

I hate to say it (considering all the potatoes I am cutting at school to improve my knife skills) but these really are gorgeous potatoes.

Okay, I'll cut a few more and make the honey and basil potato salad.

Cheers!

posted by CookingSchoolConfidential.com on March 17th 2009 at 9:10pm
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I had the best potatoes of my life last night and earlier this week!

We bought them in a Swiss outdoor market on Saturday, and both varieties were new potatoes (the season is earlier here!).

I forget the name of the tiny boiling potatoes, but they were excellent -- proving the point that most of cooking is really down to the ingredients, not a fancy recipe.

The Bintje potatoes we had on Monday were amazing too -- the best mashed potatoes I have ever made in my life, PERIOD. And I am pretty good at mashed potatoes!

If you have a chance to plant potatoes, I'd urge you to plant Bintje potatoes -- they are an excellent starchy variety, good for baking, mashing and fries. And they are pretty hard to find in stores, and so an opportunity to plant them should not be turned up!

http://www.seedsofchange.com/garden_center/product_details.asp?item_no=PS16113

posted by mschatelaine on March 18th 2009 at 7:48am
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Just remembered: the other variety of potato was Charlotte. It's very popular in Europe and the U.K., but is it grown anywhere in the U.S.? Are there Charlotte seed potatoes available in the U.S.?

posted by mschatelaine on March 18th 2009 at 7:57am
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Yes!!! Roninger's!

http://www.ronnigers.com/

posted by mschatelaine on March 18th 2009 at 7:59am
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I'm jealous of anyone who doesn't have frozen ground still!

posted by cara_mia on March 18th 2009 at 4:49pm
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PS - My dad is trying potatoes from seed this year. Available from Territorial Seed Co. They have to be started like tomatoes, 6-8 weeks ahead of the last frost, which is May 20th here. (Click to find your area's date.) And Yankee Gardener suggests that tomato plants shouldn't go into the ground until May 30th, if your frost date is May 20th.

posted by cara_mia on March 18th 2009 at 4:53pm
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