175 ways with potatoes

Press, 3 February 1979, Page 15

175 ways with potatoes

The Gourmet Potato. By Anne Souter. Reed. 78 pp., index. $5.95. The Garden Grows Cookbook. By Eva and Tony Lambert. Reed. 227 pp., index. $5.50.

(Reviewed by Lorna Buchanan) The common potato is as regular in most New Zealand diets as our daily bread. But is the potato really no more than a basic vegetable, or is it just thought so? Anne Souter, a young Australian artist, sets out to convince readers that the potato is unique in its versatility and can be useful at any meal. She describes and illustrates 175 ways to enjoy potatoes so that the daily potato can be served m a different way every day for six months. The book includes potato breakfasts, potato desserts, kumara variations, and potato pastry, cakes, and bread. Potatoes can be readily stored, to be available all the year. Many other vegetables through freezing or

canning, have come to be accepted as being always in season. But to accept that everything is available at any time is to overlook the value of fresh, seasonal vegetables. “The Garden

Grows Cookbook” provides a list of vegetables and the months when they are genuinely fresh. (However, for a southern hemisphere edition of this book the publishers could have corrected the months from those given for the northern hemisphere). Eva and Tony Lambert base their account of fresh vegetables on the productivity of a small croftholding in Skye in the Scottish Hebrides. Most of the vegetables mentioned are easily grown outdoors in New Zealand. The book is divided into seasonal sections. Common vegetables are presented in interesting ways and unusual combinations of vegetables, grains and herbs provide new ideas for food with wide appeal. Both books will have a special interest for vegetarians and for those who believe in healthy food.