The Daily Spud

…there's both eatin' and drinkin' in it

Spud Sunday: Cover Story

I’ll tell you what folks, it’s been quite the weekend here at The Daily Spud.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of being mentioned (along with some of my favourite spuds) in Fionnuala Fallon’s piece in the Irish Times magazine on the dilemma of picking potato varieties (and yes, it’s the kind of thing that can keep a girl awake at night).

Then today, in what might just be the most epic Spud Sunday to date, a piece written by my good self appeared as the cover story in the new Sunday magazine supplement published with the Irish edition of the Sunday Times (sadly the Sunday Times implements a pay-wall, so I can’t link directly to an online version of the article, which was on the topic of the falling consumption of potatoes in Ireland).

What with editors and sub-editors involved, the piece that ran is not as I had written it, but that’s newspapers for you – an addition (not one of mine) which noted the occurrence of a National Potato Conference on Valentine’s Day was, alas, erroneous (the conference, in fact, takes place on February 22nd, with more information for any interested parties available here).

Below is the story as originally submitted. Enjoy.

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Spud Sunday: Boxty On The Menu

My cup, or should I say, my dinner plate, runneth over.

I had the pleasure, yesterday, of enjoying my second all-potato menu in as many weeks (and yes, I know what you’re thinking – some gals just have all the luck).

The occasion was a cookery demonstration given by Pádraic Óg Gallagher at Gallagher’s Boxty House as part of this weekend’s Temple Bar Trad Fest, and the subject, naturally enough, was boxty, the traditional potato speciality that gives the restaurant its name. And Pádraic, who has run The Boxty House for some 23 years, knows more than most about boxty. His making of boiled, baked and pan versions of same (which have featured on these pages before) was accompanied by a potted history of the spud in Ireland and elsewhere. For the lunch which followed the demo, you could, if you so desired, indulge in boxty for starter, main course and dessert (and for those who persist in thinking that you shouldn’t put potato and dessert in the same sentence, let alone on the same plate, all I can say is don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it).

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Spud Sunday: Boozy Spuds

Several of my work colleagues, it seems, are off the jar for January (meaning, for those unfamiliar with that particular turn of phrase, that they are giving alcohol a miss for the month). One did confess, though, to having fallen off the wagon the other day by way of a mid-week glass of wine and, like any forbidden fruit, it was all the sweeter for that. Now, several days later, I can’t say if that conversation was what prompted me to (a) buy a bottle of white wine or (b) add a glass of same to these potatoes, but it might just have been a factor. What I can tell you is that the potatoes are, without doubt, all the better for the addition.

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Spud Sunday: Spuds On The Menu

For some reason, it was the cause of much mirth amongst my work colleagues when I mentioned that, as part of my general spud research, I was meeting the president of the Irish Potato Federation for lunch (an organisation of wholesalers, importers and exporters of potatoes and whose members together handle around 75% of the potato trade in Ireland).

I suspect that the sniggerati’s mental image of two potato heads lunching may have had a certain cartoonish quality to it. I had to laugh myself, really. What was once a vegetable is now a vocation – I have become The Daily Spud and this is the kind of thing I do.

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Spud Sunday: A Resolutionary Soup

Ah yes, it’s that time of year where we resolve to swap the excesses of Christmas eating for regimes that are altogether more virtuous. Quite how many of us manage to stick to those resolutions for any length of time is another matter entirely (and far be it from me to judge – I have left a trail of failed resolutions in my wake over the years).

Still, I can do my little bit and, this year, it starts with this white winter vegetable soup.

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Spud Sunday: Another Spud Year

Gosh, is that the time?

Time, that is, for the old year to pass the baton to a sprightly new successor, but not before a last backward glance at the year that was and, with it, my top ten picks from The Daily Spud files. Suffice to say that if the year to come is even half as good, it’ll be a very good year indeed.

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Spud Sunday: Christmas Spuds

“Remind me to make the trifle later,” says Ma.

There’s little chance that I’ll forget. It being Christmas Day, this is no mere trifle (though mère trifle, on the other hand, it most certainly is). It will add to the already too much food that will be prepared for today’s family gathering, and Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a heaving, over-stuffed table.

As I’m writing this, the conversation in the kitchen has turned to turkey prep and Ma is consulting with Darina Allen, or one of her cookbooks, at least.

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Spud Sunday: Frosty The Roastie

You’d think, having published my 12-step roastie program two years ago, followed by last year’s investigation of the best spud for the roastie job, that when this Christmas rolled around, I’d really have no more to say on the subject of roast potatoes for the big day. I might even have thought as much myself but, as it turns out, both you and I were wrong. I realised as much last Monday morning, as I was listening to the John Murray Show on RTE Radio One.

Brenda Costigan, longtime cookery writer, was a guest on the show and some listeners has asked for her tips on roast potatoes, as you do at this time of year. What followed was something I certainly didn’t expect, because she suggested that you could prepare your roasties ahead of time and freeze them.

The idea fairly stopped me in my tracks, because I’ve just never thought that a spell in the freezer did a cooked potato any favours. I somehow imagined that roasting a spud that had been previously frozen was a recipe for sogginess, but there was only one way to be sure – a taste-off between potatoes cooked, frozen and roasted the Brenda way and my own freshly prepared version. I donned my roastie lab coat and went, once again, into investigative action.

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