Potato Starts From the USDA

Last year I followed a link to a USDA web site. They requested your name, address, e-mail, ect. and in return you could request seeds, bulbs or starts.

Then they requested that you collect growth information about the items that they sent you and report back to them at the end of the growing season.

They didn't have to send me the seeds!

But they did

And they sent little letters with the "germplasms".

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"It is the policy of the National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) to provide available materials in small quantities for research and education purposes, not for home gardening use. Please understand that this is a one time distribution because it is not our function to provide seed for home use gardening uses. We encourage you to save seeds for your own use. Standard easy to grow types are available from commercial sources. Within one year we will send you our standard forms asking for information about the performance of material you have received. The information you provide will help us better serve our mission."

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"It is the policy of the NPGS to provide available materials in small quantities for research, education and genetic improvement purposes, not for home gardening or personal hobby type use. The material in the US NPGS is maintained to support research. While "research" can sometimes be defined loosely, our policy is not to distribute seed to homeowners "for their veggie gardens". The reason being that government agencies are not allowed to maintain programs that would be considered competing with private industry."

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So.....they don't want to send their stuff to homeowners?

Only renters? How unfair!

Naw, I'm just being sarcastic.

I do have a hard time imagining someone (who? a scientist?) carefully tracking the growth of 10 seeds or 2 potato starts and then reporting to the government.

Of course, maybe if they have a grant......but hey! I'm saving the government money! They don't have to pay me to test and report - I'm doing it for free.

Really, if they didn't want to they didn't have to send the seeds to me.

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Another thing - they sent the potatoes to me at the end of August. I live in Minnesota, so the potatoes had to live in my fridge for 6 months. Finally, on March 1st I took them out, because they weren't getting any better looking.

I would hate to kill them and have the USDA track me down!

I cut each potato into pieces. Some were bigger, so I cut them into 3 pieces with 2 eyes on each piece. Then I let them 'cure' overnight, exposed to the air.

I carefully marked each planting square with a number, letter and sign.
Then I wrote down the information in my planting book.

Planting the starts.







Four days later - we have green shoots!

I usually plant my potato starts outside, but these little babies couldn't wait another 2 months.

It will be interesting to see how this experiment works out.

Varieties started: Fortuna - Granola - Gladstone - Ottar - Bernadette - Iris

Ponzu Shrimp Potato Balls

You might remember that I received a bottle of Ponzu sauce through the Foodbuzz taste maker's program.

I made these shrimp balls and some in a croquette shape. I forgot to take any pictures of the flattened croquette shape, which is too bad, because I like them better that way.

They cooked evenly in the croquette shape, so just flatten them a little bit before baking.

I started with some boiled white potatoes ( from my garden!).

As a side note: I'm still using potatoes that I harvested from my garden last Fall.

They are a little wrinkly, but still yummy.

I riced the potatoes. This was about 2 cups of riced potatoes.


Then some roasted onions and red potatoes.
And a bag of 50 frozen defrosted shrimp.
Plus a little roasted garlic paste.



Zipped up in the food processor with a *dash* of cilantro.
Don't you love my cute spoon?!?
My friend Carol gave it to me.




Then 1/2 cup of Ponzu, an egg and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese.
Add everything together and blend in the food processor.
After you have mixed everything together - made your "dough" - put it in a bowl and refrigerate over night.
The next day prepare your shrimp ball/croquette making area: one bowl with flour, one bowl with a whisked egg and one bowl with Ponzu breadcrumbs.
Take a tablespoon sized ball of dough and roll it first in the flour, next in the egg and finally in the breadcrumbs.
Continue with the rest of the dough.
Bake on a greased baking sheet and bake at 400F degrees for 10 mins or until toasted brown.

Romancing the Potato Dinner Party

I had a dinner party on Saturday for some friends.

The theme was potatoes.

In the spirit of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier I held a dinner party with potatoes in every course - even dessert!

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I'm not posting all the recipes in this post, but to see the recipes and more pictures of each dish, click on the name of the course below.

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Bouillon d’oignon served with
Puff Potato Cutouts

Rosemary Focaccia
Leaning Tower Salad with
Zesty Vinaigrette
Smashed Purple Potato Crab Croquettes with Choron Sauce
Sweet Potato Gnocchi with
Sage Butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano
Roasted Garlic Bianca Pizza on a
Crisp Parmesan Crust
And
Mint Ice Cream served in a
Chocolate Bird’s Nest

Menu

A bit more about Parmentier.

In the 1700's the French believed that potatoes were poisonous.

Parmentier was a prisoner of war in Germany, were potatoes were eaten. In fact, the king of Germany threatened to cut off the noses of peasants if they didn't plant potatoes.

When Parmentier returned to France he tried to encourage potato eating. He used publicity stunts such as hosting dinner parties where potatoes featured prominently. He also planted potatoes and then posted guards around the garden to protect the "valuable jewels" aka potatoes. Then he instructed the guards to accept all bribes and leave the garden unattended at night, so the populace could steal the potatoes.

I made place mats to protect my silk tablecloth.

I was saving this tablecloth for a very special occasion and the place mats really did their job!

There wasn't a spot on the tablecloth after dinner.

To make them I used thick card stock, each piece was 12inX12in.

I used a paper punch to add a decorative border.

My Dad helped me pull the table legs out.

Then he fell asleep underneath the table!




Me waiting for the charon sauce to cook down.
It took forever.



The start of my flower arrangement.



Almost done.

Completed flower arrangement.

Can you see all the butterflies?

I used flame less candles underneath tulle.

Completed set table.

I put a card with facts about potatoes at each place with the menu.

Facts like: The average American eats 137.9 potatoes every year.

This is my awesome friend Esmeralda.

She helped me serve - I could NOT have done it without her!

Thank you soooo much Esme!

My friends on one side of the table.

And my friends on the other side of the table.

(Including my Mom and Dad!)

The table all together.

(Sorry Dad, you got stuck in the middle!)

Me being silly with the salad.

Chocolate bird's nests with mint ice cream.

Leaning tower salad.

Soup and potato cut outs.

Rosemary foccacia.

Sweet potato gnocchi.

Crab cakes.

Charon sauce.

Bianca pizza.

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Confessions and notes:
The only thing I forgot to serve were the limes wedges I cut up to serve with the crab cakes. The weather did NOT cooperate with me. We had unseasonably high temps (30F), slush, rain, snow and ice. I was happy almost everyone was able to come to the party. I shouldn't have put so much chocolate on the bird's nests - they were a *little* hard.

I could not have done it without the help of my Mom (who kept calling herself John - see here to understand the joke). Thank you so much for letting me use your house for the party!

And for putting up with me!

Also, Thank You to Esmeralda for your super, super help! You were great!

I had a ton of fun and would love to do it again.

It was stressful (tiny bit) and time consuming, but if my friends had a nice time then, it was totally one-hundred percent worth it!

Bouillon d’oignon with Potato Cutouts

Bouillon d'oignon or onion broth. This was so delicious!

There really isn't a recipe for this.

I think it will turn out differently every time I make it, but here is how I made it this time.

First I took onions (from my garden).

Sliced the tops off of them and sliced them into flowers.
I didn't cut all the way through the root ends.
Then I placed the onions on a well greased cookie sheet and broiled the onions until they were charred on top.




Then I roasted the onions at 450F degrees, until the onions were soft and caramelized.



Then I popped the whole shebang into the food processor and whizzed the onions up.
Then I put the onions, 3 1/2 quarts water, 1 large whole carrot, 1 stick of celery, 2 bay leaves, some smoke flavor, some vegetarian "beef" bullion, a pkg of Knorr's veg. soup mix, thyme and some garlic puree.
I boiled it all gently for an hour.
Then I used a cheese cloth to strain all of the onion, ect. out of the broth.






The broth was dark and rich.

To make the potato cutouts: Take raw potato and slice it 1/2 inch thick.

With a small cookie cutter cut out shapes.

Toss with olive oil, salt, paprika and pepper.

Bake at 450F degrees for 10 mins until puffy.

Place on top of hot soup and serve.

Leaning Tower Salad

Of all the things on my menu, this item raised the most questions.

They are very simple to make, but a bit time intensive.

I think it took me an hour to make all of the salads.

Thank goodness for food processors!

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I first put 2 tsp. of zesty vinaigrette in the bottom of each glass.

Zesty vinaigrette is made by a friend of mine - Wishbone.

Then I added layers of finely chopped vegetables.

From the bottom up:

Tomato, celery, potato salad, hard boiled eggs, broccoli, carrots, red cabbage, feta cheese, red and orange peppers.

I served the salads with the crabcakes and charon sauce.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Sage Butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano

Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Sage Butter and Parmigiano-Reggiano

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Gnocchi

1 large white baking potato

1 large sweet potato

1 large egg

1/2 tsp nutmeg

salt and pepper to taste

1/3 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, plus more for serving

1 1/2 cups to 2 cups flour

Bake potatoes in the oven until tender - 450F for 45 mins to 1 hour.

Cool potatoes until you can handle them (don't let them get cold or they won't go through the ricer, if that happens just pop them into the microwave for a few seconds).

Remove the skins and force the potatoes through a ricer.

Be careful to remove all the strings in the sweet potato.

Cool potatoes completely.

Beat together egg, nutmeg, salt and pepper.

Add egg mixture to potato mixture and mix well.

Add cheese and 1 1/2 cups flour.

Mix well and add more flour until mixture forms a smooth, but slightly sticky dough.

Don't add too much flour!

Test a piece of dough to see if it holds together, before adding more flour.

In a pot, boil salted water, add test gnocchi. Cook for 2 mins. If gnocchi holds together - don't add more flour. If gnocchi falls apart - add a little flour and then retest dough.

To roll out dough: Cut dough into 6 pieces. Form pieces in to 1/2 inch thick ropes on a lightly floured surface. Gently roll dough. Use a very light touch.

Cut dough into 1/2 inch pieces.

To cook: Add to boiling salted water and cook for 2-3 mins. Remove and drain. Add to a baking dish with Sage Butter and bake at 450F degrees for 5 mins. or until bubbly.

To freeze: Lay cut gnocchi pieces on a baking sheet and freeze. Remove frozen gnocchi and store in a freezer bag. Return to freezer. Do not allow to thaw, before cooking!

Sage Butter

2 tsp. rubbed sage

1 stick of butter

1/2 tsp nutmeg

2 Tbs brown sugar

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Melt butter in a baking dish. Add sage, nutmeg and sugar. Stir. Keep warm until gnocchi are ready.

Add cooked gnocchi and bake at 450F degrees for 5 mins. or until bubbly.

Dough



Rolling out and cutting gnocchi.

Frozen gnocchi.

Cooked gnocchi.

This was all the gnocchi I had left after my party.

And I didn't get to taste them!