The benefits of potato
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What potatoes do
What this vegetable does
By replenishing qi and helping the gut work, it is held to support recovery from tiredness and to aid digestion.
How to eat it
Steam it or simmer it into a soup, or grill it lightly and season it simply with salt.
A yakuzen note
By replenishing depleted qi and strengthening the gut, it is said to help with poor digestion and tiredness.
Potato is sweet and neutral, held to replenish qi and to be kind to the gut. It suits times when the digestion is weak, or when tiredness comes easily. Steamed or made into a soup it is easy to eat, and being neutral it asks little of the body, which makes it a yakuzen ingredient a wide range of people can bring in.
TOC
When potatoes are in season, their types, and how to choose them
If you want to enjoy what potato does, it helps to know its season, its types and how to choose it. The texture changes with the variety, floury or waxy, which gives it a wide range in cooking: a vegetable that carries the table all year.
Two seasons: new potatoes in spring and the autumn harvest
Potatoes have two seasons. From spring into early summer, around March to June, come the new potatoes grown in Kyushu and elsewhere, thin-skinned and juicy and good eaten skin and all. The other is the autumn harvest, centred on Hokkaido, which stores well and is sold from autumn through winter and on into the following spring. Hokkaido is the largest growing area in the country, with Kagoshima and Nagasaki among the others, and between the growing areas and the stored crop the supply stays steady all year.
Danshaku, May Queen and Kitaakari
Potatoes differ in texture by variety, and you can choose to suit the dish.
| Variety | What stands out |
|---|---|
| Danshaku | Floury. For croquettes, mash and potatoes shaken dry |
| May Queen | Waxy and holds its shape. For simmered dishes, curry and oden |
| Kitaakari | Yellow flesh and a strong sweetness. For steaming and for salads |
Danshaku or Kitaakari for dishes where you want that floury quality, May Queen for simmered dishes where the shape should hold: choosing by variety keeps you out of trouble. There are distinctive varieties too, such as Inca no Mezame, with a sweetness like chestnut.
How to choose them, and what to do about sprouts and green skin
When picking out good potatoes, these are the things to look for.
- A smooth, firm surface, hard and tightly closed
- No wrinkles or blemishes, with a real weight in the hand
- No sprouts showing, and no green in the skin
The sprouts of a potato, and skin that has gone green in the light, contain what makes it harsh, so remove them before cooking. Cut the sprouts out, and pare the green parts away with a thick peel, and you are on safe ground. Small new potatoes and potatoes from the garden deserve particular care in preparation.
How to eat potatoes
The floury or waxy texture of a potato sits equally well in Japanese and Western cooking. Here are the usual ways.
In nikujaga, curry and potato salad
May Queen, which holds its shape, suits simmered dishes where you want the pieces intact, such as nikujaga, curry, stew and oden. Floury Danshaku, steamed and crushed into potato salad or mash, finishes smooth. Even freshly steamed with nothing but salt or butter, the sweetness of the potato comes forward. Cooked skin and all, it works as a note of colour and texture.
In croquettes, gratin and stir-fries
Croquettes made from crushed Danshaku are a standard of home cooking. Sliced thin or cut into strips and fried with bacon as German potatoes, or topped with cheese for a gratin, they turn into something more. Grated into strips and fried as a galette, they finish crisp outside and soft within. Dried potato products are handy too, rehydrated for soups and simmered dishes, as in Dried potato, which you rehydrate, in the cupboard helps when you want one more dish.
How to keep potatoes
Potato skin goes green easily in the light, so keep them in a paper bag or a cardboard box somewhere cool and dark with air moving. An apple kept with them holds the sprouting back. New potatoes hold a lot of water and spoil easily, so use them up soon. Boiled or mashed and then frozen, they can go straight into croquettes and soup. Frozen raw the texture changes, so cook them before freezing.
Alongside this, one likewise a tuber held to replenish the Spleen, What sweet potato does and The benefits of Japanese yam as a guide when building the everyday table.
Available all year round, potato is a useful vegetable that works across nikujaga, curry, potato salad and croquettes. Floury Danshaku and shape-holding May Queen: use each variety for the job and it shows its best. Enjoy the new potatoes of spring as they come, and bring potato to the everyday table.
