Dutch Style and Baked Potatoes

The potatoes originated from the Andes of South America. Western man did not discover the potato until around 1533 and they did not find their way to Europe until around 1570.

At first potatoes were not very popular and people resisted eating it for a number of reasons. These reason included resistant to changing eating habits, its reputation as a food for the poor and its relationship to nightshade plants which are poisonous. You cannot eat the leaves and stems and if you leave the potatoes out in the sun they produce solanine. I grew up eating potatoes that had green parts and I am still here but I remember having a lot of stomach aches which could have been caused by eating too many partly green of potatoes. I now avoid using any potatoes with green parts.

Later the potato became acceptable all over Europe, especially the Irish, when it became a major part of their diet and this dependency on the potato later lead to a disastrous famine when they had a crop failure because of the blight disease and had no other crop in enough quantity to substitute. Now they have developed a fungicide and resistance plants.

The potato is now a major food world wide when just about every country having its original recipe because it is a healthy food and easy to grow.

The following recipe is a very easy Dutch recipe and easy for the most part a recipe use all over the world using different spices.

Dutch Potatoes
Ingredients:
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tablespoon butter
3 medium potatoes, cubed
2 tablespoons chopped parsley

Chop onion and cook in butter until just tender. Add potatoes and parsley. Season and cover with water. Cook until tender.

Baked Potatoes4 potatoes (about 8 ounces each)

Heat oven to 425ºF. Pierce each potato in several places to allow steam to escape. Place potato on oven rack or baking sheet. Bake 40 to 55 minutes or until tender when pierced with a fork. (The number of potatoes being baked does not affect baking time.)