Idaho’s Potato Classics by Ruth Paget
I learned to love Idaho as a young woman when I ate baked potatoes with melted butter and sour cream topped off with chives at Carl’s Chop House in Detroit, Michigan. This delectable potato came with a medium rare T-bone steak and a side salad with ranch dressing and freshly cracked pepper on top. Detroit being Texan was perfectly acceptable in the 1980s.
I finally was able to see Idaho up close and personal when my husband Laurent and I drove through it on a vacation to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks in the 2010s. Idaho is flat with lumpy soil full of delicious potatoes.
I purchased the Idaho Cookbook by Laura Sommers to learn more about this state we drove through on the way to see Old Faithful. There are many potato recipes as you would expect as well as dessert ideas for huckleberries, which also grow abundantly in Idaho.
Some of the recipes that I thought looked especially good in Sommers’ cookbook include:
-Idaho bean soup made with potatoes, onions, celery, carrots, vegetable stock, ham, and white beans
-Waldorf potato salad made with russet potatoes, cider vinegar, mayonnaise, scallions, celery stalks, apples, and chopped walnuts
-Idaho curry potato salad made with russet potatoes, golden raisins, olive oil, curry powder, yogurt, and green beans
-Idaho garden potato salad made with red potatoes, carrots, radishes, cucumbers, scallions, parsley, chives, and mayonnaise
-Duck fat steak fries that are baked after being tossed with thyme, cayenne pepper, black pepper, and melted duck fat
Cooks interested in delicious new ways to prepare potatoes can find an excellent collection in The Idaho Cookbook by Laura Sommers.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
