On Wed, 18 Apr 2018 03:30:32 -0000 (UTC), Wayne Boatwright
> wrote:

>On Tue 17 Apr 2018 05:44:50p, jmcquown told us...
>
>> On 4/17/2018 4:12 PM, Victor Sack wrote:
>>> The Humble Potato Is Exalted in the Mountains of Peru
>>> By MADHUR JAFFREY
>>> The New York Times
>>>
>>> Chahuaytire, Peru -- Gumercinda Quispe is a descendant of
>>> Peruvian Incas and here, high in the Andes, more than 12,500 feet
>>> above sea level, she has prepared a nourishing, spicy potato
>>> soup, quacha chuño.
>>>
>> Thank you, Victor, for posting something other than the automated
>> Rec.Food.Cooking FAQ links.
>>
>> Jill <---loves potatoes, never been to Peru
>>
>>> She has made it with both fresh potatoes and chuño, the dried,
>>> hard white potatoes that are still prepared just a stone's throw
>>> away. The ancient preservation process includes soaking them in
>>> an icy stream, stomping them by foot to remove the skins and
>>> drying them in the sun.
>>>
>>> I love potatoes. They are not a staple in my native India, as
>>> they are in Peru. In India, they are a beloved, cheap treat.
>>> Cooked in thousands of different ways, almost always creatively
>>> burnished with selective spoonfuls from a treasure chest of
>>> seasonings and spices, potatoes are served in every town and
>>> village at mealtimes and as chutney-augmented street snacks. I
>>> wanted to learn more about potatoes here in the land of their
>>> birth.
>>>
>>> In the little mountain village of Chahuaytire near the town of
>>> Pisac in southern Peru, Ms. Quispe and I sat down at a table
>>> close to the warm, sooty hearth in the rustic restaurant where
>>> she works. The sun was shining bright outside, and the sky was a
>>> clear, cold blue.
>>>
>>> "Put some sauce in the soup and drink from the bowl," she said,
>>> motioning to the verdant uchucuta sauce she had prepared. "Uchu"
>>> means "chiles" in the Quechua language of the Incas, and "cuta"
>>> means "ground."
>>>
>>> The sauce, a mouth-smackingly good fresh chutney to this Indian,
>>> is not just hot from one of the dozens of chiles native to Peru,
>>> but sour from limes that came with the Spaniards, and deeply
>>> aromatic from huacatay and other wild herbs that grow in the
>>> mountains.
>>>
>>> There was a time when Incas used only wild Peruvian herbs, but
>>> today, after centuries of Spanish influence, they go to the
>>> market and buy an asnapa, a bouquet of herbs that could include
>>> the New World huacatay but also gifts from the Old World like
>>> cilantro, mint, oregano, parsley and tarragon.
>>>
>>> Potatoes come in every texture and color. You can see them in the
>>> markets: reds, blues, purples, yellows and pinks, sometimes
>>> ringed with two colors when sliced open. The texture of some
>>> varieties can be changed by putting them out in the sun for a few
>>> days before cooking them. This turns them softer and silkier.
>>>
>>> Some are shaped like a puma's paw; others, an alpaca's nose or a
>>> cat's claw. Native to the Andes in Peru and northwest Bolivia,
>>> potatoes were domesticated more than 10,000 years ago. And yet
>>> new varieties are being discovered all the time.
>>>
>>> Potato banks -- like the one in the Pisac region of the Andes
>>> that stores seeds in a climate-controlled vault for 1,300
>>> varieties of potatoes -- are always searching for new varieties,
>>> as are dozens of creative Peruvian chefs on the lookout for wild
>>> and unusual indigenous ingredients.
>>>
>>> Freeze-drying the potato for chuño was just one method used to
>>> increase its life after harvest. Running or walking was the chief
>>> mode of transportation for most ancient Andean peoples (certainly
>>> the Incas); they could easily carry dried potatoes with them and
>>> make a quick stew with local herbs, chiles and water from a
>>> mountain stream whenever hunger called.
>>>
>>> Dried potatoes in Peru come in many forms. They can look like
>>> pebbles -- hard and smooth, in white or purple. They can look
>>> like large gravel, with different colors. But they can also be
>>> soft, tasting and smelling as funky as fermented bean curd or
>>> ripe cheese. Each has a different flavor and texture.
>>>
>>> The Inca guide who traveled with me through the Andes still hikes
>>> carrying dried potatoes (sometimes in a powdered form) and llama
>>> jerky, essential ingredients for a soup he considers a part of
>>> his cultural inheritance.
>>>
>>> Potatoes were given superb treatment wherever I traveled. At the
>>> Sumaq Hotel in the town of Aguas Calientes, there was pastel de
>>> papa, a meltingly soft potato cake with layers of thin-sliced
>>> potato, bacon and cheese.
>>>
>>> Papa a la Huancaina, which originated in the town of Huancayo in
>>> the central highlands and is considered by many to be Peru's
>>> national dish, was everywhere, including the cafeteria at Machu
>>> Picchu. Boiled, sliced potatoes and boiled, sliced eggs were
>>> placed on top of lettuce leaves with some olives strewn about,
>>> and dressed with a Huancaina sauce that brought the dish
>>> together. Its main ingredient was the long, aromatic orange
>>> chile, aji amarillo.
>>>
>>> Perhaps my favorite dish of all was causa. Like lasagnas, causas
>>> are layered terrinelike dishes, generally served cold, though
>>> room temperature can also work for some of them.
>>>
>>> Instead of pasta, potatoes -- mashed and seasoned with an aji
>>> amarillo paste, lime juice, olive oil and salt -- are the most
>>> important element in a causa. They can provide one, two or even
>>> three of the layers in the dish. The other in-between layers
>>> could include seafood salad, vegetable salad, chicken salad or,
>>> as in the Amazon region, pork-and-onion salad made with the
>>> addition of the fiery, round charapita chile.
>>>
>>> Whichever way it is served, causa is always soothing -- and
>>> refreshingly delicious. For the hotter regions of Peru, it is
>>> just as cooling and satisfying as that warming soup is in the
>>> Andean mountains.
>>>
>>
>>
>
>I've never met a potato I didn't like, although I've had some pretty
>dreadful potato salads. :-)
>
>I rather like what was described herein.

And now I have to climb all the way back up!