One Potato, Two Potato [Hardcover]

Roy Finamore (Author), Molly Stevens (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 18, 2001

Everyone loves potatoes. This book transports cooks beyond the usual side dishes and introduces them to the secrets and specialties of great chefs and cooks the world over. Finamore shows how to prepare spectacularly simple appetizers, including dips, chips, and showstopping cocktail potatoes made from a few ordinary ingredients. He presents dozens of soups and salads, including rich Summer Vichyssoise and Herb Garden Potato Salad. There are more than fifty main-dish possibilities, such as Sunday Lamb with Proper Roast Potatoes and Chicken Stuffed with Potatoes and Shiitake Mushrooms — not to mention a sophisticated rendition of Shepherd’s Pie. The potato turns up as the hidden ingredient in such breads as Potato Cheddar Bread with Chives and in such desserts as moist Farmhouse Chocolate Cake. Finamore shows how to master crisp steak fries, silky mashes, and sumptuous gratins. A bonus feature of the book is the sweet potato, in dishes from a delightfully nostalgic Baked Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallow to an urbane Semifreddo with Chocolate Sauce.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

One Potato Two Potato excels in the breadth and richness of its recipes, as well as its fine and immensely readable attention to its subject. Precise yet relaxed, it offers over 300 potato dishes--simple to elegant, everyday to special occasion. You'll find appetizers like Potato Porcini Frittata; main dishes and sides, such as Young Chicken Stuffed with Potatoes and Shiitakes, and Potato, Leek, and Bacon Pan Fry; even breads and desserts, like Potato-Cheddar Bread with Chives and the irresistible Farmhouse Chocolate Cake (potatoes in the batter help ensure moistness).

The book also "discovers" sweet potatoes, offering recipes for this oft-neglected treat that not only include stellar versions of standbys like Baked Sweet Potatoes with Marshmallows, but also Orange Semifreddo and a luscious chocolate sauce. Readers will also find formulas for such international specialties as Samosas Filled with Potatoes and Peas; Columbian Potato and Chicken Stew; and Surbiic, delicate French potato croquettes. With a detailed, up-to-date investigation of available potato types (sensibly approached in terms of starch content) and with color photos throughout, One Potato Two Potato is a definitive exploration of one of nature's most humble yet most delicious foods. --Arthur Boehm

From Publishers Weekly

If there were any doubt an ingredient as basic as the potato could result in exciting cooking, this tribute to the humble spud should dispel it. Cookbook editor Finamore and Fine Cooking magazine's Stevens have paired up to produce an impressive, wide-ranging potato Bible which covers everything one could hope to know about Solanum Tuberosum. The authors do a heroic job of categorizing the thousands of potato varieties, from waxy vs. starchy to news, blues, yellows and sweets. The 300-plus recipes are organized by different cooking techniques soups, gratins, baked, roasted, fried (29 recipes for mashed alone!); each begins with a brisk run-through of potato science and chemistry. Ambitious home cooks will delight in fussy offerings like "Venison and Potato Stew Cooked in a Pumpkin" and the infamously tricky Pommes Souffl‚s (aptly subtitled "Heartbreak Disguised as a Potato"). But even simple recipes (Basic Mashed Potatoes, Classic French Fries) have been carefully tested and scaled to yield consistent results. Traditional potato recipes from around the world Vichyssoise, pierogi, samosas, shepherd's pie, red flannel hash, gnocchi, and latkes all make an appearance. The authors have also secured recipes for signature dishes by such celebrities as Martha Stewart, Tom Colicchio, Julie Sahni and Diana Kennedy. Although this is not the first potato cookbook on the market, it is certainly the most comprehensive; written with heart and humor and as versatile as the potato itself, this delightful volume should be at home on almost any cook's bookshelf.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 608 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Edition edition (October 18, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618007148
• ISBN-13: 978-0618007141
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.5 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #53,146 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #2 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Vegetables & Vegetarian > Potatoes
  • #55 in Books > Cookbooks, Food & Wine > Vegetables & Vegetarian > Vegetables

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not just for spud lovers, December 15, 2001

By 

M. J. Walters "dargelos" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: One Potato, Two Potato (Hardcover)

I suspect that the die-hard potato lovers of the world will take this book to heart. I hope the not-so-committed will also want to pick it up because it contains a wealth of fantastic recipes which show just how versatile the potato (in all its incarnations) really is.

How difficult are the recipes? They vary, but I can tell you that you can get some spectacular results even with some of the easiest. The Gratin Dauphinoise, for example, is a simple dish of sliced potatoes, cream, milk and cheese, but the look and taste of it suggests that it took you hours to prepare. And there really is nothing quite so good as cold gratin the morning after.

Unless you're a potato fanatic, I don't know that you'll use the majority of the recipes here, but I do think that unless you hate potatoes (In which case why even read this review?) you'll find at least a few new recipes that you and your family really enjoy. Give it a try.

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spud lovers, rejoice!, November 12, 2001

By 

Lynn Harnett (Marathon, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One Potato, Two Potato (Hardcover)

Well organized, practical and very comprehensive, this paean to the lowly spud, by cookbook editor Roy Finamore and "Fine Cooking" contributing editor Molly Stevens, balances elegant and simple, fussy and fast, unusual and traditional. Prefacing the 300 recipes, a concise introduction explains waxy, starchy and "all-purpose" potatoes and provides advice on cooking, storing, and handling.

From appetizers (skins, crab puffs, potato porcini fritatta) to desserts (sweet potato chocolate cake, potato doughnuts) the recipes are invitingly clear. There's a chapter for every course and separate chapters for mashed (basic, French with cheese, sweet potatoes with balsamic), fried, baked and roasted, gratins and scalloped, braised and boiled. Salads include grilled, roasted, Sicilian, German, Nicoise and lobster as well as Mom's; there are three versions of Vichyssoise and a fancy soup made with grated potatoes and tiny meatballs. Eclectic main dishes range from the homey (shepherd's pie, Hungarian potato stew) to company elegance (sweet potato ravioli with chive butter, red snapper with potato crust, venison and potato stew cooked in a pumpkin). From last minute suppers to major productions, this is a book that should get lots of use.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Colcannon, Pierogies, Vichysoisse, and Samosas oh my, February 3, 2004

By 

B. Marold "Bruce W. Marold" (Bethlehem, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: One Potato, Two Potato (Hardcover)

If this is the kind of book an editor of other food writers can give us, then I wish more of these largely invisible literary yeomen would take up the pen to do their own material more often. This is an excellent example of my favorite kind of book. It deals exclusively with recipes based on a single main ingredient. This makes it the book to go to when you have that last pound of spuds in a ten pound bag or you need some starch recipe to round out a meal and you can't face another rice dish, or you just want to do something a little different for mashed potatoes. Therefore, I am always inclined to give a good rating to this kind of book as long as the authors don't drop the ball between the kitchen and the word processor. These authors, Roy Finamore and Molly Stevens, have kept a firm grasp on the ball throughout the game.

It is not entirely true that the book deals exclusively with recipes containing potatoes, as it also contains recipes for sauces, dips, and fillings for potatoes. One way or another, every recipe supports a course with a potato dish.

The book is divided up into chapters which suit it's star player and the list of chapter titles shows just how versatile our little spud can be. The chapters are:

Appetizers and First Courses with roasted and dressed potato skins with appropriate fillings, dips, spreads, and sauces. It also includes the famous Spanish tapas called tortillas plus potato stuffed pastries such as knishes, samosas, and pierogies.

Soups with all the usual potato and leek soups and recipes for various stocks. It also contains several chowders and potato soups with other root vegetables.

Salads include just about every kind of potato salad you can dream of. As one of my favorite types of spud dishes, salads are one of the things potatoes do well which simply can't be matched by it's starchy competitor, rice.

Main Dishes includes potatoes joined up with some form of protein. Some dishes are famous such as corned beef hash and shepherd's pie and gnocchi. Some dishes are obscure, but no less interesting.

Mashed Potatoes contains 29 recipes for mashed white and sweet potatoes, but other chapters include additional recipes for mashed potatoes such as Colcannon, which is listed under baked and roasted recipes.

Fried Potatoes gives another host of recipes, which cannot be matched by rice. All the favorites such as French Fries, Home Fries, Hash Browns, Potato Pancakes, and potato chips are here.

Baked and Roasted Potatoes contains all the usual classics for both white and sweet potatoes, including oven fries, pommes Anna, candied sweet potatoes, and roasted potatoes with other root vegetables.

Gratins and Scalloped Potatoes is another of my favorite spud styles. This is one of the few corners of the book where I find a recipe missing. There is nothing similar to the Sicilian potato gratin made with chicken stock and olive oil rather than with cream.

Boiled Potatoes includes a lot of sauces to `kick up' the bland boiled spuds and includes German Potato Dumplings.

Breads and Rolls includes the famous use of potato in foccacia plus all sorts of breads where the gluten free potato starch makes the breads more tender.

Desserts is a rather short chapter wherein potatoes are primarily used as a starch addition to pastry doughs.

As suggested by some of the contents above, the book covers both white and sweet `potatoes' even though the two plants are not closely related biologically. They are closely related in their culinary applications, since you can do to a sweet potato almost everything you can do to a russet.

It should be no surprise that the book deals with the three main types of potatoes in great detail and is very careful to specify which type of potato is best with each dish.

The chatter in the headnotes and introductory sections to each chapter are engagingly written. They are informative without being cluttered with gushing emotions about beautiful vegetables. These are spuds after all. One of my favorite sidebar sections discusses the `Art and Craft of Tourner', a nearly forgotten technique which rounds the `sharp' edges and corners of sliced potatoes to create shapes which will cook more evenly. Burning the edges of potatoes just once when you roast sliced potatoes is enough to convince you that this synonym for tedium may just have a point.

The photographs are few, but of very good quality. As I would expect from a house like Houghton Mifflen, the simple, straightforward layout and fonts are very easy on the eyes.

This is not a classic and will probably go out of print in five years, which is all the more reason to get your copy now. A worthy addition to the library of anyone who cooks often and needs good sources of variety in inexpensive ingredients. Good recipes which are cheap. That's a winner.