Sunday, May 06, 2007

Peruvian Purple Potatoes

Photo: chez pim

Chez pim, a non-arbiter of taste, asks, 'Have you tried these beautiful purple Peruvian potatoes? They really are strikingly purple both inside and out, and the color remains even after cooking.'

Yes, Peruvian purple potatoes are really purple.

Among the first potatoes to be harvested, they were originally reserved for Andean nobility.

I came across these stunning pictures of purple Peruvian potatoes at chez pim's blog; they're also posted on her Flickr photostream.


Photo: chez pim

Just harvested Peruvian purple potatoes.


Photo: chez pim

Peruvian purple potatoes, roots and all.


Photo: chez pim

Chez pim posts a recipe for a quick
purple Peruvian potato frittata.




Meanwhile, the good folks at What We're Eating also post a Peruvian purple potato recipe: Amanda's rosemary sweet and purple Peruvian hash (which she tops off with a fried egg).

I imagine Tyler enjoys it.





Amanda's recipe is posted here.



There are many online recipes online involving Peruvian purple potatoes, including purple Peruvian potato and bell pepper low-fat salad in a cilantro and olive vinaigrette, royal purple mashed potatoes, purple hash browns, purple potato chips, and a purple potato, mushroom and Fontina gratin, among others.

Lisa Martinovic even has a poem entitled The Peruvian Purple Potato Teachings

It begins:

You don't find Peruvian purple potatoes at Safeway
much less organic ones
which is only one reason I won’t shop there
And I wasn't even looking for anything as exotic
as Peruvian purple potatoes
wandering the aisles of my
neighborhood health food store
but when I saw them
for the first time
I was no match for their alien incongruous beauty
so I brought home a lapful
set them on top of the fridge
and waited for the perfect moment
to make a meal of my exotic tubers...


You can read the entire poem here.




And I just liked the color.





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Click here for the Peru Food main page.

TAGS: Peru, Peruvian, food, cooking, cuisine, cocina, comida, gastronomía, peruana

4 comments:

Hannita said...

Loved that poem. I found purple potatoes at Trader Joe's. There was no reference to them being Peruvian - although I assumed they had to be, being so cute and all... Do we have local growers of these little gems?

::Alejandro:: said...

loved that poem too, hannita...

Anonymous said...

Actually, you *can* find them at Safeway. That's were I get mine.

Anonymous said...

Could you please tell me where we can purchase these Peruvian purple potatoes, or seeds in the U.K (Midlands area). Thank you, Jim.