Smashed, Mashed, Boiled, and Baked--and Fried, Too!: A Celebration of Potatoes in 75 Irresistible Recipes

Holy Exuberant Cookbooks, Raghavan!

This is an exciting, explosive collection of recipes showcasing potatoes. Iyer has an obsession with potatoes, and has put that to good use here.

The book explains many different types of potatoes, and four groups into which they fall: Floury/Starchy, Waxy, New and Sweet. I learned more about potatoes than I ever intended to learn. Discover each potato type's origin and how best to use it. Determine whether a potato is floury or waxy but using a specific dunking in brine trick.

The recipes look amazing, full of flavour and exotic combinations, as well as classic recipes that will be familiar to most cooks.

Some seem incredibly complex and mouthwatering include:
"Crash Hot Potatoes with Cinnamon Malt show more Vinegar"
"Llapingachos (Ecuadorian Filled Potato Cakes with Peanut Sauce)"
"Mojito Potato-Pomegranate Salad"
"Sweet Potato Rolls with a Creamy Cointreau Glaze"

But never fear, quintessential dishes like mashed potatoes, twice baked potatoes and French fries are included. Interesting variations for potato salad and tater tots round out the middle ground between familiar and unexpected.

I am expecting poblanos in my farm share today, so I will be making Potato Stuffed Chile Rellenos. And the recipe for Pierogies has so much explanation, it should be foolproof. I will try that when the weather cools a bit.

I love the international selection of dishes and ingredients, the author's reverence for the 'common' potato, the overall vibrancy of the writing, and the exciting recipes. Rich, lush, delicious recipes!

The only let down is that every recipe does not have an accompanying photo, only about 50% have photos! It is nice to see how a dish is meant to look. Delicious photos are so tempting, and encourage you to try the recipe. Now, I have an idea of how mashed potatoes and potato salads are meant to look, but have no idea how 'Lefse' should turn out, and Pommes Anna needs some illustration to help with assembly.

Highly recommended for every home chef. The variety of recipes makes this essential for anyone who experiences an abundance of potatoes.


**eARC Netgalley** show less

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy.

Want to impress your friends with only a potato? Then this book is for you!! I like that it doesn't just contain recipes, but a load of useful information about potatoes, such as the different kinds, use, purchase, and storage. Included throughout the book are high-quality color photographs of the finished products as well as photographs of step-by-step techinques. I love that above each recipe, Iyer tells the reader which region of the world it came from. This definitely kicks the plain old potato up a notch with a ton of inventive new ways to prepare them.