How the Lowly “Pee Wee” Potato Became Kitchen King

(Gerry Furth-Sides)  You always want to know more about what you love,  and in the case of Peewee potatoes, adoration at first sight and bite for me. The history beyond the cultivated potato story as fascinating and exciting as how the American way of doing business made it popular.  The Incas basically domesticated the potentially toxic potato, then invented the first all natural processing system. Basically, once Farmers Market customers started buying the mini-potatoes, initially offered up as an experiment by growers although they had no commercial classification, sales earned them on as well as a place in market produce bins.

The well-deserved darling of dinner place needed an original name before the fingerling ratings were changed, so the name “peewee” became used to get around it.   How can you not love this story. We made a bouquet in honor of it!

And what is not to be loved about roasted petite potatoes,  their jackets so delicate they can even be kept on for cooking, delicious with any seasoning or none at all.  The rougher skin of Idahos, are perfect to me in texture and taste, that was the only part of the starchy potato I ate, more as a bed for butter, sour cream and chives.   And peewees easily adapt to refined French and Italian cuisines.

 

Mixed, adaptable Peewee are delicious roasted, boiled or baked –  almost any application – served cold in potato salad.  Raw is prohibited and unhealthy.   Slicing them in half for roasting, and used as a side dish or salad is addictive. Note: the potato salad the next day was even tastier because the flavors had seeped through.   Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins  used the Southern Italian influenced, Potatoes Fonteccio recipe in their Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook, which adds mint.  Fontecchio is a small, medieval village in the Province of L’Aquila in the Abruzzo region of Italy.

Seasonings influence the neutral-flavored Peewees, with rosemary, thyme or garlic being the most popular.  To enhance the Peewee flavor further, pairit with lemon, arugula, tomato, meats, poultry, truffle oil, and goat cheese. They are most elegant, sliced and holding creme fraiche and caviar.

As with many love affairs, I was reluctant about the initial introduction.  But when my slender potato-loving friend, who happened to be Irish, and I roasted a party platter of fingerling potatoes with salt, pepper, garlic, olive oil and rosemary, I joined in to “nibble” an entire 1/3 as the pans came out of the oven.  I was smitten ever since.

 

Though they have very much the same taste and texture, fingerling potatoes are often confused with new potatoes.  Peewees are simply a smaller fingerling variety, and are defined by their size and length, not by their color or variety.  Peewee fingerling potatoes are smooth though round or oval, measuring less than 2 centimeters in diameter, and are yellow, red or blue-purple in color.   Fingerlings are less starchy and are typically waxy and moist or dry fleshed and have a creamy, buttery taste.  Peewee potatoes are botanically classified as Solanum tuberosum, and are most often a mix of Russian Banana, Red Thumb and Purple Peruvian fingerling potatoes.

Hoorah for the peewee that packs punch with its small portion, and with less water, starch and carbs. After all a  raw potato is 79% water, 17% carbohydrates (88% is starch), and only 2% protein.  Potatoes still provide so much energy because they also are  a rich source vitamin B6 and vitamin C, providing nearly a quarter of daily value. They are also a good source of fiber. With a shorter cooking time, and a smaller size, Peewees are healthier since more nutrients are lost with the longer cooking time of a when a large potato, and potatoes are classified as having a high glycemic index (GI)

Mixed Peewee potatoes are botanically classified as Solanum tuberosum, and are typically a mix of Russian Banana, Red Thumb and Purple Peruvian fingerling potatoes, depending on availability. Peewees are the smaller version of the fingerling varieties and are defined by their size and length, not by their color or variety.

Mixed Peewee potatoes shine when roasted, boiled, and baked. They are most popular as a side dish when sliced in half and roasted. Mixed Peewee potatoes pair well with rosemary, garlic, thyme, lemon, arugula, tomato, meats, poultry, truffle oil, and goat cheese.

The Peewee influenced history. First domesticated in the region of modern-day southern Peru and northwestern Bolivia  between 8000 and 5000 BC Peru still boasts thousands of varieties.   One of the first steps in the domestication of the potato, 8,000 years ago,  was the selection of non-bitter tubers to avoid their natural compounds called glycoalkaloids, contained in many wild potato species,  While it is the plant’s way of resisting insects and diseases, they impart a bitter taste and can be toxic at high enough levels,  so selection and propagation of non-bitter type was crucial.

One intricate system to eliminate these substances that involves freeze-drying was also developed in the Andes. Bitter tubers are exposed to freezing temperatures for three or four nights. During the day in the warming sunlight, the potatoes are trampled by foot to remove moisture and potato skins. The trampled potatoes are then transferred to a stream of water to allow the bitter compounds to leach out.

The final freeze-dried product was known as chuño. It could be stored for a year or longer!  It is essentially represents the oldest known form of potato processing. Chuno was used by populations from higher altitudes to barter for products from lower elevations.

In the Altiplano, potatoes provided the principal energy source for the Inca civilization, its predecessors, and its Spanish successor.  Wild potatoes there were probably first eaten by people as early as 13,000 years ago.  Following the Spanish conquest of the Inca empire, the Spanish introduced the potato to Europe in the second half of the 16th century as part of the Columbian exchange.  European mariners introduced it to territories and ports throughout the world.