When asked about their favourite type of potato dish, 26% of participants across the UK voted for roast potatoes, but chips were a very close second with 25% of the vote.
Despite an estimated 50 million portions of roasties being consumed in the UK at Christmastime alone, are times changing and will National Chip Day soon become a calendar highlight?
Looking to create the ultimate hierarchy of spud dishes, Seasonal Spuds, an initiative backed by the UK’s leading potato producer Branston, commissioned a special YouGov survey of over 2,000 members of the public. Seasonal Spuds was rather shocked to find roasties and chips almost on a par with each other.
And equally interesting, there were also marked differences across the regions and nations. In Scotland, chips came out on top, with 28% of the vote, while roasties and mash were in joint second with 19% each.
Chips and mash were joint top in Northern Ireland with 24% of the vote each, while roasties came in third with just 16%. Roasties were top in Wales with 25%, while mash came in second with 23% and chips were one point behind.
Lucia Washbrook, Branston's sales & marketing director said: “We set out to establish the true hierarchy of potatoes, as voted for by the nation and we found some interesting results. While we thought roast potatoes would be placed highly, we didn’t expect chips to be so close behind.
"We were also intrigued and surprised by some of the geographical differences. Not only did we see variation across the nations, but there also seems to be a bit of a split across the English regions. For example, Yorkshire and Humber were split between chips and mash and the Midlands was divided with East Midlands voting roasties and West Midlands favouring chips.
“The top three definitely stood out in the voting, while jacket potatoes sat firmly in the middle tier throughout. Other potato dishes like parmentier, saute, dauphinoise and hasselbacks were ranked considerably lower. One thing that was unanimous though was the nation’s overall love of potatoes, only 2% of all people surveyed said they didn’t eat spuds at all.”
The final hierarchy as decided by the UK is:
1.
Roast potatoes - 26%
2.
Chips/ fries - 25%
3.
Mashed potatoes - 17%
4.
Jacket potatoes - 11%
5.
Dauphinoise - 6%
6.
Boiled/ steamed - 4%
7.
Potato wedges - 3%
8.
Sauté - 1%
9.
Hasselback - 1%
10.
Parmentier - 1%
For more information on Branston visit www.branston.com.
For more information on Seasonal Spuds visit https://www.seasonalspuds.com.
That's Food and Drink would also like to thank Seasonal Spuds for sending us some delicious recipes to share with our readers:-
This healthier version of loaded fries was created by Luke Willcox of the New Product Development team.
Ingredients
600g potatoes, peeled
1.5 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried thyme
1 slice back bacon
100g feta, crumbled
For the salsa
1 corn on the cob
1 tomato, seeds removed, roughly chopped
1/2 avocado, roughly chopped
Juice 1 lime
2 spring onions, finely chopped
For the yogurt dressing
90g low-fat plain yogurt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
Zest 1 lime
Method
1
Slice the potatoes into thin fries. Soak in water for 30 minutes to remove the starch, then dry thoroughly. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 200ºC / Fan 180ºC / Gas 6.
2
Toss in the olive oil and dried thyme. Spread out on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper and bake in the oven for 40 minutes, or until cooked through and golden.
3
Cook the bacon under a hot grill until crispy and set aside. Once cool, crumble into small pieces.
4
To make the salsa, cook the corn on the cob in salted boiling water for 6 minutes. Drain and dry then cook over a hot griddle for around 8 minutes, turning frequently, until starting to char.
5
Remove from the griddle and allow to cool. Use a sharp knife to slice the corn from the cob. Mix with the chopped tomatoes, avocado, spring onion and lime juice. Set aside.
6
To make the yogurt dressing, mix together all of the ingredients and pour into a serving bowl.
7
Remove the fries from the oven. Scatter over the cheese and place back in the oven for 5 minutes.
8
Remove from the oven, drizzle over some of the yogurt dressing and scatter over the salsa and the crispy bacon.
9
Serve the rest of the yogurt dressing in a bowl alongside the fries.
This recipe was also created by Luke Willcox
Ingredients
1kg Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and cut into chunky chips (approx. 2cm diameter)
Groundnut or rapeseed oil
Sea salt
Method
1
Put the cut chips into a bowl under running water for 5 minutes to remove excess starch.
2
Tip them into a pan and cover with cold water then add a good pinch of sea salt. Bring to the boil and simmer for around 15 - 20 minutes, until they’re tender.
3
Carefully remove the boiled chips and place them on a cooling rack to dry out. Then place the rack in the freezer for at least 1 hour to remove more moisture.
4
Heat a deep-fat fryer or a deep pan no more than half filled with oil (to a depth of around 10cm) to 130ºC. Fry the chips in small batches until a light crust forms (approximately 5 minutes), remove from the oil and drain on kitchen paper.
5
Put the chips on a cooling rack and place in the freezer for at least an hour.
6
Heat the oil in the deep-fat fryer or deep pan to 180ºC and fry the chips until golden brown (approximately 7 minutes). Drain and serve immediately sprinkled with salt.
7
Tip: If you don’t want to cook and serve immediately, the chips can be kept in the fridge for up to three days after step 5.
Poutine is a Canadian street food dish which is very popular in Canada.
Ingredients for poutine
500g large white potatoes (such as Maris Piper)
200g cheese curds (or buffalo mozzarella)
400ml gravy, beef or onion, either a readymade gravy or homemade.
Ingredients for homemade gravy
Leftover juices from a roast beef joint or a mixture of beef bones and 150ml water
1 onion
1 bay leaf
1 tbsp plain flour
400ml good quality beef stock
2-3 sprigs of either rosemary or thyme plus 2 sprigs of thyme to finish
Salt and pepper
Method
1
If you’re using beef bones from your butcher, put them in in 100-150ml of water. Add the chopped onion and fresh herbs to your liquid. Bring to the boil and discard the bones and over a medium heat, stir in 1 tbsp of plain flour. Keep stirring until you’ve cooked the flour out and it’s all combined with the juices. Add a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme and season. Add approximately 400ml of good quality beef stock. Keep on the heat and simmer stirring regularly until thickened up.
2
Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and preheat the oven to 220°C / Fan 200°C / Gas 7 .
3
Keeping the skin on, slice the potatoes lengthways into 1cm slices then cut into sticks (chips).
4
Cook the chips in the boiling water for 5 minutes then drain.
5
Line a large baking tray with parchment paper and spray with little a light oil spray.
6
Place the chips onto the baking tray in a single layer, season and spray all over with the light oil. Cook in the preheated oven for 25 minutes giving them a shake half-way through or until golden and crispy.
7
Make sure the gravy is at boiling temperature or piping hot.
8
Transfer the chips to a serving dish, break the cheese curds (or mozzarella) into small chunks, place them on the chips and pour over the hot gravy.