My granny used to tell me to peel potatoes thinly as there was a layer of protein just under the skin. I know this to be true as I later tested it in the lab during my A-level biology course using a reagent which turned reddish-brown in the presence of protein. I don't know how my granny found out. She certainly didn't study biology. I don't think she went to school much at all. But then it's not just at school you learn things. In fact I've spent a lot of my adult life finding out that many of the things I was taught at school aren't true.
Bearing the fact about the protein in mind, new potatoes are probably a better deal, nutritionally speaking, than old ones, because you don't have to peel them but if you choose to, you can scrape off the skin without loosing any of the other stuff. New potatoes taste better than old potatoes too.
When I was a kid I used to pick potatoes on a farm near my house for pocket money. We followed the tractor which dug the potatoes up and we put them into baskets. We were told to collect only the fairly big ones and leave the really small ones, but at the end of the day we could scour the fields and collect the small potatoes to take home. This usually resulted in a potato fight between the lads from different villages. Getting hit on the ear by a potato - even a very small one - is very painful and occasionally serious fights would break out. At home my mother made me clean the potatoes myself because they were so small but it wasn't really hard work. They just needed a rinse under the tap and maybe a little scrub here and there with a nylon brush and they were ready to cook. It was also a good way of getting the dirt out from under my fingernails. Mum would boil the potatoes and serve them whole with melted butter. They were delicious. After a day in the fields I could eat a mountain of potatoes and still have seconds.
Nowadays, whenever I see the first new potatoes of the year, I immediately buy some and the smell of them cooking always takes me back to my childhood. I've learned a few more new potato recipes since then, but the simplest are still the best. This salad takes as long to prepare as the potatoes take to cook and it can be served warm or cold. For a picnic it can be prepared the day before and kept in the fridge.
Ingredients
1 kg of small new potatoes
A few spring onions or chives
A few sprigs each of dill, parsley and mint
1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
Salt
Wash the potatoes and leave the skins on or scrape them off with a knife blade held at a right angle to the potato. Boil the potatoes gently in salted water until they are soft enough to stick a fork into with ease. Drain and rinse in cold water.
Chop the herbs finely and mix with the potatoes and oil.