One potato , two .sx .. In praise of the potato - Linda Fraser takes a look at one of our most popular and versatile vegetables .sx If flavour is what you are after , choose potatoes that are sold loose and unwashed .sx Bags of washed potatoes are fine if you want convenience , but they do seem to lose some of their taste along with the soil .sx Varieties There are many excellent potato varieties , each with a slightly different taste and texture .sx New potatoes and some of the other waxy salad varieties are seasonal , but most of the old potatoes are available from store throughout the year .sx If you want a floury potato for boiling and mashing , choose Kind Edward , Arran Chief , Kerr's Pink or Maris Piper , which with Golden Wonder , Desir e e and Redskin , are also best for baking , roasting and saut e eing .sx Waxy varieties such as new potatoes and the unusual Pink Fir Apple , Charlotte and Cornichon are ideal for slicing or using cold in salads .sx For frying , choose the Croft , Maris Piper or Majestic varieties .sx Store potatoes at home in a cool , dark place - old potatoes tend to keep well while new potatoes are best bought in small quantities .sx Cooking Potatoes can be cooked in an amazing number of ways , not least as the ubiquitous chip .sx They can be baked whole ; sliced or diced and added to soups and casseroles ; mashed and used as a topping for fish or meat pies ; and steamed , fried or boiled .sx They are delicious on their own or flavoured with herbs , onion , garlic or spices - both nutmeg and cumin go particularly well with potato .sx Potatoes are delicious with eggs ( see page 24 for Antonio Carluccio's Spanish tortilla ) , cheese and nuts , and they complement other vegetables - with leeks in soup , mashed with turnips , or fried with cabbage for a good old bubble-and-squeak .sx Many of our traditional recipes depend on them - such as Irish stew , shepherd's pie , pan haggerty and stovies - as well as potato scones and cakes .sx In fact , far too many recipes to mention , so here follows sic !sx some very basic methods of cooking .sx Saut e eing Saut e ed potatoes are best boiled in their skins for about 15 minutes , then sliced thickly .sx Fry in a mixture of sunflower oil and butter until golden brown .sx Drain and sprinkle with salt .sx Or fry sliced onion and garlic , lift out with a draining spoon while you cook the potatoes , then return them and mix together .sx Roasting Cut potatoes into large chunks and place in a pan of cold , salted water .sx Bring to the boil and boil for 10 minutes .sx Drain well , then shake the pan so as to roughen the outsides .sx Heat three tablespoons of oil in a roasting tray in the oven at 200C/425F/Gas 7 .sx Add the potatoes ( and some chopped fresh herbs or garlic , if you like ) and roast for 40-50 minutes , turning occasionally until they have turned crispy and golden .sx If you are cooking a roast , place the meat on a rack over the potatoes so the cooking juices can drip over them below .sx Mashing Boil potatoes until soft , then mash , beat in a little butter or olive oil and pepper or add a spoonful or two of cream , if you like .sx Serve piles of mashed potato in crispy , golden stacks .sx Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7 .sx Beat in an egg , spoon into rough heaps on a greased baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes .sx Baking Microwave potatoes ( if you need them fast ) for 5-7 minutes each depending on size .sx Prick them well all over and wrap in kitchen paper ( see November issue ) or preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5 .sx Scrub the potatoes well and bake on a rack for about an hour .sx Cut a cross in the top and add a knob of butter or a dollop of soured cream .sx New potatoes .sx New potatoes are perhaps at their best steamed in a basket over boiling water , or simply boiled .sx Cook in boiling water ( old potatoes go into cold ) until tender , then drain and toss in butter and chopped fresh mint , or add olive oil and shredded fresh basil .sx British crops of potatoes that are produced and marketed specifically for salads are all but finished now .sx Look for out-of-season new potatoes - Maris Peer or Maris Bard , for instance , make excellent salads .sx Serve warm , tossed in French dressing or a light mayonnaise .sx Anna potatoes .sx If you have more time for preparation , try Anna potatoes .sx For four , thinly slice about 750g/ 1 1/2lb waxy potatoes .sx There's no need to peel them and they are easily sliced if you have a processor , or use a mandolin ( a specially made wooden board with a sharp blade) .sx Wash the slices to remove excess starch and dry in a clean tea towel .sx Thickly butter a shallow ovenproof dish and arrange the slices in layers , dotting with more butter and sprinkling with seasoning as you go .sx Cover with buttered paper and foil and bake at 160C/325F/Gas 3 for 1 hour .sx Or sprinkle the top with cheese or pour over a small tub of cream before cooking .sx Bitter sweet .sx Bitter oranges are usually known as Seville oranges , although nowadays they come from Malaga and Sicily as well - but they are grown almost exclusively for the British marmalade market .sx Seville oranges have a very short season , arriving in the shops just after Christmas and are at their cheapest and most plentiful at the end of January .sx Their extra aromatic peel and wonderfully strong flavour makes them ideal for savoury sauces as well as orange ices , fools and custards .sx They also freeze very well , so you can use them throughout the year .sx Orange saucery .sx The classic orange sauce to serve with roast duck , Sauce Bigarade , has to be made with Seville oranges and it is very simple .sx Heat 25g/1oz butter until it turns nut brown , then stir in three tablespoons of plain flour and cook until lightly browned .sx Stir in 150ml/1/4 pint dry white wine and 450ml/3/4 pint of duck or chicken stock .sx Cook , stirring until thickened , then simmer until it has reduced slightly .sx Peel three Seville oranges and cut the peel into thin strips .sx Cook in a little boiling water for 3-5 minutes until tender .sx Squeeze the juice from the oranges into the sauce , season , add a knob of butter , a spoonful of orange liqueur and the strips of orange peel .sx Heat through gently and serve immediately .sx Marmalade To make marmalade , cook the oranges whole .sx If they are frozen , cook from frozen to preserve the natural colour .sx Put 1.5kg/3lb Seville oranges in a large preserving pan with 3.5 litres/6 pints of water and bring to the boil .sx Turn down the heat and simmer for 1 1/2-2 hours until the skin is very tender and the water has reduced .sx Lift out the oranges and leave to cool .sx Halve , remove the pips and tie them in a muslin bag with a long string which you can tie to the pan handle .sx Cut the oranges into strips or whizz in a blender or processor until chunky .sx Return the fruit to the pan of water with the bag of pips and add 2.75kg/6lb of preserving or granulated sugar that has been warmed in the oven .sx Stir until the sugar dissolves , then bring to the boil .sx Boil rapidly for about 10 minutes , then test setting point by pouring a teaspoon of the marmalade on to a chilled saucer .sx It should wrinkle when pushed with a finger - if not , boil for a few more minutes and test again .sx Turn off the heat and leave to settle for 10 minutes .sx Remove the bag of pips and pot in sterilised jars .sx Seal and label .sx brave new SPAIN .sx In a country that boasts the world's largest vineyard area , Jill Goolden admires a new generation of wine-makers .sx I bet the first things to enter your mind at the mention of Spanish wine are rough , cheap plonk and Rioja - in fact , the two extremes of the business .sx But there is a great deal more besides , as we are beginning to discover .sx Spain has a larger vineyard area than any other country in the world and it produces an awful lot of wine .sx But until recently , much of its vinous produce hadn't travelled very well ; to be blunt , apart from Rioja , it simply didn't appeal to British tastes .sx We had never really become accustomed to the typically rough-and-ready peasant plonk which has historically been the Mediterranean staple drink ; and it then emerged that the Mediterraneans were showing a declining appetite for it .sx So something had to be done ; either new markets had to be found for the gut rot wines , or the outmoded wine-making traditions had to be overturned to make room for 'new style' wines to develop - wines capable of holding their own in the international market .sx So all over the country , brows were furrowed , international know-how sought and millions of pesetas ploughed into the vineyards and wineries , and - hey presto - a host of latterday miracles have been wrought .sx Look closely at the Spanish section in your local wine shop and you will see that although Rioja still dominates , and the cheap and cheerful plonks still exist , there are all sorts of new names for you to try ; wines hailing from alternative wine - producing areas that you may only dimly recognise .sx There's an admirable , born again zeal to modern Spanish wine production .sx While working on a film for Food and Drink , I visited Navarra , north of Rioja , where they boast one of the most advanced wine research institutes in Europe .sx Navarra wines have not , in the past , made a big impression , historically having been rather nondescript .sx So Evena , the oenological research station , is looking at new grape varieties and new methods of injecting quality and local identity into the region's wines - with some success .sx I tasted some delicious grape blends , which included a fair old proportion of the fashionable Chardonnay , Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot varieties .sx But here you have the dilemma .sx If the international 'classic' grape varieties are allowed to dominate , the wines themselves lose their national identity and become similar to ( and have to compete with ) every other 'new world' wine .sx Spain has an ancient wine-making tradition and there is a reluctance to jettison it and supplant it with any anonymous international wines .sx While in Rioja , it is forbidden to plant imported grape varieties , in Navarra , they are being used to bolster the native types .sx But in Pened e s , under the aegis of the Torres family , and in Costers del Segre , which is under the Raimat name , imported grapes are used solely for 'new style' wines .sx Miguel Torres , now at the helm of the Torres company , sees Pened e s as one of the last wine-producing areas with a no-holds-barred attitude to experimentation .sx He returned from studying in France in the early '60s with a fiery desire to produce wines fit to compete with the best in the world .sx And so he imported foreign grapes , initially the Bordeaux classics , and started producing a number of thoroughly atypical , un-Spanish wines .sx In 1979 , his Gran Coronas Black Label '70 ( which is 100 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon ) won the top prize in the Paris Wine Olympics , confirming that he was on the right track .sx Following this success , he identified the perfect hillside vineyards for Sauvignon Blanc grapes ( used in Gran Vi n-tilde a Sol Castell de Fransola ) ; Chardonnay ( representing 55 per cent of Gran Vi n-tilde a Sol and 100 per cent of Milmanda ) ; Merlot ( producing the excellent Vi n-tilde a las Torres ) ; and even the tricky Pinot Noir ( which injects great flair into Vi n-tilde a Magdala) .sx Still , along with the fashionable new varieties , the best of the local grapes operate just as well , leading to Miguel Torres' claim that his wine style is purely Mediterranean , whereas he believes that Raimat's is positively Californian .sx Desert vats .sx It is a little perplexing to find that , despite the threat of a European wine lake , a multi - million scheme should have been devised to make an abandoned Spanish desert bear fruit , or more specifically , grapes .sx At Costers del Segre , 200 kilometres inland from Barcelona , a rich man invested his reputation and reversed the course of nature on the Raimat estate .sx