Instructions
I’ve always had a keen interest in history, partly because I find it very reassuring.
Through history we come to know ourselves, and our place in the world, because it is the ‘story’ part of history that brings it to life, in the telling and the learning. The sources from which we distil history are many and varied: written, spoken, painted, archaeological, photographic and even genetic.
Sometimes the evidence is subtler, finer. Sometimes our foods and our food culture are the most powerful records we have.
Sweet potato originated in the jungles of Central America. It is a climbing vine with heart-shaped leaves that have a strong herbaceous perfume and traditional medicinal uses. But it not the leaves we have come to know, rather it is the tuberous root. Long and tapered, the root’s skin can range from orange to white, including red, yellow and purple. Its flesh is similarly varied in colour.
Sweet potatoes are a starchy vegetable that can be eaten raw or cooked. The predominant orange variety is the most versatile and the least starchy, while the white is the sweetest and the purple the most starchy. They can be boiled or steamed, but sweet potato is best roasted slowly until the flesh softens and caramelises. It can also be fried into excellent chips. Oh and by the way, sweet potato is not related to the true potato from South America, rather it is distantly related to the African yam.
You may know sweet potato better by its New Zealand name, ‘kumara’, which brings me back to history. How did this humble vegetable travel from Central America to the South-West Pacific? This food migration has played a vital role in helping historians come to understand the journeys of discovery undertaken by the ancient Polynesians. Not only did they travel east from Hawaii to discover America thousands of years before Columbus, but they later travelled west to discover and populate the Pacific Islands of Fiji, Samoa, the Solomons and New Zealand. They brought with them the foods of their land, foods that grow there still. In doing so they gave us evidence of the proud achievements of their ancestors. History really is an amazing thing.
Herb-roasted sweet potato with chicken and onions