Video: How to cook Jersey Benne new potatoes

Flavours of home is a series of recipes from around the world cooked by people at home in Otago. This week Ann Barsby, from Jersey in the Channel Islands, tells us about Jersey Benne new potatoes.

Ann Barsby was born and grew up in Jersey. The island in the English Channel is famous for its Jersey cows, fish, apples and cider, knitting (which is why we call knitted jumpers "jerseys") and early potatoes, known here as Jersey Bennes.

The five Channel Islands - Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark and Herm - are closer to France than to England. Originally part of the Dukedom of Normandy, they have been British crown dependencies since 1204, and they are fiercely independent, Mrs Barsby says.

When she was a child during World War 2, they were occupied by Nazis, and people were not allowed near the coast. Food was short because fish and seafood had been a major part of their diet, she says.

When she came to Dunedin with her English husband and family in 1971, she was delighted to find Jersey Benne potatoes grown here as they are her family spud. Her father's family, the Benests (pronounced like Benne), who had been farming there for generations, came across a blight-free strain of this early, kidney-shaped potato in the 1880s.

Jersey was famous for supplying early new potatoes to England and there they were called Jersey Royals. Potatoes were said to have been introduced to Jersey by Sir Walter Raleigh when he was governor of the island from 1600 to 1603.

In New Zealand, Jersey Bennes are valued for their wonderful flavour and there's a rush to produce the earliest.

The first ones dug each season can fetch about $10 a kg at the Otago Farmers Market, but within a few weeks the price will come down to half that or less. Some producers in North Otago, which is famous for producing them, grow them in glasshouses to be able to harvest them in October.

Mrs Barsby's favourite way to cook new season's Jersey Bennes is to scrub them, pour boiling water over them, add a little salt and cook them briefly until a knife can be inserted easily. Toss them in melted butter and sprinkle with chopped parsley.

TIPS:
> New potatoes are high in vitamin C, and most of the goodness is just under the skin, so you don't need to peel or scrape them.
> The newer the potatoes, the shorter the cooking time needed. They are sweet as the sugars have not yet turned into starch.
> In Otago people like to add a sprig of fresh mint to the potatoes while they cook.

- Thanks to Afife Harris, and Gardens New World.