Fight cramps & thirst with potassium

The other day I told my friend Cozette (who is a nurse) that I’ve been craving mashed potatoes and she immediately said, “Potassium. Your body needs potassium.”Which was an amazing thing for her to say because I’ve been taking potassium pills lately because in fact I know I need potassium.It had never occurred to me that potatoes were full of this essential mineral, or in fact any minerals at all. I mostly think of potatoes as a vessel for butter, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper. But a quick Internet search revealed that in fact potatoes are a really potent, edible source of potassium. Are you wondering right about now if you, too, are deficient in potassium? I actually often confuse the signs of potassium deficiency with iron deficiency (clearly, I’m eating too much unhealthy food lately and not getting enough of any essential nutrients).But enough about me, what about you? If you have a lot of cramping in your legs or feet, that’s usually the first sign that you aren’t getting enough potassium. Other signs include heart palpitations, dizziness, abdominal cramps and muscles that are stiff, achy or tender. Potassium deficiency is also supposed to cause both frequent urination and (because of it) extreme thirst. A lot of those symptoms can be confused with a lot of other causes; probably the best thing to do is take a multivitamin. But there’s nothing wrong with eating foods that have a lot of minerals and nutrients and vitamins, of course. I always think of bananas as the best source of potassium, but they’re actually not even on the top 10 list of potassium providers on the WH Foods website (www.whfoods.com). Swiss chard is at the top of the list but the other nine foods beneath it are mostly starchy foods (which is odd because of course Swiss chard is not starchy at all). If you’re the kind of person who thinks succotash is a food worth eating, and not just a cartoon character oath (“Sufferin’ succotash!”as Sylvester the Cat used to say), then you’re in luck because lima beans come in at number two on top sources of potassium. Number three is potatoes, number four is yams (which are not potatoes). After that, in order, are soybeans (yummy when eaten as the Japanese salty snack called edamame), spinach (OK, not a starchy food), papaya, pinto beans, lentils and kidney beans. The U.S. Department of Agriculture published a list of top sources of potassium in 2005 that’s still posted online. They put sweet potatoes at the top of their list and also have odd stuff such as canned tomato paste, clams, yogurt, white beans, beet greens and a variety of fish (mostly thick-fleshed whitefish such as cod and halibut). Bananas are number 21 on the list. So, perhaps an ideal potassium dinner might be halibut on a bed of scalloped potatoes with a side of Swiss chard. My friend Dana Cowin (I know — so many friends in this article) is editor of Food & Wine magazine, which recently published a book called “Food & Wine: America’s Greatest Cooks.” It has a nice recipe for spring halibut cooked “en papillotte,” or steamed in a little package made of parchment paper. I’m adapting it a little bit so that instead of chives and ramps, this recipe uses Swiss chard and lemon slices and the seeded tops of garlic plants (which you can find around here lately if you’re lucky enough to know someone who grows garlic). Make some mashed potatoes on the side; or slice some potatoes thin and roast them on a foil-lined baking tray for about 15 minutes. You can roast them in the 500-degree oven beside the fish packets; put the potatoes in about 5 minutes before you put the fish in the oven. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn. Halibut papillotes with Swiss chard,adapted from a recipe by Julianne Jones and Didier Murat in “Food & Wine: America’s Greatest Cooks” Serves four1 1/2 pounds skinless halibut filet, cut into 2-inch pieces, a big handful of Swiss chard, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces (including stems), 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, two lemons sliced very thin into 16 slices, four (or eight if you’re lucky) seed pods from garlic or eight small cloves of garlic, coarse salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.Preheat the oven to 500 degrees. Line a large baking tray (one with sides, in case any juice escapes from the packets) with a sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil. In a medium bowl, toss the halibut and chard with the olive oil and salt and pepper. Cut four 14-inch-long sheets of parchment paper and lay one on the baking sheet. Lay the fish on the bottom, layer lemon slices on top of it, then add a handful of chard on the top. Fold the edges of the paper in, so that you end up with a sealed pouch. Push to the edge of the baking tray and repeat with the other three sheets of paper and the remaining ingredients. Bake for about 10 minutes. The parcels should puff slightly. You can open one (watch out for escaping steam) and gently prod the center of one fish filet; it should be moist but cooked.