I’ve been thinking about mashed potatoes. We make mashed potatoes as a side dish all the time. Or should I say smashed? Does it matter? Anyway, we’re nuts about potatoes in many forms.
How do you do yours? Some people really go to a lot of trouble. Heating the milk and butter before adding it to the mash. Pressing the potatoes through a ricer or food mill. Here’s what I use…
High-tech, huh? I know, I’m lazy. Today I had one of those big, baking Russet potatoes. It was the kind that weighs about a pound and is ridiculously large to actually be serving as a baked potato. I usually use Yukon Golds. But, this guy needed to be cooked. I got the water boiling with a good bit of salt. Peeled and cut the potato into about eight big hunks and threw it in the boiling water. Boiled until soft when pierced with a fork. Drained the water out of the pot, leaving the potato hunks in the pot. Threw in half a stick of room temp butter. Salt and pepper. Put the lid back on and held it over a very low heat until it was about time to eat. Took off the lid, threw in about a third cup or so of sour cream and mashed ‘em. I didn’t say they were healthy mashed potatoes. But, they’re damn good.
That’s my classic mash. What’s yours? Boiled whole? Hub just cuts the potato up without peeling it and mashes it with the skin on. When I’m feeling really decadent, I use a fork to roughly break up the potato instead of the potato masher. Add butter, sour cream, cheddar cheese, bacon and chopped Hatch green chiles. Then just kind of cut it all into the potatoes with the fork. Leaves biggish hunks of potatoes in the mash. Throw that in a baking dish and heat.
I really do love potatoes.
I love the idea of adding the loaded mashed potatoes with the hatch chilies. Those sound really delicious. My absolute favorite way to make mashed potatoes, but not the most healthy, is Julia Child’s recipe for garlic mashed potatoes. You steep garlic in cream with butter and add warm to the mashed potatoes. I only make them for special occasion meals but they are so decadent.
I peel my potatoes first, boil in chicken broth with a little bit of salt and drain when they are fork tender. Next, I add butter, salt, pepper and half and half then go at them with a hand mixer.
The chicken broth thing sounds like a good idea. Plus, the garlic in that Julia Child recipe. I might need to work on my own recipe a little and see what I can do to knock it up a notch or two.
I like to make mine in a stand up mixer with copious amounts of butter, good salt, fresh pepper and cream. It’s simply the way it was meant to be. Smooth.
I sometimes smash, sometimes mixer…but always with butter salt and pepper, sometimes i throw in a slice of velveeta cheese or a kraft cheese single…mmmmmmmmm