Mashed potatoes (and other things)

[Tirvine]

i love potatoes of all sorts, as well as other root vegetables. The thread on polenta with that wonderful food porn shot of short ribs on polenta made my mouth water for short ribs, but I usually put mine on mashed potatoes. So this got me to thinking about the many ways folk make their mashed potatoes. You can simply mash them with the skins still on (highly recommended as a side for CFS). You can use a ricer, a food mill, or even a mixer. I like potatoes so much I'll even eat gluey ones that have been over beaten with a mixer. You can use milk, cream, butter, olive oil, sour cream, and so on, or combinations thereof. You can add garlic, horseradish, chopped chives, Boursin, and so on. You can make Robuchon potatoes, a bowl of butter with a potato accent. I have tinkered with any and all of these. However, my go to is pretty simple. Boil quartered and peeled russets in salted water, run them through a tamis (aka drum sieve), and stir in Mexican crema. How do you like to tackle this noble food?

 

[abies]

I learned on a vacation with some in-laws that people have very different opinions about how to make mashed potatoes. I knew this before but it became pretty salient then, due to the strong opinions mixed with ignorance about preferences for other styles. It just felt sort of like two planets coexisting without awareness of one another and then suddenly seeing each other through a telescope (or rather, one of the planets not being aware of the other and then suddenly seeing the other through a telescope).

My favorite way to make them is to liberally clean them, so that the skins are more worn than I might otherwise, and I'm a little more aggressive about cutting out things. This removes a good bit of the skin but not all of it. Then I mash it with a masher, and add butter, olive oil, and salt.

I've done other ways too but this is what my wife likes and my daughter has come to like too.

Some times I've thought about trying a different style of masher or a food mill, just to see what that is like, but they are happy with it and so I've not felt a big motivation to do so.

I have different preferences for different varieties at different times depending on my mood. Yukons are not my favorite but other varieties I will go back and forth between depending what I'm looking for at any given time. My favorites are German white potatoes but those are hard to find outside of farmer's markets and even then they're not always available.

 

[bonjing]

(highly recommended as a side for CFS).

CFS?

 

[Tirvine]

CFS?

Chicken fried steak

 

[Old Hippie]

Mmmm...spuds. Can't do anything to a potato that I won't like except for shovin' it up my nose.

For the last few years I've been cooking the spuds in a pressure cooker. 15 pounds for about five minutes, natural release. Moist but not waterlogged. Because I may decide to use leftover mash in other makes I tend to be pretty mainstream with them. Some butter, a bit of milk, salt, pepper and a hearty pinch or two of onion powder.

Other things I like in mashed potatoes are caraway, ground chipotle, paprika, aged cheese, and buttermilk. If using buttermilk -- particularly buttermilk that isn't pasteurized -- don't make a huge pot of potatoes. Just enough for a meal and maybe a bit left over for lunch the next day. All those lovely lactobacilli will make that mash incredibly sour if you don't eat it right up!

For potato lefse I steam potatoes in their jackets and then run the whole shebang through a grinder with a 3/16 plate on it.

I was thinking yesterday about my mother's North Dakota potato soup. I grew up on it and loved seeing it come to the table almost every single Sunday night of my early life. She'd peel and boil a few potatoes with a quartered onion, then drain and mash it all with butter and milk. Boom; done. I was about 18 when I realized there were these things called "spices" that people used to pollute their food.

O.H.

 

[OldSaw]

i love potatoes of all sorts, as well as other root vegetables. The thread on polenta with that wonderful food porn shot of short ribs on polenta made my mouth water for short ribs, but I usually put mine on mashed potatoes. So this got me to thinking about the many ways folk make their mashed potatoes. You can simply mash them with the skins still on (highly recommended as a side for CFS). You can use a ricer, a food mill, or even a mixer. I like potatoes so much I'll even eat gluey ones that have been over beaten with a mixer. You can use milk, cream, butter, olive oil, sour cream, and so on, or combinations thereof. You can add garlic, horseradish, chopped chives, Boursin, and so on. You can make Robuchon potatoes, a bowl of butter with a potato accent. I have tinkered with any and all of these. However, my go to is pretty simple. Boil quartered and peeled russets in salted water, run them through a tamis (aka drum sieve), and stir in Mexican crema. How do you like to tackle this noble food?

I just happened to make some tonight. This is my go to if not making gravy. Mashed with lots of butter and a little milk. Then topped with smoked paprika after plating.

 

[Rushman2112]

I like most types of potatoes but here we can only readily find Idaho russets, a decent all-rounder but (and this is NOT the potato's fault but the klutz who imports them) every one I buy at $1 EACH has so many bruises that baked is not an option. I have to peel them quite aggressively and I generally end up buying 3 if I only need 2 for us both - they are quite large. I found some Aussie white skinned spuds recently, they great and no waste. There was no stock today in the supermarket. Actually I might start calling it the ordinarymarket...

Oh, nearly forgot. When mashing I use a regular hand masher, plenty of butter, not quite Robuchon as butter is too expensive here, salt and white pepper for seasoning.

 

[Quaznoid]

Very simple: Peel spuds, quarter them, boil them til soft. Drain, add pat of butter and gradually pour in milk as I hand mash. Direct to table.

 

[Mojo88]

Very simple: Peel spuds, quarter them, boil them til soft. Drain, add pat of butter and gradually pour in milk as I hand mash. Direct to table.

The mashing before adding ingredients makes for a better consistency. When my wife and I were first married she would add everything in and then mix. This would lead to runny mashed potatoes and it always seemed that it was a meal when we were hosting. My dad was a cook in the Navy and showed her the method he used which involved mashing the potatoes first and slowly adding in the milk. We have never had runny potatoes since then.

 

[galopede]

I like my mashed spud lumpy with no additives. Bit of onion gravy and sorted!

Gareth

 

[blade08]

I'm Dutch and like them prepared this way. I do always leave the skin on.

And hand mashing is essential and the only way it should be done! any other way is a criminal act!