Thoughts on Mashed Potatoes

English: A small plate with a serving of mashed potatoes. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I made mashed potatoes twice over the Thanksgiving holiday. In one recipe, I used Yukon Gold potatoes, and in another, I used regular russet potatoes. Most recipes advise using non-waxy potatoes for mashing so they won’t get too gluey. (Waxy potatoes include the smaller red and white varieties.)

In both cases, I prepared the potatoes nearly the same way. I boiled the potatoes to cook them. The Yukon Golds were peeled and cut into large chunks for boiling. I boiled the russets whole in their jackets and removed the skins after they had cooled, as advised by the Cooks Illustrated recipe for classic mashed potatoes. When mashing, I just added butter and either milk or half-and-half, nothing else. I used an old-fashioned potato masher, not an electric beater or processor, because I don’t mind some texture and even lumps in my mashed potatoes.

It was interesting to make these two versions of mashed potatoes back-to-back, because it helped me realize once and for all that Yukon Golds are the best potatoes for mashing. They didn’t take as long to cook as the russets. They mashed easily, and the results were fairly smooth. And they tasted better.

The russets were too lumpy, even after spending a lot of time mashing and using a lot of liquid. They tasted mealier and were not as creamy as the Yukon Golds. I wasn’t nearly as happy with the results.

Pretty much every basic cookbook includes a recipe for mashed potatoes, but this is one dish where it’s best to let your instincts guide you. I start with the basic recipe in Alice Waters’ The Art of Simple Food, which is similar to this one. I don’t measure the milk and butter, but just keeping adding them while mashing until the dish tastes good to me. To amp up the flavors, I have had good luck substituting buttermilk for the milk, boiling whole garlic cloves with the potatoes and then mashing them too, and using Parmesan and olive oil in place of the butter and milk. From now on, though, I will start with the right kind of potatoes: Yukon Gold.

Tried-and-True Mashed Potatoes

I have made mashed potatoes so many times that I have pretty much memorized my recipe. And I can adapt it to whatever I have in my fridge. Mashed potatoes go with just about anything, and almost everyone loves them, so it’s a tried-and-true side dish. I’ll almost always serve them with fish, for instance, like last weekend’s crusted cod.

I usually choose Yukon Gold potatoes. They seem to make the creamiest, tastiest mash. If you haven’t discovered these all-purpose potatoes, they also make great hash browns and oven fries. Give them a try.

I won’t normally buy sour cream or buttermilk just to use them for mashed potatoes, but if I already have it for some other recipe, I find it adds a nice zing to the potatoes. When I don’t have either of those, though, cream, half-and-half or even milk works just fine.

If you want to dress your mashed potatoes up, you can stir in cooked bacon, shredded cheese, fresh herbs, a spoonful of pesto or even chopped, sauteed vegetables. If you boil peeled garlic cloves with the potatoes, you can mash them in too. But I usually just serve mine with butter and cream. They’re absolutely delicious that way.

Mashed Potatoes

Select 1 medium Yukon Gold potato per serving. This may make more than you need, but it’s better to have too much than too little. (Ideas for leftovers will be posted tomorrow.) Peel each potato and cut into rough chunks. Put in a pot, cover with water and add a few pinches of salt. Bring to a boil and let simmer until the potatoes are tender enough to be split by a fork (15-20 minutes).

Drain the cooked potatoes and return them to the pot. Per serving, add ½ tablespoon butter and 1 tablespoon cream, milk, buttermilk or sour cream (depending on what you have). So for 4 servings, you’ll need 2 tablespoons butter and ¼ cup of dairy. Mash with a potato masher or fork. Add salt and pepper to taste, and beat with a wooden spoon to the desired creaminess (or push the potatoes through a food mill if you want them absolutely free of lumps).

Potatoes & Leeks & Onions, Oh My!

So, it’s Sunday afternoon, and I have cut-up potatoes, onions and leeks moldering in my fridge. They need to be eaten or they will be tossed. So what do I do?

Make creamy potato-leek soup, of course! Other than those 3 ingredients, you only need butter and stock or water. I follow this formula for making pureed soups and vary the ingredients to suit.

With an excess of onions, it is also a good idea to caramelize some of them. To caramelize onions, slice the onion thinly. Melt some butter or heat some oil over medium-low in a nonstick pan. Add the onions, sprinkle with salt, cover and reduce the heat to low. Cook until very tender, about 15 minutes. Uncover and raise the heat to medium-low. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions turn golden-brown, another 20 minutes or so. To get a deeper brown color, sprinkle on a little sugar during the last 10 minutes of cooking. Caramelized onions keep about a week in the fridge and are good on omelets, pasta or just eaten on toast with some creamy cheese.

But I still have some odds and ends of root vegetables lurking about. A mixed root vegetable mash is the answer. Combine potatoes, carrots, celery root, leeks or whatever root vegetables are on hand and simmer until tender in just enough water to cover. Drain and add a little butter, seasoning and cream or milk. Mash with a potato masher. This makes a lovely side dish for pan-seared tuna, which is what we ate last night.

And all the root vegetables have now been properly disposed of.

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• Creamy Root Vegetable Soup (simplycooking.wordpress.com)

Pan-seared Salmon & Mashed Potatoes

I cooked a proper dinner last night. It was a simple dinner, and another one where I didn’t really need recipes, but that’s the best kind of dinner for a weeknight, I think.

The main course was salmon fillet, pan-seared in a little butter and olive oil with lemon slices and capers. This is pretty much my favorite way of cooking salmon fillet. Most of the cooking is done skin-side-down and then finished briefly on the other side. When it was done, I removed it from the pan and deglazed with a mixture of white wine and lemon juice. I spooned the reduced sauce and pan juices over the salmon to serve. This dish could have used more lemon; I was too skimpy with it.

Speaking of salmon, I see that Target has stopped selling farm-raised salmon. I imagine that many of you do not buy your fish at Target — I sure don’t — but I’m also sure that plenty of people do all their grocery shopping there, and salmon is a very popular fish. Farm-raised salmon is highly polluting, dirtying the ocean and the fish alike. Wild-caught is better, but only if done sustainably. Arctic char is a great alternative, but I never see it for sale. The truth is, it’s so confusing what fish we should and should not be eating at any one time. My reaction has been to reduce my consumption of fish altogether and to try to eat as sustainably as I can when I do choose it.

I think mashed potatoes go really well with salmon, so that’s what I made for a side dish. I used these lovely, large Yukon Gold potatoes I found at the market. I mixed the mash with sauteed mushroooms and onions, butter and a couple of spoonfuls of sour cream. It’s hard to go wrong with mashed potatoes.

Mashing Vegetables Beyond Potatoes

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Lately, I have been experimenting with mashing a wider range of vegetables than the standard potato. And why not? The baby loves mashes, even when he’s turning his nose up at vegetables in general. For adults, they are comfort food. Everyone’s happy.

What is the difference between a mash and a puree? Generally, purees are smoother, more like baby food consistency, and in our house at least, we don’t like to eat them as side dishes. I prefer to use a puree as part of another dish, such as a soup or dip. I mostly puree in the food processor so I can choose from a wider range of vegetables (such as broccoli, mushrooms and eggplant, to name a few), although I will occasionally use a finer sieve in the food mill to puree.

I always serve mashes on their own as sides. I like to leave mashes a little chunkier than purees and to enrich them with butter and cream, milk, buttermilk or sour cream — whatever I have on hand. If I am serving the mash right away, I use a potato masher to make quick work of mashing the vegetable and mixing in the additions. If I am planning to serve the mash later, I’ll use the food mill with its coarsest sieve instead, and I’ll mix in the butter and dairy when I’m reheating.

For mashed potatoes, choose the russet, white or Yukon Gold varieties. These varieties have more starch and are better suited to mashing, although I will mash large red potatoes, if that’s what I have. Other vegetables that mash well are carrots, celeriac, parsnips, peas, sweet potatoes, turnips and winter squash.

A new vegetable often benefits from being mashed with potatoes so it’s not entirely unfamiliar. Mashed potatoes and celeriac (or celery root), for instance, has a wonderful nutty flavor. The baby likes mashed vegetables like turnips and winter squash mixed with cooked apples — not a favorite of mine, but if he’ll eat it, I’ll go for it. I like to experiment with strong flavor additions to enliven a mash. Salsa, pesto or herb purees, roasted garlic and cheese are all great additions to try.

Here is the basic technique:

1. Select the vegetables you want to mash and pre-cook them. Most vegetables can be peeled, cut into chunks and  boiled until tender. You might choose to bake starchier vegetables, such as russet potatoes, sweet potatoes and winter squash.
2. If you are serving the mash immediately, transfer to a large bowl. Add ½ tbsp. butter and 1 tbsp. cream, milk, buttermilk or sour cream per serving (just eyeball it). Salt and pepper to taste.
3. Using a potato masher, mash until the vegetables are the desired consistency, the butter has melted and the cream is incorporated. Mix in any other flavorings with a rubber spatula.

If you are not serving the mash right away, omit the butter and dairy. Use a potato masher or food mill to mash the vegetables, and either freeze or store in the refrigerator. Before serving, add the butter and dairy. Reheat over low until heated through, stirring frequently.

Mashed vegetables, including potatoes, can be frozen. Usually, I freeze them without the butter and dairy, which I add when reheating. To freeze as individual servings, scoop the mash into muffin tins. Once frozen, store in ziploc freezer bags, and just remove the number of servings you need.

(S)Mashed Potatoes

I don’t think it’s much of a confession to reveal that I love mashed potatoes. Next to french fries, they’re probably my favorite side dish. I try to eat healthy and restrict my intake of both, but every now and then I need a potato infusion.

My favorite kind of mashed potatoes is a rough mash, with the skins still on and fairly chunky. Some would call these “smashed potatoes,” actually — hence, the title of this post. I have found that the best potatoes for achieving this end result are Yukon golds and the larger red potatoes. Yukons have a creamier texture, while the red potatoes make a nicer skin-on mash.

I figure on 2 medium or 3 small potatoes per person. This usually makes more than we can eat, meaning leftovers, so if you have trouble controlling your potato intake, you may want to cut down the recipe accordingly. Cover the potatoes with cold water in a large pot, salt generously and bring to a boil over high. Reduce the heat to medium, or enough to hold a steady simmer, and cook until the potatoes are easily pierced with a fork, which may take anywhere from 20 minutes for very small potatoes to 40 minutes for very large ones. Drain and let dry.

As for the mashing implement, an old-fashioned potato masher works well for me. A ricer or food mill would result in potatoes that are too creamy for my tastes. Mash until the desired chunkiness is achieved.

I have tried many additions to mashed potatoes and haven’t found many combinations I don’t like. For the fat, I use 1 tbsp. melted butter per person. Melting the butter first ensures it will combine well without a lot of excess mashing. (I am still experimenting with olive oil — results will follow). I usually add the butter first, mix it in and then add the dairy, although if I am using cheese, I may mix that with the butter before adding both to the potatoes.

I figure on 2 tbsp. of a dairy addition per person. My favorite dairy mix-ins are:

• half-and-half
• sour cream
• cream cheese
• buttermilk

Add plenty of pepper and perhaps some snipped chives, and you’re good to go. However, if you want to make mashed potatoes even more special, it’s fun to experiment. Try any of the following mixed in after adding the dairy:

• other fresh herbs
• soft cheese or Parmesan
• pesto
• salsa
• garlic: boil a couple of cloves with the potatoes and saute some more minced with the butter while it melts