does the internet really need another how to make mashed potatoes video
probably not and in the the week leading up to American Thanksgiving my inbox is
absolutely jammed filled with videos and recipes of how to make the perfect
mashed potato and I think nobody needs another mashed potato video um everybody
knows how to make mashed potatoes pretty sure they do but some people even need a
little bit of help and the other thing is I don't think there is a perfect
mashed potato I think there's mashed potatoes the way
you like and that's the best way and so this is a mashed potato recipe that I
don't make for ourselves having mashed potatoes I'll chop up the potato I'll
gently cook it and then I'll just drain them and toss with a little bit of
butter I don't mash them I just smash them
around in the pot a little bit it's the way I like it but this is how I make
mashed potatoes when company comes over you know you've got a couple of family
members and it needs to be done a certain way so you do it for them and
you make them happy so in this a little pot I've put 1/2 cup
of milk and 1/2 cup of cream of course you could do a full cup of half-and-half
I just didn't have it I'm gonna put this on really low low heat you don't want it
to boil you just want to bring it up to temperature and I've put in a couple of
cloves of garlic and I'm gonna put some thyme in there and the idea is you just
want to steep those flavors into the milk and then we will remove the solids
before we put it into the mashed potato potato choice pretty important for
mashed potatoes there are essentially two kinds of potato and I did a job a
few years back for the Canadian potato producers I don't know that one of their
associations and we had a number chefs on set that day I was shooting and
the chefs were calling this a starchy potato and they were calling like red
potatoes or white potatoes waxy potatoes and the potato producers got really
upset and said no this is a dry potato and the other is a wet potato so
whichever way you call it you want these russets no no I shouldn't
say that I like russets I like a dry fluffy
potato when you go to put the milk in and the butter in it will absorb it all
I find that the waxy or wet potatoes they don't absorb quite as well and I'm
peeling I don't peel potatoes unless company's coming I really don't I like
the peel on even in a mashed potato even though it leaves little brown bits I
like it so I'm gonna finish peeling these and we'll move on now since I've
peeled the potatoes and I've got these great peels here I'm looking at these as
a resource for another dish so I'm gonna set them aside in a bowl and I'm gonna
tell you to come back for another video and see what fantastic dish I make with
the potato peels now the potatoes you want to cut them up in a way that
they'll all cook at the same rate I mean that's really important you don't want
something to be so cooked that they're really mushy and some you know cooked
that they're still hard so I just cut them into cubes
some people will slice them really it's up to you what do you feel comfortable
with just make them fairly consistent and right into the pot
it's time to season the pot I put a couple of things in with the potatoes
while I cook them and one of them is dry mustard powder sometimes I'll use dry
mustard powder sometimes I'll put horseradish in kind of depends what's
what's in the fridge that day what's in the cupboard that day but I put it in
now and I cook it in with the water and it cooks into the potatoes and you get
more flavor into the potato that way I think and also salt don't skimp on the
salt at this point it really is important and also the size of the pot
this pot might be too large but an early culinary instructor always told me for
boiling potatoes err on the side of a larger pot a lot of people will put it
in too small of a pot there won't be enough water it won't cook thoroughly it
won't cook evenly so the next thing is just to fill this and we use cold water
you start out with cold water and just above the level of the potatoes now
everyone's instinct mine included would be to put this on to a fast raging boil
and get it cooked as fast as possible an early culinary instructor told me not
to do that bring it to like a gentle simmer you don't want to damage the
potatoes too much you don't want to break them up in the water you don't
want them to absorb too much water because they're all jostled around in
the pot you just want to cook them without breaking them down and so you
just bring it to a gentle simmer it might take a little bit longer but I
think you'll thank me in the end I'll see you when these are cooked all
right I'm gonna say those are done turn those off and just before I drain them
we need to pick how we're going to mash these potatoes now the good old sturdy
potato masher this is what I've used most of my life this is the go-to tool
this is the one that I would use anytime I mash the potatoes I see a lot of
people and I used to have an aunt that used a hand mixer I'm going to say no to
the hand mixer for myself anyway because I find it just
makes the potatoes too gloopy don't look at the panettone this isn't the
panettone video we're talking about mashing potatoes the panettone will come
later I've seen people put it through a really sturdy strainer or you know a
mesh strainer as long as your mesh strainer is strong enough this is a
really good option for something that'll do double duty but if you've got a
relatively inexpensive cheap poorly made strainer I wouldn't do it because it'll
pull apart here at the top rim and that's not a good thing but it still is
an option and which brings us to the thing that I've resisted most in my life
and I've had several people come through who swear by this and they make mashed
potatoes as a side for another dish in a video and I have to admit the potato
ricer is amazing it's the way to go so that's what I'm
going to do today
there we go so next up is butter and you could put in Pat's of butter and mix it
in and and it'll melt as it melts in it'll melt as the warmth of the potato
melts it I like to melt my butter ahead of time and just pour it in a little bit
give it a stir pour it in a little bit and give it a stir okay so at this point
we may not need all of the milk you kind of need to look at it and judge for
yourself and taste as you go along your good idea before you put in the milk and
the cream to give the potatoes a taste and decide if you need any salt no oh
the butter is great so I put enough salt in the water it's cooked in along with
that mustard and I'm gonna put in maybe half of the milk to start with mix it in
and see if I need any more and I strain out any of the solid bits you don't want
the time pieces and the garlic to get into the potatoes so stir that in smells
amazing and how much the potatoes are going to
take depends on how start to you're dry the potatoes you started with were how
hard you boiled them how much water they absorbed so the guideline in the recipe
is just that it's just a guideline and until you come to a consistency that you
like that looks good I'm gonna get a tasting spoon I've got a
bucket a bucket of tasting spoons over here in the corner so I'm just gonna get
a clean one each time and then throw this into the dishwasher okay
hmm so for me that really is perfect
I've got milk left over I could put it in but I think that would make it too
soupy I kind of like the consistency that I've got to right now I like the
flavor I don't need to put any more salt in it I had salted enough in the water
but you could add some more if you needed to some people are gonna be
screaming where's the pepper for me I don't think it really needs it but if
you wanted to put pepper in you could put it in now and white pepper would be
perfect in this because then you would get the flavor without the the little
flecks all through it and you know I used garlic and thyme but there are so
many flavor combinations that you could put with this in order to match the
flavor to complement what other dishes you're serving it with you know garlic
and thyme works really well with almost anything but you know the sky's the
limit put in whatever you want thanks for stopping by hope to see you again
soon
you