- [Andy] Hey folks, today we are learning to make
mashed potatoes using nothing but these strange rocks,
thanks to a sponsorship from Hidden Valley Ranch.
Like most people, I love ranch.
With Hidden Valley Ranch's Seasoning Shaker,
you can add the flavor for urban spice blend,
all sorts of dishes to make them taste great.
Naturally, the first thing that comes to my mind
is some fully loaded mashed potatoes.
Let's get down to basics.
(upbeat music)
In order to make mashed potatoes,
as you may have guessed, we're going to need some potatoes.
First, we're gonna talk types of potatoes,
followed by mashing techniques,
followed by the requisite mix-ins.
So, let's take a look at the kinds of potatoes
you're most likely to find at your local grocery.
First up, the confusingly named Red Bliss potato.
Though normally relegated to roasting,
its waxy interior, creamy texture, and thin skin
make it ideal for rustic smashed potatoes.
Even more ideal for this application, I think,
are fingerling potatoes,
by virtue of their high skin to flesh ratio.
That sounded weird.
Next up, grown right here in the good old US of A,
the pride of Idaho, the one and only Solanum tuberosum,
otherwise known as the starchy, fluffy,
big honkin' russet Burbank potato.
Its high starch content means that we have to be careful
about overmixing, otherwise we will end up
with wallpaper paste.
Lastly, perhaps the greatest all-purpose potato,
the Yukon gold.
Like ugh, Red Bliss potatoes,
these have a lower starch content
than the russet, but they're less waxy,
so, they make for a lighter, fluffier,
creamier mashed potato.
So, there you have it, your standard supermarket tubers.
Enough talking about potatoes,
let's talk about how we can best mash them up.
Let us start with the lightest and fluffiest,
but also, potentially the most finicky,
the high starch russet, which you will notice
I am peeling and chopping one at a time.
That's because the very high starch content
of this potato will start to oxidize
and turn brown rather quickly.
So immediately upon chopping, they are headed
into a pre-watered cooking vessel,
which we are going to salt and bring up to a simmer.
Starting the potatoes in cold water
helps them heat up and cook more evenly throughout,
preventing lumps down the line.
Once at a simmer,
cook the potatoes for 15 to 20 minutes,
until a paring knife inserted into a potato chunk
and twisted effortlessly cracks the cube in half.
Then we just gotta drain these guys in the sink over there,
and then in most cases, our mashing tool of choice
is not a masher at all, but rather a potato ricer,
which is sort of just like a gargantuan garlic crusher.
Why use a potato ricer?
Well, two big reasons.
First off, it evenly and lumplessly mashes potatoes.
Second, and especially importantly with russets,
it mashes potatoes less traumatically,
rupturing fewer starch cells and keeping your potatoes
light and fluffy, not gluey and stringy
as can often happen in overworked mashed potatoes.
Now let's take a turn away from the russet
and more towards the rustic with some mashed fingerlings,
which just like any potato, we are cutting
into evenly sized one-inch chunks.
Evenly-sized potatoes ensure even cooking,
and are yet another weapon in the war against lumps.
Same deal as before, we are bringing this to a boil
in some heavily salted cool water.
Once a boil is reached, cooking for 15 to 20
minutes until completely tender before draining,
and since we're making rustic mashed potatoes,
this is the one case in which I can endorse
the use of a potato masher.
Not only can the lower starch fingerling
stand up to the fury of the masher,
the rustic texture with all the skin and everything
is gonna cover up any lumps.
But what about whipped potatoes, Andy?
Well, voice in my head, whipping potatoes in almost any case
means intentionally overworking the starch.
So, if you're gonna do it, make sure you use
the lowest starch potato, the Yukon gold,
which as you can see, I'm not even immediately plunging
into cold water, because their starch content is so low,
they will discolor very slowly.
Once cut into evenly-sized one-inch chunks,
we are covering with cold water, generously salting
until the water is like the ocean or tears.
Cooking for 15 minutes or until completely tender, draining,
and then if you want to get the vibe of whipped potatoes,
I recommend still ricing them,
and then just positively loading them up
with the subject of our next chapter
of mashed potato knowledge, the mix-ins.
Once our potatoes are good and mashed,
we must add as a baseline milk and butter.
In order to prevent curdling, you ideally want to use
melted butter and refrigerator-cold milk,
but having both at room temperature will work just fine.
Do you want light, fluffy mashed potatoes?
Well, use russets and add about 1/4 cup of milk
and two tablespoons of unsalted butter per pound of potato.
Do you want smooth, creamy mashed potatoes?
Well, use Yukon golds and double that milk and butter
to potato ratio, swapping out heavy cream for the milk
if you really want to go nuts.
Do you really want whipped potatoes?
Well, try your hand at pommes aligot,
a cheesy French mashed potato
in which the starches are intentionally overworked.
Once our eight ounces of heavy cream
and four ounces of butter have been incorporated
into our two pounds of riced Yukon golds,
we're gonna slowly and in batches add about 12 ounces
of the firm aged Swiss cheese of your choice.
Once incorporated, we're gonna whip these together
using a full-sized whisk until both the cheese
and the overworked starch have made this stretchy,
like somewhere halfway between mashed potatoes and fondue,
the kind of mashed potato that you spread
across an oblong plate, topping with Wagyu beef, demi-glace,
and edible flowers.
The last bare requirement of any mashed potato
that you're making is of course, kosher salt
and freshly ground pepper to taste.
And there you have it, a bunch of formulas and ratios
for the perfect mashed potato
to suit your mashed potato needs.
But there can be only one ultimate mashed potato,
the fully loaded mashed potato.
We're starting with our russets,
butter, and heavy cream combo,
and beginning our amperage increase
with some crispy bacon, some finely minced chives,
an optional teaspoon of cayenne pepper for a little heat,
some scallions for a little scallion flavor,
and you guessed it, a few hefty shakes
from our Hidden Valley Ranch Seasoning Shaker,
but even with all that buttermilk and herb flavor,
we're not done.
About four ounces of grated cheddar
and a few generous twists of freshly ground black pepper
put the kibosh on our potato mix-ins.
At long last, it's time to plate up, but are we done?
Are we just gonna serve these as-is?
No dude, have you ever met me?
We're gonna continue our flavor attack
with some ranch compound butter,
which is every bit as delicious as it sounds
and made simply by adding a few shakes
of our Hidden Valley Ranch Seasoning Shaker
to maybe a half a stick of unsalted butter,
tiny whisking until homogenous and dolloping generously
atop our potatoes.
Then we might as well add more of everything, right?
Some more shredded cheese, some more crispy bacon,
some more scallions and chives,
and of course, some more shakes
from our Hidden Valley Ranch Seasoning Shaker.
And there you have it, thank you Hidden Valley Ranch
for sponsoring this episode
and for helping me make the best salad I've ever eaten.
The Seasoning Shaker is great for adding
a punch of flavor to anything you make
that's missing a little something.
You can add it to marinades for meat,
sprinkle it on popcorn or seasoned vegetables.
For more from Hidden Valley Ranch,
check out the link in the description.
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