02. Mashed Potatoes - You Need A Recipe For That?

Date Cooked: August 19th, 2008
Recipe: 2
Page: 187

Recipe #2? Where did recipe #1 go? I’ll get to that one in a later post but on with the first posted recipe from the ‘The New Best Recipe’.

When I asked my wife to check the recipe for mashed potatoes she answered back with title of this post. It’s not that I couldn’t cook potatoes, it’s just that I am now trying to cook the ‘Best’ mashed potatoes. The recipe was pretty straight forward but there were a few things of note to a mediocre cook like myself.

It started with boiling the potatoes and then peeling them afterwards. Not a bad process but it does take considerable more time since you are handling a hot potato while trying to peel back the skin (which once I got going was pretty easy). The book suggests using a fork to spear the potato while you peel it but I found my potatoes kept splitting, so I just tried to hold them. Now that I think about it a glove would have helped. I also found that you waste less potato when peeling after boiling.

The recipe recommended using a food ricer / food mill to process the potatoes into a smooth texture but I don’t have one so I used the tools at hand (my arm and a potato masher) and went to work. This part didn’t bother me since I don’t mind a slightly lumpy mashed potato.

In the end the potatoes were good but I can’t really say they were the ‘Best’, at least not for my wife and I. With the amount of cream (1 cup) and butter (1/2 cup) we found them a little heavy. I thought they tasted great but we prefer a lighter, fluffier potato. In the end a rather good start to my little project.

The Next Day:
I was a little surprised. These reheated in the microwave for my lunch at work the next day really well. Probably all that fat in them. Normally I find reheated mashed potatoes really dry. Not these.