Idaho for Mashed Potatoes

Who doesn’t love mashed potatoes? I know recently it’s become popular to order baked sweet potatoes in restaurants and even make sweet potato french fries, but mashed sweet potatoes instead of the lovely, ivory ones? Try serving that with fried chicken or chicken fried steak and you might get a few off-color comments from your family.

We like to eat mashed potatoes with baked fish, grilled chicken, and grilled pork chops. It’s easy to make and it cooks while the rest of the meal is being put together. Easter will be here in another month so start practicing. 

Average about one potato per person, unless you have a big eater or the potatoes are tiny. I really don’t like to buy bags of potatoes-too much like a box of chocolates; I want to know what I’m getting. I prefer to hand pick the large baking potatoes-less peeling and less calculating on how many to use.

Peel your potatoes and rinse under water. When cutting up potatoes for mashing, unlike when using them for say potato soup or potato salad, you can make it much chunkier because it’s just going to boil down and get mashed so you don’t have to be concerned about dicing into small portions.

After cutting all potatoes and putting them in a pot, fill with water so that it covers the chunked potatoes by at least an inch or more.

Turn the heat on high with a lid on-but you will need to hang out in the kitchen and make sure that once the water starts boiling, it doesn’t boil over and make a starchy mess of the stove. Or you can forgo the lid method; it will just a little longer to start boiling.

Once the water is at a rolling boil, turn the heat to low or low-medium, put a lid on it with a vent or tilt the lid for venting. 

It only takes about 30-45 minutes to cook potatoes, unless you’re making a large pot full for Christmas or Easter and then you should probably allow at least an hour. While the potatoes boil you can assemble the rest of the meal.

When the cooking time is up, drain the potatoes in a colander. I have two sizes: one for every day meals and a large one for holiday meals. You don’t want to pour out your potatoes in the sink while trying to get rid of the water. Been there, done that.

Now that the pot is empty, add a tablespoon or two of butter. I used to use stick butter, but I’ve found the tub butter melts easier and smoother. You can always use more butter if you have healthy arteries but I try to trim the fat where I can.

Next put the drained potatoes back in the pot with the butter. Add salt and pepper. Sometimes, depending on the meal, I will sprinkle just a bit of garlic salt in. Get your hand mixer out and ready and also your milk.

Begin mixing the potatoes on medium and pour a little milk in. Continue mixing and adding milk until it almost has the consistency of pudding. 

But you can make it the way you like it: thicker is less milk and thinner add more milk. It takes a little practice but if you add a little as you mix you will be less likely to mess it up. And if you’re adding gravy on top, which we rarely do, it’s not going to be that noticeable. 

Another helpful hint is if you still have to finish cooking the rest of the meal, put the lid back on the mashed potatoes and return them back to the stove where they were cooked-minus the flame. But it will still be hot and will keep the potatoes warm for another 15 minutes or so.

You could always leave the skin on and not peel the potatoes. When mashing the potatoes you could add sour cream, cream cheese, or cheddar cheese to whatever your heart desires. This is a basic recipe to get you started.

Happy Cooking!

Baking potatoes

Butter

Milk

Salt & Pepper

Peel potatoes. Cube into chunks and place in a medium pot. Cover potatoes with at least one inch of water. More water will not hurt; less water will.

Bring to a rolling boil over high heat. Reduce heat to low and place a lid on top, cocked to let the steam out. Cook 30-45 minutes, stirring occasionally, until potatoes look well cooked. 

Drain the potatoes in a colander. While the potatoes drain, add 1 tablespoon of butter per potato to the pot, more if you like them buttery. Add salt and pepper. 

Return the potatoes to the pot. Place pot in the sink(it makes clean-up easier). Using an electric mixer, beat the potatoes on medium speed, adding a little milk as you go. Add as much milk as you like.