Mashed Potatoes Recipe

Hi everyone and welcome back. Today we’re making mashed potatoes. You might think it’s pretty simple to make, but there are a few tips and tricks that get sit perfectly smooth, creamy and fluffy. So if you want to learn how to make the best mashed potato, then lets get started. The most important thing to making mash is using the right potatoes. There are three overall different types of potatoes, waxy,in between, and starchy. Waxy is for stews and salads, in between is multi purpose, and starchy is perfect for roasting, frying, and then of course mashing. The starch in the potato produces a light,fluffy and smooth mash that absorbs butter and milk easily. Whereas and waxy potato is difficult to break up so it won’t get perfectly smooth and the mash will turn out quite stodgy. If this is all too much information about potatoes for you, luckily most stores label the potatoes with which cooking method it  is best for. So pick up the roasting kind. I’m using 3 large sized potatoes for this recipe which will be enough to serve 4. As a rule 1 medium sized potato per person. Wash the potatoes to remove any dirt on the skin and use a peeler to remove the skin. You can make mash with the skin still on,but I much prefer the texture if its removed. Cut the potatoes up into smaller pieces. You can just boil the potatoes whole but cutting them up simply cuts the cooking time down.Make sure the cubes of potatoes are relatively the same size so they cook evenly and you don’t end up with some cooked and some raw in the middle.

 I like to give the potatoes a quick rinse and place them into a saucepan. Fill the saucepan with cold water to cover the potatoes and place over medium-high heat. It’s really important that you always cook potatoes from cold water rather than throwing them in boiling water like you would with pasta. This gives the inside of the potatoes more of a chance to come up to same temperature as the outside,and also a longer time for the starch to soften. Cook the potatoes until extremely tender,and nearly falling apart. This took about 20 minutes for me, but of course it depends on the size of your potatoes. Drain the water in a colander and shake to remove as much water as possible. Place the cooked potatoes back into the same saucepan and keep on the heat until there is no longer large amounts of steam. Don’t worry if your potatoes are really starting to fall apart at the point, this means they are well cooked and will mash smoothly. I’m using a potato masher to mash the potatoes,this honestly is all you need but if you do have one a potato ricer works great too. Begin to mash the potatoes without adding any butter or milk, just break them all up. This will look extremely crumbly we just don’t want any large bits of potato. Season with salt,then start to add room temperature butter.  Add small amounts of the butter at a time,while continuing to mash. It’s important that the butter is room temperature as we don’t want to cool down the potato, as this will turn the mash extremely gloopy and unappetising. Continue to add the remaining butter and mash. This recipe does have quite a large amount of butter in it, but honestly its the only way to get perfect mash potato. Next is milk. Make sure you have warmed up your milk, never use cold milk as this will change the consistency of the potato. I don’t usually use a large amount of milk, it depends if you like your mash thick or not. Just add small amounts at a time until you are happy. And lastly give it a taste. It should be silky smooth, creamy and fluffy. Taste for seasoning, if it needs more add salt, or pepper. Remember to always taste your food, you’ll be amazed with how much a pinch of salt can change the flavour. Spoon the mash into a bowl and smooth down with a spoon. I’m adding chives as it makes it look pretty but it really doesn’t need anything else. I hope you’ve found this  recipe helpful,let me know if you make it. If you haven’t already take a look at this recipe for a Chocolate Salted Caramel Tart. Thank you for reading. Bye.