Best, Fast, Easy- Mashed Potatoes
History
Thoughts
The mashed potato is harder than it sounds. I love good mashed potatoes. For me that can mean many things. I like them with the skins and without. I like them rustic and lump and silky smooth. With garlic, cheese, chives sour cream, butter and milk? Yes, please. With olive oil and oak milk? Also, scrumptious. Seasoned and stuffed in a Samosa? Ahmguh, I love samosas. But the one thing I don’t like is gummy, gluey potatoes. To avoid this, always hand mash (more on this later.)* So without further ado, Mashers!
Ingredients
3 pounds of Russet Potatoes*, peeled and diced in to 1 ½ inch pieces.
1 cup whole milk or oat milk
3 tbs butter or olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
* You can use waxy potato varieties but they are more likely to get gluey. They can make a silky and lovely mashed potato.
Instructions
Boil potatoes as described above.
Strain
Heat milk and oil in a small pan
Mash using a potato ricer, food mill, or hand masher.*
Stir in milk and oil. Don’t overwork potatoes. They will become paste.
Serve with whatever you like. I will put some suggestions below.
* How to mash a potato is something of a conundrum. I have alway used
an electric hand mixer and never failed, until recently. But then with in
seconds, I has a sticky thick paste. All the potato texture disappeared and
it was gross. I tried to find a solution and they all said add more butter. I
just ended up with buttery Elmer’s. If this happens to you, make some rice. And then make this potato soup recipe on this page in a day or 2. To avoid this “disaster,” hand mash your potatoes. There are 3 tools that you can use for this.
A classic hand masher
Pros: Cheap, small, can be used for a few other tasks
Cons: Hard to get perfectly consistent mash, takes effort
Potato ricer
Pros: Cheap, small, smooth fluffy mash
Cons: Pretty much just for potatoes, not great for large batches
Food Mill
Pros: Silky, consistent mash, easy to use, multi purpose
Cons: Expensive, big, tough to clean