Food Gold: Mashed Potatoes (Better Than Mom’s!)

So this week the bros behind Dinner With The Band and the Finger On The Pulse parties, the twins of steel Greg and Darin, asked me to be on their Snacky Tunes Radio show to chat about Food Gold and my website RCRD LBL. Anti Pop Consortium were also in the house and we had a blast.

During the course of our convo, I got into talking a lot about Mashed Potatoes so I thought it was only right to share this recipe with you. If you follow these very basic rules, the lumpy, thick as bricks mashed pots yer Mom used to serve will be a thing of the past. The key is not overmixing or overmashing as that releases too much starch and will turn your mix into goo. So with the less is more mantra in mind, let’s get light and fluffy!

Ingredients:

- 4 Russet Potatoes, peeled and cut in half *try to make the cuts as even as possible so cooking time will be uniform for all the potatoes

- 1/3 cup Whole Milk or Heavy Cream thinned with some water, heated until luke warm/warm *this is important, so be sure to nuke your milk/cream for about 45 seconds or so before you add it to potato mixture

- Few decent sized knobs of cold butter

- Tablespoon of Sour Cream or Creme Fraiche

- Salt/Pepper

- Chives For Garnish

Special Equipment:

- Masher, ideally one that looks like this

- Wire whisk

1. In a large, pot bring MAD SALTY (I used about 3 tablespoon of salt) water and potatoes to boil. It is very important the water is salty, as you will not have much room to season later on because the name of the game here is not overmixing the mash. Anyways, taste the water after you add the salt. It should taste like the ocean. This is a good rule for making large batches of pasta too, btw.

DO NOT add potatoes to boiling water, rather let the potatoes and water reach a boil together. Also, you DO NOT want a washing machine-type rolling, violent boil. You should see bubbles hitting the surface but that is about it.

2. Cook potatoes until they are fork tender, meaning a fork slides in and out without any resistance, approx 20-30 minutes. Be patient here.

3. Drain well and return to large pot, or large saucepan

4. Cook drained potatoes over high heat for 30 seconds to cook off any excess water. You should see a bit of steam rise up.

cooks note: for all remaining steps, remember NOT to overmix the mash. If you do, all the starch will be released into the liquid and you will get something the consistency of wheat paste. Nice for OBEY GIANT campaigns, not so good for dinner. LESS IS MORE!

5. Lower heat to medium/low and using masher, take TWO and ONLY TWO laps around the pot/saucepan, moving around the sides and mashing STRAIGHT DOWN.

6. After those first two laps, add your cold butter and take ANOTHER TWO laps.

7. Add your 1/3 cup warm cream/milk, as well as any additional salt/pepper you need. Taste for seasoning. Take another lap with the masher.

8. Add your tablespoon of sour creme/creme fraiche.

9. Using a wire whisk, whisk the mixture for only 20 seconds.

10. Garnish with fresh chives if you wanna be a gangster…

ENJOY!

Fork The World,

Elliot