Mashed potato

From one hand mashed potato is one of simple dishes, from the other hand – the result always differs, it depends on potato species (taste, level of starch etc). In my country you never know what species you gonna buy. So consider the amount of ingredients to be not constant – you may need to add more of them in order to reach your perfect mashed potatoes. While consistence of mashed potato is a matter of taste also.

Ingredients (4 portions):

• 1 kg of potatoes (turns to 900 g after peeling)
• 100 ml of milk (2,5-6% fat)
• 100 g of butter
• 1 tsp of salt
• A pinch or 2 of grounded black pepper

Optional:

• Chopped dill, onion leaves or other herbs to top mashed potatoes prior to serving

Milk can be replaced with the water potato was boiled in. Just reserve 100 ml of this liquid before pouring the water off boiled potatoes.

You may change the taste of mashed potato with different add-ons. F.e. sometimes I heat milk and butter together with a sliced clove of garlic.

Instructions

1. Peel potatoes. Cut them in halves. If they are too big – then in 2 cm thick circles. Put potatoes to cold water, bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for at least 40 min. It’s better when potato is overcooked rather than undercooked.

2. Pour the water off potatoes (reserve 100 ml of this liquid if you use it instead of milk). Sprinkle salt and pepper over potatoes and mash it with potato masher (2-3 min). Cover the pot with potatoes, so it will remain hot.

3. Bring milk and butter (and sliced garlic if you use it) to a boil. Add it to mashed potatoes (use a colander or a fork in order to prevent garlic to fall into mashed potato). Use potato masher to make the mixture more homogeneous (20-30 sec). Take mixer or hand blender with whisk shaft and whip mashed potato.

The time of whipping depends on your device and the pot you are doing it in. If you use hand blender with whisk and its tall glass – 1 min. can be enough and there’s a high probability that you avoid clumps. If the pot is wider and you need to circle around, then you need to whip up to 5 min.

Actually there’s no guarantee that after this method you’ll get perfect mashed potato without any clumps. I’ve got some friends that insist that having clumps in mashed potatoes is the ugliest thing in the world. In my opinion this “ugliness” is overestimated and I’m o.k. with clumps.

But if you hate clumps as much as my friends do, there’s only 1 way how to get rid of them (and it takes time and labor): you need to put mashed potato through a sieve and whip it one more time.

Mashed potato can be stored in a fridge up to 5 days. Also you can freeze it and store for years. On the first picture of the recipe I serve mashed potato as a garnish to pork in white sauce. Mashed potato is a perfect garnish and suits many dishes.