How Do You Make Your Mashed Potatoes?

[mozmic_dancer]

After hearing the Fonz discuss Morrissey's "precise eating" habits, I started wondering if my mashed potatoes would be up to snuff? Am I out of the mashed potatoes loop?

My recipe; feel free to comment:

potatoes (I prefer Yukon Gold, reds are nice, too)
salted boiling water

The potatoes are peeled and quartered. I add just enough water to cover them. I time them for about 30 minutes, and then they are drained.

In a stainless steel bowl, I add the hot potatoes along with 1/4 cup of half and half and four tablespoons of butter, salt and white pepper. This all gets mashed using a potato masher. If looking a little dry, I may add more half and half or butter teaspoons at a time, but that's basically it.

I am particually interested to hear if there are cultural differences in the way people prepare mashed potatoes. I'm open to new ideas.

 

[Dow Jones]

Potato Buds + Soy Milk + Fire + Into my tummy = YEY

Usually goes Potato Buds + Soy Milk + Into pan + Pour in peas and green unions + Smoosh it into circle + Fry it + Put tons of tabasco and really hot crap on it + Into my tummy = YEY, though. But that's not exactly mashed potatoes, it just INVOLVES THEM.

Potato buds are the best things ever! I simply won't have it any other way! Out of a box or bust.

 

[oye terence]

Potato Buds + Soy Milk + Fire + Into my tummy = YEY

Usually goes Potato Buds + Soy Milk + Into pan + Pour in peas and green unions + Smoosh it into circle + Fry it + Put tons of tabasco and really hot crap on it + Into my tummy = YEY, though. But that's not exactly mashed potatoes, it just INVOLVES THEM.

Potato buds are the best things ever! I simply won't have it any other way! Out of a box or bust.

try using vanilla soy milk it brings that whole wow kick to a different level.

 

[Dow Jones]

try using vanilla soy milk it brings that whole wow kick to a different level.

Been there done that, an' it's brilliant! I really want to try using Chocolate Soy Milk with it but that might just be too weird for even the likes of me.

 

[Skinner]

Here is a secret my dad has been using for years. If you want them creamier and with a bit of a different feel, add cream cheese, whip with a hand mixer, and plate using a pasty bag. If you want that professional touch, wait until they have cooled for a while, and use one of those serving size metal rings (2-2.5 in wide) place on the plate, pipe in mash, pile with steamed or roasted veggies, and garnish. It will impress even your most pretentious dinner guests.

Or hand smash (smash being the important word here), using red bliss potatoes that are boiled but with the skins still on. Add some garlic (chopped and roasted quickly in a pan with olive oil), and don't forget the cream cheese. (Don't worry, the light or fat free versions work fine)

 

[The Cat's Mother]

Peel and cut up spuds ( I like estima given the choice) and boil for 20 mins or until tender in only slightly salted water. Drain well, return to pan with unsalted butter/marge and a little milk to taste and hand a potato masher to the nearest available y chromosome. Inspect results, yell at y chromosome and tell him to mash the lumps out. If doing large batches, use the Kenwood Chef with the K-beater, which will bitch far less than a man while doing a better job.

Best enjoyed with onion gravy, veggie sausages and lightly cooked carrots and peas.

Next day's breakfast: bubble and squeak made with the left-over spuds and veg.

 

[mozmic_dancer]

Potato Buds + Soy Milk + Fire + Into my tummy = YEY

Usually goes Potato Buds + Soy Milk + Into pan + Pour in peas and green unions + Smoosh it into circle + Fry it + Put tons of tabasco and really hot crap on it + Into my tummy = YEY, though. But that's not exactly mashed potatoes, it just INVOLVES THEM.

Potato buds are the best things ever! I simply won't have it any other way! Out of a box or bust.

Oh wow! I like how this requires only one pan. I'm surprised, too how good the potato out-of-the-box is as well.

 

[Hellie]

You should try microwaving them in their skins.Take out the potato,mash with milk,butter and then ad tinned sweetcorn and cheese.Put back in the skins and then grill.Yum Yum.

 

[Dow Jones]

Oh wow! I like how this requires only one pan. I'm surprised, too how good the potato out-of-the-box is as well.

It's hard to believe isn't it! That's the glory of the riced potato!!

 

[The Cat's Mother]

You should try microwaving them in their skins.Take out the potato,mash with milk,butter and then ad tinned sweetcorn and cheese.Put back in the skins and then grill.Yum Yum.

I do a version of that, sans sweetcorn, but I bake them in the conventional oven or the skins don't get crispy enough for my liking. Snips of quorn bacon mixed with the topping cheese are nice, too.

Jacket potato skins, empty but with a scraping of butter, are a delicacy unto themselves. *drools*

 

[madathena]

I tend to go overboard on the butter, using almost a whole stick to about 3-4 large potatoes. Also use 1%milk some salt and pepper, sometimes some whole cloves of garlic go into the boiling water with the potatoes. Mash them with a hand masher and mix in the above, mashing with the masher after each addition. Yum yums. I'm getting a cavity filled today, perhaps I should make mashed potatoes for dinner to give my teeth a break.

 

[mozmic_dancer]

..It will impress even your most pretentious dinner guests.

That sounds like a veiled challenge to Morrissey.

Adding cream cheese sounds like fun. Only a man would think up leaving the skins on. I love the skin, too.

Men cooking in the kitchen is a turn on.

 

[oye terence]

Been there done that, an' it's brilliant! I really want to try using Chocolate Soy Milk with it but that might just be too weird for even the likes of me.

i actually had them with chocolate soy milk in it,i wanna say in january.it wasnt bad,but it was a little weird,and it just felt wrong,like it was how a 10 year would cook.

 

[mozmic_dancer]

Peel and cut up spuds ( I like estima given the choice) and boil for 20 mins or until tender in only slightly salted water. Drain well, return to pan with unsalted butter/marge and a little milk to taste and hand a potato masher to the nearest available y chromosome. Inspect results, yell at y chromosome and tell him to mash the lumps out. If doing large batches, use the Kenwood Chef with the K-beater, which will bitch far less than a man while doing a better job.

Best enjoyed with onion gravy, veggie sausages and lightly cooked carrots and peas.

Next day's breakfast: bubble and squeak made with the left-over spuds and veg.

Oh, I see. I didn't realize that there must be hundreds of varieties of potatoes, depending on where you're at.

Never knew what to do with leftover mashed potatoes. Now I do.

 

[madathena]

Men cooking in the kitchen is a turn on.

Oh, not for me. Most of the men I've seen cook make a huge mess and never quite get whatever they are making right. And chances are if they are cooking, I am cleaning up and that is most definitely not a turn on. If anything, a man cooking makes me nervous.

 

[Dow Jones]

You should try microwaving them in their skins.Take out the potato,mash with milk,butter and then ad tinned sweetcorn and cheese.Put back in the skins and then grill.Yum Yum.

Oh man mircowaving things is like a sport for me. You should try taking a potato, making a small hole in one end, taking out just a bit of potato and putting aside, then stuff it up with your numnums of choice, stick the potato you hollowed out back in the hole like a cork and nuke it! IT'S GLORIOUS. A1 Steak Sauce really shines when you penetrate a potato with a pipet of it and then send it into the microwave. It's advisable to cover the potato while it's nuked incase it... asplodes.
I'm hungry now and that had nothing to do with mashing.

After the potato has gone through it's final test you take it out, maybe bathe it in salt and then chew on it obviously.

i actually had them with chocolate soy milk in it,i wanna say in january.it wasnt bad,but it was a little weird,and it just felt wrong,like it was how a 10 year would cook.

Fantastic! I have no problem with cooking like a 10 year old so I'm going to have to try this.

 

[mozmic_dancer]

I tend to go overboard on the butter, using almost a whole stick to about 3-4 large potatoes. Also use 1%milk some salt and pepper, sometimes some whole cloves of garlic go into the boiling water with the potatoes. Mash them with a hand masher and mix in the above, mashing with the masher after each addition. Yum yums. I'm getting a cavity filled today, perhaps I should make mashed potatoes for dinner to give my teeth a break.

Oh man, what a great way to use garlic. Just throw them in.

Cavities suck, you're right. May be a good mash potato kind of day.

 

[oye terence]

Fantastic! I have no problem with cooking like a 10 year old so I'm going to have to try this.

there is no problem with cooking like a 10 year old,as long you dont make skittles and jelly sandwiches.
i think.

 

[Skinner]

Oh, not for me. Most of the men I've seen cook make a huge mess and never quite get whatever they are making right. And chances are if they are cooking, I am cleaning up and that is most definitely not a turn on. If anything, a man cooking makes me nervous.

ahem...

= turn on

 

[Dow Jones]

there is no problem with cooking like a 10 year old,as long you dont make skittles and jelly sandwiches.
i think.

Tang and Pixy Stix sandwiches are superior.