It is a popular opinion that mashed potatoes are the best side dishes ever. Be it beef steak or chicken or any other dish, mashed potatoes bring completion to any meal. So, if you wish to learn how to make this scrumptious side dish, stick with us!
Ingredients:
Potatoes (Yukon gold or Russet): 2 ½ pounds (1.2 kg)
Unsalted butter: ½ cup
Milk: 1 cup
Salt: ½ tbsp. and 1 tsp. (to be used separately)
Steps:
Preparing the Potatoes
Rinse the potatoes in order to get rid of any kind of dirt. However, you do not need to peel or cut the potatoes at all during this step. Keeping the skin and also leaving them uncut will ensure too much water does not enter the potato. Also, the taste and texture will remain intact.
Clean the potatoes whole and then put them in a large pot. Add water to the pot till the potatoes are submerged with at least an inch of extra water above the potatoes.
Boiling the Potatoes
Before you bring the water to a boil, you will need to add ½ tbsp. of salt to it. Then boil the potatoes in the salt-water till they are done. This should take at least 30 minutes to 45 minutes. You will know the potatoes are done if poking and inserting a fork or knife is not difficult as usual.
Draining the Potatoes
When the potatoes are done, take them off the heat and get rid of the water by draining them. Depending on your preference you can keep the potato skin or discard them. If you do want to get rid of the potato peel then you can do so using the help of potholders and paring knives.
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Use a potholder to hold the potato and run the paring knife along the skin of the potato in order to get rid of the peel. This will hardly take much time since boiling them has already softened the peel and you will be done within moments.
Heating Butter and Milk
For this step, take out two saucepans of your liking. In one put the butter and fill the other with milk. Then heat the two saucepans over the stove. In order to enhance the flavor of your dish, add the leftover salt to the milk making sure they are well incorporated.
To get the standard texture of mashed potatoes, butter is added before the milk. This rule is what we will follow and it is essential you stick by the rule as well if you want to get the best results.
Mashing the Potatoes
This is the easiest and simplest part of the whole recipe – mashing the potatoes. You can mash them in the same pot you had boiled them in to make sure the potatoes remain warm. You may use a potato masher for this or any other tool you see fit.
Though boiling may have softened the potatoes to a great degree, you may still have trouble mashing them. This will most likely happen due to the size of the potatoes so what you may do is chop them or slice them into smaller bits with a knife. This will make the task easier and faster by ten folds.
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Adding Butter
Take your melted butter and add it to the potatoes you have just mashed. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir the ingredient into the potatoes, making sure that they are well-incorporated. The potatoes will soon absorb the butter after which we will proceed to the next step.
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Incorporate the Milk
Now add milk to your potato-butter mix. You can dump the entire milk into the mix which will appear runny in the beginning but as you go, it will thicken up.
Making Further Changes
This is the part where you get creative since the mashed potatoes are almost done. Adjust flavors as you like and add additional flavors to spice up this amazing side dish. Most will likely add extra butter, salt or pepper. But if you want your dish to have an extra flair, feel free to add 1 tbsp. of fresh dill, paprika, parsley or rosemary.
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Serving
With all the extra flavors added, you can now proceed to serve the mashed potatoes. it will definitely taste better if it is still hot. Leftovers may be stored in the fridge but make sure it is covered well.
With that, we can conclude the recipe to an incredible side dish. We can assure you this will taste better than any other you have tried! Feel free to be creative and enjoy!
Sources:
- Creamy mashed potatoes recipe – BBC Good Food
- How to make perfect mashed potato – The Guardian
- Ultra-Creamy Mashed Potatoes Recipe – Bon Appetit
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