Mashed Potatoes. The mere mention of the food conjures up thoughts of creamy goodness and delicious gravy. My mashed potato orientation began in elementary school. How does one get introduced to mashed potatoes in elementary school? Well I’ll tell you how, HOT TURKEY LUNCH BABY!
Specifically, the hot turkey lunch that was served during Grandparents Day. For me it was one of my favorite school lunches that wasn’t served that often, for me it was a chance to get to taste mashed potatoes, gravy, and stuffing. All things that I didn’t really get to experience as a kid growing up until American foods were forced on my family.
Grandparents Day deserves its own short aside. Growing up, more often than not, all four of my grandparents were around for Thanksgiving. So as a result a whole slew of Iranian grandparents came to visit on Grandparents Day. My grandparents always represented some sort of fabled past to me and I always loved to brag about them to my friends and teachers. Because Iran was such a far off land to Americans back then and they had little to no clue about the country itself, I loved to talk about all the amazing things that my grandparents had accomplished before they left everything to come to the U.S.
I remember one time, I described my Mommon Joon as being the coolest grandma because she would kill snakes in her garden (She had a massive garden at her house, which she would painstakingly attend to). You can imagine the looks on my little friends faces when I talked about snake death in my class (sorry to any animal lovers, no animals were harmed in the making of this post). My grandmother was only in her 50’s when I was in elementary school, so in addition to amazing people with her stories, people also thought she was my mom.
So anyways back to mashed potatoes and elementary school. Do you remember the school lunch mashed potatoes you would get with Hot Turkey Lunch? It was always an ice cream scoop of mashed potatoes and almost yellow gravy. As I grew up and tried other mashed potatoes, I grew to dislike the school ones, but early when I didn’t know any different those were the Bees Knees.
So once I jumped down the rabbit hole that was mashed potatoes I embarked on a culinary journey to make the perfect mashed potatoes. I always wanted to make it like it was when you got it from KFC or Boston Market.
No matter what I tried, my mashed potatoes were never the perfect creamy consistency that I wanted. Then. Everything changed.
America’s Test Kitchen showed me the perfect way to make mashed potatoes and you barely have to use any butter or milk to get the creaminess (although you can add it if you want to up the deliciousness.)
The trick is using a Potato Ricer.
This awesome tool will make your potatoes so creamy and it will mash your potatoes for you in the process. The one I linked to is rated the best by America’s Test Kitchen and is the number one potato ricer on Amazon (just in case you were curious).
So join me as I take you along a magical ride of whimsy and starch. Along the way we’ll have some laughs, we’ll gain some weight, and maybe…just maybe…we’ll make the best mashed potatoes you’ve ever had.
Recipe
Ingredients (serves 10)
5 lb. Peeled Russet Potatoes (You want to use these or white potatoes, when they cook up they become extra mushy, versus a red potato which holds it’s shape)
A large pot of boiling water
1 Tbsp. Salt
*Optional* If you want to make it super unhealthy but super delicious- 1 stick of unsalted butter
4 Tbsp. of Butter will probably do the trick though. (Unsalted)
1 Cup of Whole Milk (Warmed)
Method
Boil your peeled mashed potatoes until they are nice and soft. Then in a very large bowl, start putting the potatoes (one by one) into your ricer. Press down and you should have the potatoes gush out into the bowl. Be careful sometimes this can make a mess.
This will take a while, once all of your potatoes are done you should have a pile of riced potatoes. Add your butter, salt, milk, and mash together. This should be a lot easier because all of the hard work has been done for you.
Serve and Enjoy! If you want to make these a day ahead you can, I would just add some milk and butter to give it some more life.
- 5 lb. Peeled Russet Potatoes (You want to use these or white potatoes, when they cook up they become extra mushy, versus a red potato which holds it’s shape)
- A large pot of boiling water
- 1 Tbsp. Salt
- *Optional* If you want to make it super unhealthy but super delicious- 1 stick of unsalted butter
- 2 Tbsp. of Butter will probably do the trick though.
- 1 Cup of Whole Milk
- Boil your peeled mashed potatoes until they are nice and soft. Then in a very large bowl, start putting the potatoes (one by one) into your ricer. Press down and you should have the potatoes gush out into the bowl. Be careful sometimes this can make a mess.
- This will take a while, once all of your potatoes are done you should have a pile of riced potatoes. Add your butter, salt, milk, and mash together. This should be a lot easier because all of the hard work has been done for you.
- Serve and Enjoy! If you want to make these a day ahead you can, I would just add some milk and butter to give it some more life.
