best easy mashed potatoes recipe?

and how early can i buy the potatoes for thanksgiving?
thanks all

(i’d love them to taste like robuchon’s but i know my limits in the kitchen)

you can buy now and hold in your wine cellar.

Jacqueline made this one last weekend. She says it was very easy. I say it was very yummy. Good luck and Happy Thanksgiving!
mashed potatoes.jpg

My wife loves fluffy, so I use this recipe which includes rinsing off the starch. I also dial back the milk to about 1 cup and then add more as needed.

You just chop up some potatoes, boil, drain, mash (and whip if desired), and add salt, pepper, butter and cream until you get the desired texture and flavor. Of course, you can go beyond just classic mashed potatoes and add things like garlic, roasted garlic, truffles/truffle oil, bacon, cheese, sour cream & chives, butter poached lobster (and the lobster flavored butter), etc.

Pretty easy. I omit the garlic and sugar. Not Robichon

http://wegottaeat.com/sherree.wolfgang/recipes/americas-test-kitchen-garlic-mashed-potatoes

For most situations that I make them, turkey day being a perfect example, mashed potatoes are a canvas to highlight a well made gravy, or otherwise saucy dish. J Rock is spot on IMO.

Potatoes can be bought at least a week ahead, keep them cool and most importantly dark

Critical mashed potato tip… DRAIN THEM WELL (I let em sit and dry out a bit) and don’t “over mash” if using an electric mixer in order to avoid gluey potatoes.

I also like to use a mix of varieties. Young for sweetness, russets for starch. Red potatoes are low starch so if you do like creamy potatoes use them with some new potatoes. (But I’m gonna use fat to add that creaminess to my russets). Which leads me to…

Butter and cream are your friend.

I also like to leave at least some of the skins on

Make em a couple days ahead and refresh w a bit more cream or milk.

Cream instead of milk, tbsp butter per potato, clove of garlic per potato S&P.

Cut in chunks, boil until tender, drain, back into pot over low heat for a couple minutes shaking pot back and forth to help remove excess moisture. Mash. Whipped potato?!yuck Add extras, S&P to taste.

Pick the spuds you like. Over here we get Linda.

Boil, drain well, put butter and milk in the pot and bring up to temp. Mash or blend with S&P and over here a bit of nutmeg.

thanks all. seems even i should be able to do this. going to do a practice run tonight just in case

Also, I like dirty mashed potatoes. That is, with skins on.

btw any particular butter work the best?
there must be opinions on this i’d imagine

i use kerry gold in pretty much everything

thanks joe, that’s what my gf advised as well

Adding The Sugar to the boil replaces some of the natural sweetness as potatoes age from young to old (Sugar converting to starch).

I do that when I’m making roasted potatoes if I don’t think the potatoes were picked recently. They don’t taste “sweet”, but side by side you’d notice a difference. I think the sugar helps almost always.

A ricer or food mill makes a huge difference in the texture. Over mashing or whipping will produce gluey, heavy puree.

Maybe I’ve just made them so much or have some special mashed potato gift (I doubt it), but I think they are pretty hard to mess up. Obviously, if you have time, practicing won’t hurt, but even if you don’t, follow my advice above or another similar recipe posted here and just add the ingredients slowly and keep tasting. As long as you go slow (and have a decent palate), you can always adjust (e.g., add more cream, more salt, etc.) and it’s very, very hard to mess it up.

I used Kerrygold as well. But I have been switching to Goat’s butter for just about everything lately.

^ This.