Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Name: Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 2
Ingredients: 1 lb potato, russet or Yukon Gold (peeled, cut in 2-inch chunks); 2 l water (for boiling); 2 tsp salt (for the water); 4 tbsp butter (cut in cubes, softened); ⅓ cup milk (whole); 2 tbsp heavy cream; ½ tsp salt (to season); ¼ tsp black pepper (ground); 2 clove garlic (crushed, whole cloves)

Sides & Vegetables · American

A variant of Mashed Potatoes — Garlic-infused warm dairy in the reference potato mash.

9 ingredients · 45 minutes · 2 servings

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Contains dairy

Restrictions

ContainsdairyIt is in an ingredient you cannot leave out.

Diets

VegetarianPescatarianNo porkNo alcohol

Worked out from the ingredient list. It knows nothing about brands, shared equipment or cross contamination, and it is not a certification — if you have an allergy, you still have to read the label.

Ingredients

Servings:

1 lb	potato, russet or Yukon Gold (peeled, cut in 2-inch chunks)
2 l	water (for boiling)
2 tsp	salt (for the water)
4 tbsp	butter (cut in cubes, softened)
⅓ cup	milk (whole)
2 tbsp	heavy cream
½ tsp	salt (to season)
¼ tsp	black pepper (ground)
2 clove	garlic (crushed, whole cloves)

Optional

Not counted above. The dish works without them.

1 unit	bay leaf
2 tbsp	sour cream
1 tbsp	chives (sliced thin)
1 pinch	nutmeg (grated)

Steps

peel8 min
potato, then cut into chunks of roughly equal size — mixed sizes mean the small pieces disintegrate and waterlog while the large ones are still raw at the core, and no amount of mashing fixes a mash made of both
simmer20 min
cold water start, bare simmer
potato + water + 2 tsp salt, brought up from cold so the outside and the centre cook at the same rate. Hold it just below a boil; a hard boil batters the chunks apart and the loose starch leaves in the water. Done when a knife slides out with no resistance at all — undercooked potato will not rice, it will smear
infuse5 min
low, steaming not boiling
milk + heavy cream (+ garlic + bay leaf), warmed. Cold dairy hitting hot potato shocks the swollen starch granules into contracting, and the mash turns tight and pasty. Strain out the aromatics before use For this version, include the listed crushed garlic cloves while warming the dairy; strain them out before folding the warm dairy into the potatoes.
cook2 min
low, uncovered, empty pot
drained potato returned to the dry pot and shaken until the surfaces go matte and floury — you are driving off boiling water that would otherwise dilute the butter and thin the finished mash
mash4 min
off heat, hot potato
potato pressed through a ricer or food mill straight back into the warm pot. A ricer separates the cooked cells intact; a blender or beater ruptures them and floods the mix with free amylose, which is exactly the gum that makes gluey mashed potatoes. Work while it is hot — cooled potato resists and needs force, and force is the problem
fold3 min
low heat, gentle
riced potato + butter, cubed and folded in first and completely, before any liquid. The fat coats the starch and keeps the dairy from soaking into it, which is what gives the mash its silk instead of its paste. Then + warm milk and cream in two or three additions, folding only until it just holds a soft shape — stop before it looks perfectly smooth, because it will loosen as it sits
season1 min
off heat
+ salt + black pepper (+ sour cream + nutmeg), tasted hot. Potato blunts salt more than almost anything else on the stove, so a mash seasoned to taste warm will read flat by the time it reaches the table — push it one pinch past correct. Finish with chives