not exactly mashed potatoes revisited

We tried this one again from memory, hoping to improve the result with spontaneity. It worked, partly because two different recipes merged into one due either to faulty neurons or inspired creativity. Later the original not exactly mashed potatoes recipe mysteriously disappeared leaving only this second iteration for the record and its original line in the table of contents. [It was hiding under another recipe in our paper recipe archives.] We continued down the path of adding extra veggies including our frequent favorite leeks that traditional mashed potato fans would find disturbing before trying, but make the mashed potatoes interesting by themselves without having to drown them in lots of fatty gravy or dead animal parts.

For the target dinner count of 6, our initial estimate of the red potato component proved to be clearly inadequate, so we hastily did up some more regular potatoes to add quantity. Fortunately time was not a problem or the result would have been. Lately we have been seeing a lot of the trendy new potato Yukon Gold in the mags and on menus, but not where we shop. If you know more about potatoes than us (easy), adapt.

ingredients

root tubers

about 10 small red potatoes

about 4 medium more traditional ones

1/2 lb (8oz) parsnips, peeled

sautéables

4 small leeks (or equivalent)

2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped or pressed

2 T olive oil

some white wine

enhancers

some milk, we use 1 percent

freshly ground black pepper

1/4 c freshly grated parmesan cheese

1/8 c bread crumbs

no stick cooking spray (olive oil)

instructions

preparation:

1. Wash the potatoes (your favorite type) and remove unsightly skin imperfections and stem remnants. Cut into small cubes and bring to a boil just barely covered with salted water. About 15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, clean the leeks, chop off the greens and tip and slice finely, then chop. (or food process.)
3. Chop up finely two garlic cloves and sauté with the leeks in some olive oil which will then prove inadequate so throw in some white wine to finish. (More healthy?)

execution:

1. Add some milk (this is a judgement call) and mash the potatoes partially, with electric hand beaters for example.
2. Add the leek garlic mixture and freshly ground black pepper "to taste" and finish the job.
3. Then put in a casserole dish and sprinkle with breadcrumbs and then parmesan cheese. Then lightly spray with olive oil veggie spray to moisten (can you tell we are not professionals?) and then broil in the oven to brown the topping.

notes

1. Watch carefully or the results may be unpleasant.

more mashed potatoes in the oven

We keep improvising this recipe, sometimes throwing in some carrots for color. Here is another variation.

ingredients

tubers

4 large russet potatoes

2 average looking parsnips

sautéables

1 c onion, celery, leeks sautéd in olive oil

enhancers

1/3 c yogurt

1/4 c milk, maybe slightly less

2 T butter

1 clove garlic, pressed

salt to taste

pepper to taste

2 T parmesan, grated, on top

brief execution

1. Boil the potatoes together, with skins.
2. Then beat with electric beater and add remaining ingredients except for the parmesan which goes on last.
3. Bake 30 minutes.
4. If not slightly crusted, broil briefly.

notes

1. It seems like we do this differently every time we try it.

still more mashed potatoes in the oven

Somehow this continued to evolve and stabilize roughly to the following garlic leek turnip baked mashed potatoes recipe.

ingredients

tubers

mixture of Yukon golds and small red potatoes or whatever

2 turnips

sautéables

1 large leek sautéed in olive oil

lots of pressed garlic to taste (10 cloves?)

enhancers

1/3 c yogurt

2 T butter

salt to taste

pepper to taste

2 T parmesan, grated, on top

brief execution

1. Boil the potatoes together, with skins, after cleaning.
2. Then beat with electric beater and add remaining ingredients except for the parmesan which goes on last.
3. Bake 30 minutes.
4. If not slightly crusted, broil briefly.

notes

1. All the ingredient quantities must be adjusted to taste and to the amount of potatoes used, left unspecified above. One can optionally mix in some more parmigiano in the beating stage.

mashed potatoes 2002

We had some leftover tsatsiki sauce from an in-law event, a rather stiff yogurt cucumber paste like the consistency of labne, the drained yogurt. While cruising the local supermarket produce section for interesting add-ins, a small broccoli head looked good for some veggie color, and a jar of roasted red peppers seemed another likely candidate to go with the tsatsiki. It turned out pretty tasty, although the extra salt from ms_ani may have been a decisive contributing factor. Why are we so addicted to this mineral?

ingredients

potatoes

6 medium red skinned potatoes

puree

1 small head of broccoli florets

1 skinned roasted sweet red pepper from a jar

1/3 c tsatsiki sauce (stiff) from a plastic container

2 large cloves garlic, pressed

2 T milk

a touch of cayenne red pepper

salt and pepper to taste

topping

several T breadcrumbs to thinly coat top

several T freshly grated parmigiano cheese to sprinkle over it

olive oil spray to dust the topping and coat the baking dish

instructions

1. Prepare the potatoes, removing unsightly marks and protrusions, but leaving the skins.
2. Pressure cook the broccoli until dead, say 4 minutes at full steam.
3. Then puree everything but the potatoes in a blender.
4. Next boil the potatoes in the usual fashion. This time we pressure cooked them since the pressure cooker was already to go. Without salt. Made up for by ani's spice adjustment later. When done, drain.
5. Hand mash the potatoes and then mash in the pureed other stuff until smoothly incorporated. Call in the spice expert to adjust the spices.

notes

1. We actually had one Yukon gold potato in the mix. When the cut up potatoes began looking more than adequate, the second Yukon was spared. Potato experts probably could advise us on what potatoes are best for mashing. But we would probably not know the difference anyway.