Potato Puree, Mashed Potatoes, Pommes

[Toliver]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

 I think many of us have made them this  way!   The scallions are optional.

Sous-vide and pressure cookers are out of my league (at the moment). I'm an old-fashioned Luddite, I guess.

[gfweb]

On 8/11/2017 at 6:13 PM, Toliver said:

An interesting way to make mashed potatoes...boil them in the cream and butter you were going to add after they're cooked:

"You’re Making Mashed Potatoes All Wrong"

My mom never poured the potato water down the drain. It was saved to make the gravy. 

 

Has anyone made mashed potatoes this way?

 

(Note... I did not click on the link)

 

You need enough fluid to cover the potatoes to cook them in a pot, so that's a lot of cream and a lot will have to be poured off which seems to defeat the purpose. Perhaps cooking the pots in cream in a baking dish, as in making potatoes dauphinoise, and then mashing them would work (but might be weird)...or SVing them in cream.

[lindag]

11 minutes ago, gfweb said:

 

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 Perhaps cooking the pots in cream in a baking dish, as in making potatoes dauphinoise, and then mashing them would work...

 

That's close to how I learned to make mashed sweet potatoes (from CI)...

Potatoes in a pot with cream and butter and seasoning, and simmer til done, then mash.  VERY easy and good; I like them this way better than baked.

[gfweb]

2 hours ago, lindag said:

 

That's close to how I learned to make mashed sweet potatoes (from CI)...

Potatoes in a pot with cream and butter and seasoning, and simmer til done, then mash.  VERY easy and good; I like them this way better than baked.

How much cream does it take?

[lindag]

4. tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces

2	tablespoons heavy cream

½	teaspoon table salt

1	teaspoon granulated sugar

2	pounds sweet potatoes (about 2 large or 3 medium-small potatoes), peeled, quartered lengthwise, and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices

pinch ground black pepper

Edited September 2, 2017 by lindag (log)

[Toliver]

On 8/13/2017 at 7:06 AM, gfweb said:

 

(Note... I did not click on the link)

 

You need enough fluid to cover the potatoes to cook them in a pot, so that's a lot of cream and a lot will have to be poured off which seems to defeat the purpose. Perhaps cooking the pots in cream in a baking dish, as in making potatoes dauphinoise, and then mashing them would work (but might be weird)...or SVing them in cream.

You bring up a good point. That's a heck of a lot of cream to cook the potatoes in. I think the chef that was quoted in the article was talking about what he does at his restaurant where they would have seemingly infinite resources. I don't think anyone would be able to do this at home. Who can afford that much cream and butter to cook the potatoes in? And then you wouldn't be able to use all of it to make your potatoes with unless you're making potato soup. 

[JAZ]

 

5 hours ago, Toliver said:

You bring up a good point. That's a heck of a lot of cream to cook the potatoes in. I think the chef that was quoted in the article was talking about what he does at his restaurant where they would have seemingly infinite resources. I don't think anyone would be able to do this at home. Who can afford that much cream and butter to cook the potatoes in? And then you wouldn't be able to use all of it to make your potatoes with unless you're making potato soup. 

 

If you cook potatoes in a pressure cooker, you only need enough milk to bring the pot up to pressure, not enough to cover the potatoes. So, as in the recipe Anna linked to, it's possible to cook them with just enough cream or milk and butter to mash when they're done. But if you don't have a pressure cooker and you're concerned about losing flavor to the cooking water, why not just steam the potatoes?

[gfweb]

So I did it. I cut up yukon golds in small pieces and put them in a sauce pan and added enough heavy cream to just short of cover them. And salt.

 

Cooked for 17 minutes and mashed.

 

The result was silkier and much deeper flavored than anything I've made in the past (photo on dinner thread). 

 

I didn't measure the cream, but it was about what I'd end up using when cooking the traditional way.  Given the enhanced texture (probably from retaining the potato starch) I think some milk could be subbed for some of the cream (but I have no intention of doing that).

 

I think this is the new standard MP for me.

 

There may be problems scaling this up for large volumes of mashed pots. I suspect that a big pot filled with potatoes might have trouble cooking all evenly with a small volume of liquid.

[jmacnaughtan]

8 hours ago, gfweb said:

So I did it. I cut up yukon golds in small pieces and put them in a sauce pan and added enough heavy cream to just short of cover them. And salt.

 

Cooked for 17 minutes and mashed.

 

The result was silkier and much deeper flavored than anything I've made in the past (photo on dinner thread). 

 

I didn't measure the cream, but it was about what I'd end up using when cooking the traditional way.  Given the enhanced texture (probably from retaining the potato starch) I think some milk could be subbed for some of the cream (but I have no intention of doing that).

 

I think this is the new standard MP for me.

 

There may be problems scaling this up for large volumes of mashed pots. I suspect that a big pot filled with potatoes might have trouble cooking all evenly with a small volume of liquid.

 

Interesting.  Did you leave them chunky on purpose, or is that an effect of cooking them in the cream?

[gfweb]

2 hours ago, jmacnaughtan said:

 

Interesting.  Did you leave them chunky on purpose, or is that an effect of cooking them in the cream?

 

They were a little chunky. Something about the process made them harder to mash thoroughly. It may have been that the smaller chunks that I started with fit  through the holes in the masher. I wondered about it

[jmacnaughtan]

22 hours ago, gfweb said:

 

They were a little chunky. Something about the process made them harder to mash thoroughly. It may have been that the smaller chunks that I started with fit  through the holes in the masher. I wondered about it

 

Hmmm.  It may be something about the calcium in the cream acting on the pectin in the potatoes.  If, in fact, potatoes contain any pectin.

 

Maybe the lower water content affected the heat being transferred, as well. 

 

Would you try cooking them for longer next time?

[gfweb]

3 hours ago, jmacnaughtan said:

 

Hmmm.  It may be something about the calcium in the cream acting on the pectin in the potatoes.  If, in fact, potatoes contain any pectin.

 

Maybe the lower water content affected the heat being transferred, as well. 

 

Would you try cooking them for longer next time?

Good thoughts.   Potatoes do have pectin.

I tried again last night ...cooked 20 minutes. Still a little chunky even with a more vigorous mashing.  There is something going on here.

 

[jmacnaughtan]

14 minutes ago, gfweb said:

Good thoughts.   Potatoes do have pectin.

I tried again last night ...cooked 20 minutes. Still a little chunky even with a more vigorous mashing.  There is something going on here.

 

 

If it is to do with the calcium, you may have to cook them for a lot longer.  Here, the water is really hard, so I end up simmering potatoes for a long time.  My mashed potatoes were no good at all until I started properly cooking them for at least 30-45 minutes, until I can no longer pick them up by spearing them with a knife.

Edited September 1, 2017 by jmacnaughtan (log)

[gfweb]

High pH destabilizes pectin and is a trick I've used to soften-up potatoes. Perhaps alkalinizing the cream with some bicarb  will counteract the Ca⁺⁺ effect.  It might help your boiling time in Paris as well.

 

Experiments to follow....

[Anna N]

41 minutes ago, gfweb said:

High pH destabilizes pectin and is a trick I've used to soften-up potatoes. Perhaps alkalinizing the cream with some bicarb  will counteract the Ca⁺⁺ effect.  It might help your boiling time in Paris as well.

 

Experiments to follow....

Here is a method from Tyler Florence  that seems to get good reviews.   I am not sure that it is what you are after though. 

[gfweb]

So I compared water boiled Yukon gold to cream boiled Yukon gold. 

 

The water mashed weren't a bit lumpy. The cream mashed looked as lumpy as previous photos but on close examination the lumps were mashed well mostly but they retained the shape of the masher extruded potato.  I guess the way to put it is that they were more cohesive.  Odd. 

 

When i smeared out both samples there were little bits of unmashed potato...perhaps a little larger in the cream cooked batch...but still little.  I think it's mostly an illusion of chunks. 

 

After about five batches,now I'm less enamoured. They are still tasty, but way too rich to put a big blob on a plate as I'm accustomed to doing. I think the restaurant sized portion would be about right. A tablespoon or two served under a piece of fish would be great.  And they are fatty enough to stand up to a sauce without turning into porridge. 

 

They are kind of like mashed potatoes au gratin and need to be deployed conservatively. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I like my potatoes fluffy.  For some time my method has been to pressure steam a peeled russet then salt and mash with my good old fashioned wire masher.  Adding hot milk a la This, then incorporating room temperature butter chunks while continuing to mash.

 

Usually this turns out OK.  Recently the result was too gummy to my taste.  I knew I had to up my game and reevaluate my methods.  I'd already tried retrogradation with poor results.  I found the texture of riced potatoes disgusting.  I knew better than to whip.  Where to start?

 

I consulted Kenji:  "The key to super-fluffy mashed potatoes is to remove as much starch from the spuds as possible.  We accomplish this by peeling and dicing them before rinsing them in water and boiling them just until cooked.  After cooking, they get a final rinse before heading to the ricer.  Using a ricer or food mill prevents excess damage to the starch granules, helping the potatoes remain nice and light."

 

But riced potatoes are disgusting.  Then I remembered I'd just read Kristen Kish:  "To yield the smoothest texture, I pass them through a few vessels.  First through a ricer, and you could certainly stop here if you wanted.  In a restaurant, I continue.  I scrape the riced potatoes though a tamis.... From there I begin to emulsify my fat and/or liquids into them.  Finally, the potatoes get pushed through a chinois...."

 

As much as I talked up thread I never actually dug out my tamis to try it with potatoes.  First I had to move the rosemary bush.  The tamis lives inside my largest pan.  All this was not easy.  Then I peeled three small russets and cut them up and rinsed them.  I boiled them with a bay leaf in salted water, rinsed with more hot water, and let them sit to dry.

 

My WMF ricer I had to import from Europe.  Don't know why they are not sold in the US.  I riced the potatoes into the tamis, which as it turns out sits nicely on my new 12 inch stir-fry pan.  Here is maybe a crucial point.  In earlier contributions in this thread the fat and liquid were incorporated before passing the potatoes though the tamis.  Kish calls for passing the potatoes though the tamis first.

 

After passing the potatoes through the tamis I was presented with mountain of potato fluff.  I used a plastic spatula to fold in the heated milk and cream (again following This).  Then I gently folded in the butter cubes.

 

http://tribade.org/Food/Dinner03172018.png

 

 

I ate all the potatoes in one sitting.  Other things to try.  Maybe it would help to seep the potato skins in the milk and cream?  How about adding a little acid to stabilize the pectin?  And what would happen if I pressed the potatoes through a chinois?

 

I don't have a chinois...yet.

 

 

[lindag]

I can't remember ever turning down a spud of any kind with the exception of those whipped into oblivion by my husband's niece; those were beyond glue.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Well, I attempted to repeat my potatoes of the other night.  These were not as good.  Perfectly OK, mind you!  But not as good.  The one difference is I stopped cooking the potato pieces when I could pierce them with a knife (~10 minutes) rather than when they were falling more apart.

 

Then I almost cried when I transferred the tamis to the sink and realized I had not scraped off the bottom.  I watched as about a third of my potatoes rinsed down the drain.  Though I suppose my waistline may yet thank me.

 

I have a Chinois on order and next time I will try Kristen Kish's suggestion of forcing the sieved potatoes through a Chinois.  It amazes me how easily I can fill up a dishwasher.

 

[helenjp]

Stampot! When spring greens start to appear in the stores but the weather is still chilly, it's a wonderful combination of mashed potato (sometimes with onion or turnip added, maybe some flecks of carrot) mashed together with the usual seasonings and a generous amount of strong-flavored greens like turnip tops, parsley etc.

My potato box had fewer potatoes in it than I thought, so we had  a weekend dinner of stampot served with mashed taro (the small Japanese sato-imo type). Most of the greens plus some crispy bits of friend pork and onions went into the taro mash, while the potato mash had more carrot than usual to pretty it up.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

By the cold light of midafternoon* I realized I had left out one of Kenji's steps:  "After cooking, they get a final rinse before heading to the ricer." 

 

He calls for rinsing with hot water.  When I made such good mashed potatoes the previous time I indeed had done this.  Hard to believe I can run two dishwasher loads preparing a single meal for one person.  Most impressive.  Anyhow I have moved the tamis storage location from inside the paella pan in the cupboard behind the rosemary bush to the oven for ease of access.

 

 

*when I woke up.

 

[MSRadell]

It's easy to tell that most posters here didn't grow up in the country, in the country completely smooth potatoes like you get when you run them through a ricer are a sign of a bad cook.  They are supposed to have small pieces of actual potatoes in them which is a sign they were made with a masher.  I got scolded many times by my grandmother if I over mashed potatoes!  Of course it still I love them today.

[chileheadmike]

Years ago a friend of mine used to work at a fried chicken joint. Wasn't a chain, just a little mom and pop place. He used instant mashed potatoes but tossed in a few chunks of boiled, real potatoes so the customers would think they're real. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

9 minutes ago, chileheadmike said:

Years ago a friend of mine used to work at a fried chicken joint. Wasn't a chain, just a little mom and pop place. He used instant mashed potatoes but tossed in a few chunks of boiled, real potatoes so the customers would think they're real. 

 

Ruining perfectly good instant mashed potatoes.

 

[gfweb]

I'm not fond of the fluffiness of riced MPs. Also i don't like the creamy stickiness of food processed MPs. 

 

I hand-mash boiled Yukon golds with a bunch of cream and then violently stir with a big paddle.