Preparing mashed potato/pomme puree and its children in advance

[ChrisTaylor]

I want to serve colcannon (if you don't know what it is, for all intents and purposes it behaves like regular mashed potato in every respect) to a group. Thing is, I want to basically be able to just reheat it and maybe spend, at most, a couple of minutes fiddling with it (i.e. serving in the chopped herbs). At the same time, I don't want to lose a lot of quality. As a kid, I remember mum reheating her mashed potato (milk-based) in the microwave. It didn't stand up well to that treatment. My mashed potato is heavy on the butter and I'm ... willing to reheat it using basically anything. As much as I don't want to spend a lot of time messing around with it during 'service', I don't mind having to dump it in a saucepan.

Can it be done? At what stage should I stop and hold it? What is the best way to go about reheating it?

EDIT

And yeah, I get that, obviously, people do this all the time. When I order aligot or regular mashed potato or any other variant, I understand that, out the back, they're not exactly scrubbing and peeling and boiling potatoes to order.

Edited July 3, 2012 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[Lisa Shock]

We always kept it warm on the steam table. I personally don't think that potatoes re-heat well.

[ChrisTaylor]

You've confirmed my deepest and darkest suspicions. Given I've reduced basically every other task I have to 'reheat at last minute' or 'throw in oven and forgot about for a while, then serve' I guess I'll just suck it up and make it just before I serve it.

[Chris Hennes]

Are you doing them retrograde? Does that help with the reheating issue?

[mm84321]

Keep them in a bain-marie with some greased parchment paper over top (to prevent a skin from forming). I've kept them like this, with no issue, for up to 4 hours. If you need to bring them back to life, just stir in a little hot milk, and that will do the trick.

[ChrisZ]

I find this curious, as I haven't noticed a problem with re-heating mashed potato in a microwave. Are you talking about a rich Robuchon-style puree or the more normal home-style fluffy mash?

I have experimented a bit with retrograding mashed potatos, thanks to Chris Henne's great posts, and the process seems to produce a drier, lighter mash (because I don't load it up with 50% butter). Perhaps a suitable analogy for skiers is that the difference between regular mash and retrograded mash is the difference between skiing on powder and wet slush. But although retrograding produces a different style of mash I haven't noticed if it reheats any better or worse than conventional mash.

[mgaretz]

I have tried the retrograde and it does reheat well (in a microwave) but so do my regular mashed potatoes. I don't use any milk - just butter. I'm not sure if it matters to reheatability, but I also return the drained, boiled potatoes to the dry, hot, boiling pot for a few minutes. This supposedly drives off excess water and makes a better mashed potato.

[Heartsurgeon]

Learned this trick from a call in viewer to the old Sara Moulton cooking show years ago. It really works great.

Make your spuds ahead of time ( a few hours ahead works) and keep them warm in a crock pot with the lid on until service.

Eliminates having to deal with the spuds at the last minute, allows you to serve them nice and hot.

It works really well, and relieves you of the last minute rush just before service.

[KennethT]

I have tried the retrograde and it does reheat well (in a microwave) but so do my regular mashed potatoes. I don't use any milk - just butter. I'm not sure if it matters to reheatability, but I also return the drained, boiled potatoes to the dry, hot, boiling pot for a few minutes. This supposedly drives off excess water and makes a better mashed potato.

I do something similar and it reheats just fine (microwave or stovetop), even without retrograding (although doing the process does make it even more bullet proof). I boil until tender, drain and reserve the starchy water, then rice, then add riced potatoes back to a warm pan and stir around until you drive off quite a bit of the moisture. At that point, I turn off the heat (or turn it to very low), and start whipping in the cubes of cold butter. Once completely incorporated, you can refrigerate it, making sure any exposed surfaces are covered with plastic wrap. To reheat, I take a little of the starchy water and heat to about 160F in a small pan, and whisk in chunks of potato over medium-low heat. If it's too thick, I'll add starchy water as I go a very little at a time - it's much easier to thin as you need than to get it too thin and have to thicken. Don't get it to boiling or it might break. Once completely reheated and rehydrated to the consistency you like, then I season and serve.

Edited July 10, 2012 by KennethT (log)