Awesome Mashed Potato Recipes

Who doesn’t love potatoes?

You can always find people who criticize other foods like beef or chicken in some way. Beef is too unhealthy and the slaughter of cows is cruel they might say. You can even find people who hate certain vegetables like when little kids refuse to eat Brussels sprouts. My best friend happens to hate carrots and celery and he can always be counted on to stay away from the vegetable dip platter. But I don’t know anyone who hates potatoes. You never hear anyone say, “oh gross, French fries! Do I have to eat them?” or “Yuck, mashed potatoes again!”

How weird would it be to hear a parent say “if you don’t eat those chips then you don’t get any dessert!” And if you think they are in the group of high cholesterol foods to avoid, you would be wrong.

The potato in all of its various incarnations is probably the most perfect food, and dare I say the most popular? Heck, they even had a whole famine named after them.

I happen to love potatoes too but I don’t often myself cooking them. I’m not sure what it is, maybe it’s the fact I’m lazy and I don’t enjoy peeling but up until recently I hadn’t cooked a whole lot of potatoes in my kitchen. In fact, it wasn’t until last month when my girlfriend wanted to buy a bag of potatoes that I found out how cheap they were. A whole bag of potatoes in my local grocery was a buck fifty! I had to double check because I thought maybe that was the price per pound, but no...a whole big bag of potatoes was less than two dollars. I was still reluctant to buy them since they were heavy, but my girlfriend called me a wuss and volunteered to carry them herself, so we got a nice big bag of potatoes. We then went home and she made a wonderful Sheppard’s pie that was one of the most delicious I’ve ever had thanks to the fresh potatoes. Now don’t get the wrong idea, I don’t make it a habit to make my girlfriend carry bags of potatoes then cook dinner for me – in fact I usually do most of the cooking. And after this experience, I decided to learn more about potatoes and how to incorporate them into my every day meals. So here are some easy potato recipes that I’ve made myself and I hope you enjoy.

The first thing you should know about my quick potato recipes is that I use Russet Potatoes. If you were to ask why I would tell you because a guy on a cooking show said they were the best. I also like the way they look since they are big and brown and they look like a potato should look. Those puny Yukon Gold Potatoes may taste good too, but they don’t look like the kind of big hearty potato I want to munch on. They also go well with other side dishes that might be healthier and incorporate foods that lower cholesterol.

I also generally don’t use my potato skins so the first thing I do is peel them and cut away those pesky eyes that will occasionally mark your potato. Most potato peelers come with a knife-like attachment that you can use to cut out brown parts. After your potatoes are peeled, drop them in some cold water to prevent them from going brown. This will prevent the process of oxidization and you can do the same thing with apples to keep them from discolouring.

And the last thing, I’m not going to aim for the healthiest potato recipe – I’m going for what tastes great. But we all know in general what is healthy so you can modify these quick potato recipes to suit your particular mood.Using a halogen oven will also speed up cooking times tremendously.

Ingredients

2 pounds potatoes

4 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

3/4 cup Homogenized Milk

¼ cup butter Milk

Bacon bits

Chives

Chill flakes or powder

salt and ground black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Cook the potatoes until tender

2. Roast the garlic in an electric oven (with a touch of olive oil) until cloves are tender and the garlic melts out of the skin

3. Mash the garlic into the potatoes

4. Add the butter into the mashing process

5. Combine the regular milk with the butter milk, and then gradually pour this mixture into your potatoes and continue to mash

6. You can use a potato masher for this whole process, or you can move on to using a hand mixer. I prefer an old fashioned approach and just grind the potatoes by hand because I like it a bit chunky and not so smooth that it looks like cream.

7. Pour into a bowl and add bacon bits, chives, and a touch of chilli powder on top.

8. If you have time, you can pour the mashed potatoes into an oven safe dish and put a mix of parmesan, cheddar, and mozzarella cheese on top. Bake in the oven until cheese melts. You will probably gain five pounds eating this potato recipe but the combination of mashed potato with baked potato elements tastes awesome.

Ingredients

2 pounds potatoes

4 cloves garlic

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

3/4 cup Homogenized Milk

¼ cup butter Milk

1 3/4 pounds combo of ground beef and ground lamb

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon paprika

Chopped vegetable of choice ie. Onions, carrots, peas, corn

Parsley, cilantro

Beef Broth

Directions

1. This is an offshoot of the mashed potato recipe above so start by making those mashed potatoes (like using an ice cream maker) but without all the bacon bits/ chives/ and cheese

2. In a pan drop some olive oil into prepare to cook the meat. I like a combo of beef and lamb because lamb alone is a bit gamey for me while beef alone is too boring.

3. Cook the meat until brown and then add your chosen veggies. Although not traditional, I actually like corn nibblets so put in what you like best. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you like a more wet meat base, you can add beef stock and a bit of flour to make a bit of gravy.

4. Place the meat and veggie mix on the bottom of a casserole dish. Gently place your mashed potatoes on the top. Pat it evenly then add paprika. Broil the potatoes in the oven until they are brown, then add your fresh parsley and cilantro.

Both of these simple potato recipes are really easy to make and if you start off with the simple mashed potatoes, the more you master them, the better your Sheppard’s pie will be. Best of all, these items are both pretty flexible in terms of ingredients and preferences so all you need is potatoes and the rest will take care of itself the more you experiment.