How to make the creamiest mashed potatoes of your life
Mashed potatoes must surely rank very high on the list of ultimate comfort foods, right? That velvety, soft texture, that creamy decadence, that scent of warm melted butter gently folded into steaming-hot crumbly potatoes, mashed into a rich yet light texture… I’ve actually typed myself into salivating a little.
It’s not for nothing that something seemingly simple like mashed potatoes is one of the showpieces in the oeuvre of the late (thirty!) Michelin-starred chef Joël Robuchon. If you can make this well, you deserve a whole lot of pats on the back, and although the basic recipe for Robuchon’s mashed potatoes is already golden, there are of course countless variations to come up with. For example, you can cook (sturdy) herbs with the potatoes, or garlic, or stir grated cheese into the mash at the end. And this tip for making the mash even creamier is a really good one too:
Old favourite
By the way, you may already know the ‘trick’ of cooking the potatoes in half water and half milk. That’s also a good way to give those potatoes an even softer flavour. But there’s an even better version!
Ultimate richness and softness
Namely: using cream in the cooking water. Proper full-fat, gloriously rich cream—and you certainly don’t need to fill the whole pan with it, just a splash of about 60 millilitres. Someone with firsthand experience said that using cream instead of milk (which they normally used in a half-and-half ratio with water to cook the potatoes in) also meant that the cooking liquid boiled over less quickly (as milk tends to do). They also found that the creaminess penetrated the potatoes even better, and the result was sublime.
A super tip, as far as we’re concerned—we can’t wait to try it!
Also read:
- You shouldn’t put up with it anymore when someone says you should leave your potatoes on the left
- This is the best way to reheat that delicious mashed potatoes
- Potatoes with sprouts—can you eat them?
Source: The Kitchn
