Monday, February 27, 2012

The Best Mashed Potatoes, ever!

This is a quick post dedicated to one of my husband's favorite side dishes, mashed potatoes! He was the kind of kid that grew up on chicken nuggets and mountain dew and he and his brother couldn't eat mashed potatoes without smearing ranch all over them. On very few occasions have I made mashed potatoes that weren't immediately drowned in ranch. Myself, I love just regular ol' mashed potatoes with a nice brown gravy on top but this recipe does not need ranch or gravy, it is perfect just the way it is!

The Best Mashed Potatoes, ever!
-4-5 large russet potatoes (you could use yukon gold as well, I just wouldn't recommend red potatoes)
-1/2 cup heavy cream
- 4 Tbl butter (1/2 stick and I used salted)
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- about a 1/4 cup of fresh parsley, chopped up
- 3 tbl fresh chives (just eye ball it)
- 1 1/2 tsp salt (I could have probably gotten away with just 1 tsp but I like things a little on the salty side)
- 1/2 tsp fresh pepper
 
Wash and scrub your russet potatoes. Dice and cube up your potatoes. In a large pot, half filled with water, bring your water up to boil and add your potatoes, a long with a generous amount of salt. Reduce your heat to a simmer and cook your potatoes for about 12-15 minutes or until fork tender. Drain into a colander, do not run cold water over your potatoes. In a stand mixer, add your ingredients and mix with the whip attachment until smooth and creamy. Salt and pepper to taste.

The Ingredients-
(You most certainly can substitute milk or half & half for the cream)

After dicing up your potatoes, tackle your parsley. I used flat leaf Italian parsley, which for a MASSIVE bunch is only 69 cents at my local farmers market and you can add it to just about any dish you are cooking. The chives were $2 for a nice handful but I recently bought a little chive plant that I am hoping will make it through the rest of the winter!


I used my kitchenaid mixer to whip the potatoes together but honestly if my husband didn't mind, I would have just done them by hand with a little elbow grease. Unfortunately, Chris loves his whipped potatoes and I have to admit that I do love him and my mixer :)
So- just throw in all your ingredients. I usually put half of my wet ingredients in (sour cream/cream) because I want to be sure that I am not left with potato soup at the end. You can always add more liquid to your potatoes but it's another story if you have too much liquid, same goes for seasoning.


What a beautiful sight!

 
 Be sure to scrap the sides down with a spatula to get everything well incorporated.


Forget about the chain restaurant gluey potatoes, heck, no ranch or gravy needed here, don't even think about that bag of whipped potatoes you can get in the deli section. These are sooo much better, I promise. Throw some chicken in the oven and you've got yourself a hearty meal!

As Always, 
Happy Eating!
<3

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