It's Thanksgiving So We Have to Make Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Surprisingly Julia and I make Mashed Potatoes almost the same. I'm actually feeling a little smug about it.

She begins by directing her students to purchase Russet potatoes, and although I use Yukon Gold pototoes for everything, I picked up a 10 pound bag of Russets. One thing is for sure, you can save a lot of money by following her recipe, because the Russets cost $3 for 10 pounds and Yukon Golds would have been about $1/pound. We both agreed that they should be peeled, washed, quartered, put in a pan, covered with salted water (1.5 t.salt/quart of water) and then brought to a boil. She recommends boiling them for 15 minutes and I tasted them at that point and determined that they needed another 3 minutes. Normally I would have boiled them for about 25 minutes, until they were exceedingly soft, but this is her cookbook, so I let her make the decision. But it was wrong.

After draining she suggests her students return them to the pan and place them back on the burner for a minute to dry them out. Following that I put them into the mixer and began beating them with the wire whip attachment. Since I was only using about 4 pounds of potatoes I added 1/2 cup of heated milk and 2 T. of butter while they were mixing. But despite 10 minutes of mixing they were still a bit lumpy. This would not have been the case if they had boiled 25 minutes, instead of 18.

To make the 'mashed potatoes' into 'garlic mashed potatoes' you must peel an entire head of garlic and simmer the cloves in 1/2 cup of cream for at least 10 minutes. Then puree it in the blender and add the entire mixture to the potatoes while they are still in the mixer.

The result has a garlic aroma and a vague garlic flavor which is both delicate and delicious. If you prefer a more dynamic garlic presence you might want to use 1.5 to 2 heads of garlic.

The Bottom Line
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