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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Recipe Wednesday

I was going to post a fettuccine with peas and ham recipe from an Emeril cookbook we have, but....there is that whole copyright statement at the beginning.  With our expansive readership, I thought surely it would get back to the "Bam" King himself, and he'd show up at our door waving a heavy skillet at my head.  In light of that, I'll just tell you that it's in this book, on page 46, and is very tasty.  We've made it at least 3 times in the last 6 months or so.  Also, I should mention that if you buy said book from Amazon, from that link, I in no way get any credit from it.  Emeril has not paid me to endorse this for him...though it would be nice if he did.

I instead thought I would enlighten you on my thoughts about mashed potatoes.  I find it hard to imagine that people actually buy that box of dried whatever and make mashed potatoes.  It's soooo easy, and so much better just to make the real thing.  I should clarify that I in no way mean to talk down to anybody or make them feel bad, but instead I want to let you know that YOU CAN DO IT (in my best Rob Schneider voice)!  I know you can!  Let me break it down for you:

Take potato in hand
Peal potato
Cut potato into chunks
Put potato chunks into saucepan
Repeat for desired number of potatoes
Fill pan with water, just covering potato chunks
Boil water till potatoes are soft (15-20 minutes)
Drain potatoes
Use a hand mixer to mash potatoes
Add some milk and butter and mix with mixer
Add a little more milk until desired smoothness.
Done.

Not hard people. Really.  Trust me.  You can come watch me make them sometime.  Very easy, and way tastier than those boxed flakes.  What are those things anyways?

I know this was a sad recipe.  In fact, it was a hardly a recipe at all, but I felt like it needed to be said.  In my opinion, this is a perfect, fundamental example of what the nation has turned into with regards to food.  They've let some processed food with an ingredient list like this:


POTATO FLAKES (SODIUM BISULFITE, BHA AND CITRIC ACID ADDED TO PROTECT COLOR AND FLAVOR), CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: MONOGLYCERIDES, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED OIL, NATURAL FLAVOR, SODIUM ACID PYROPHOSPHATE, BUTTEROIL.
CONTAINS MILK INGREDIENTS.


Take the place of something that should have an ingredient list like this:

Potatoes, milk, and butter

Maybe people have reasons for not making real mashed potatoes.  I can't think of any...

5 comments:

Lynette said...

Mashed potato snob :-) I've got two cuddly pups down here, and you're missing out big time.

Salli said...

I'll admit...I keep a stash of instant potatoes around for when the craving strikes. In my case, it's at least once a week! I do, however, much prefer the real thing, and have an enormous batch in my fridge at the moment. Try some heavy cream and/or a little touch of cream cheese next time. Pure heaven!

Lynette said...

I will sometimes use heavy cream when I make it, too. Mmmm. It depends on what we have around the house at the time.

JWebbink said...

Try some Boursin sometime...garlicky cheesy goodness in creamy potatoes, yum!

Jeremy Fincher said...

A few tips:

0. If you want consistent results, measure your ingredients: 2lbs potatoes, 1 cup half&half (better than milk :)), 1 stick of butter.

1. Simmer the potatoes, don't boil them. Boiling makes them too watery.

2. Salt the water your potatoes are cooking in. A teaspoon or two is fine depending on how much water you have.

3. Always melt and mix in the butter before the half&half. The fat in the butter coats the starch granules in the potatoes and greatly improves the texture.

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