Read The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook Online
Authors: The Editors at America's Test Kitchen
Tags: #Cooking
The Cook's Illustrated Cookbook (128 page)
SERVES 4
Russet potatoes make fluffier mashed potatoes, but Yukon Golds have an appealing buttery flavor and can be used.
2 | pounds russet potatoes |
8 | tablespoons unsalted butter, melted |
1 | cup half-and-half, warmed |
1¹⁄ | teaspoons salt |
Pepper |
1.
Place potatoes in large saucepan and cover with 1 inch cold water. Bring to boil over high heat, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until potatoes are just tender (paring knife can be slipped in and out of potatoes with little resistance), 20 to 30 minutes. Drain.
2.
Set ricer or food mill over now-empty saucepan. Using potholder (to hold potatoes) and paring knife, peel skins from potatoes. Working in batches, cut peeled potatoes into large chunks and press or mill into saucepan.
3.
Stir in butter until incorporated. Gently whisk in half-and-half, add salt, and season with pepper to taste. Serve.
Avoid using unusually large garlic cloves, which will not soften adequately during toasting. For chunky mashed potatoes, use a potato masher, decrease the half-and-half to ³⁄
4
cup, and mash the garlic to a paste with a fork before you add it to the potatoes.
Toast 22 unpeeled garlic cloves (about 3 ounces, or ²⁄
3
cup), covered, in 8-inch skillet over low heat, shaking pan frequently, until cloves are dark spotty brown and slightly softened, about 22 minutes. Off heat, let sit, covered, until fully softened, 15 to 20 minutes. Peel cloves and, with paring knife, cut off woody root end; set aside. Press or mill garlic along with potatoes in step 2.
Reduce salt to 1¹⁄
4
teaspoons and stir in 4 ounces grated smoked Gouda cheese (1 cup) along with half-and-half; set pot over low heat and stir until cheese is melted and incorporated. Stir in 3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives.
You can substitute 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish for the grated fresh horseradish.
After stirring butter into potatoes in step 3, season with 1¹⁄
2
teaspoons salt and ¹⁄
2
teaspoon pepper. Whisk 2 tablespoons prepared horseradish, ¹⁄
4
cup grated fresh horseradish, and 3 minced scallions, green parts only, into warm half-and-half. Add mixture to potatoes and stir until just combined. Serve immediately.
After stirring butter into potatoes in step 3, season with 1¹⁄
4
teaspoons salt and ¹⁄
2
teaspoon pepper. Add 2 tablespoons whole grain mustard and 3 ounces grated smoked cheddar cheese (³⁄
4
cup) with half-and-half, and stir until just combined. Serve immediately.
Don’t be deterred by the extra steps in these mashed potatoes—they are worth the trouble.
While potatoes are simmering, toast 1 teaspoon smoked paprika in 8-inch skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Transfer to small bowl; set aside. Melt 8 tablespoons butter in small saucepan over medium-low heat. Add 3 minced garlic cloves, reduce heat to low, and cook, stirring frequently, until garlic begins to brown, 12 to 14 minutes. Remove saucepan from heat immediately and set aside for 5 minutes (garlic will continue to brown). Pour butter-garlic mixture through mesh strainer; reserve butter and set toasted garlic aside. Rice or mill potatoes as directed, then stir butter into potatoes until just incorporated. Season potatoes with toasted paprika, 1¹⁄
2
teaspoons salt, and ¹⁄
2
teaspoon pepper. Add warm half-and-half and stir until just combined. Serve immediately, sprinkling with reserved toasted garlic.
SERVES 4
The port adds a sweet depth to the onions that perfectly complements the blue cheese.
ONIONS
1¹⁄ | teaspoons unsalted butter |
1¹⁄ | teaspoons vegetable oil |
¹⁄ | teaspoon light brown sugar |
¹⁄ | teaspoon salt |
1 | pound onions, halved and sliced ¹⁄ |
1 | cup ruby port |
POTATOES
³⁄ | cup half-and-half |
1 | teaspoon chopped fresh thyme |
2 | pounds russet potatoes |
6 | tablespoons unsalted butter, melted |
1¹⁄ | teaspoons salt |
¹⁄ | teaspoon pepper |
4 | ounces blue cheese, crumbled (1 cup) |
1. FOR THE ONIONS:
Heat butter and oil in 8-inch nonstick skillet over high heat until butter melts, then stir in sugar and salt. Add onions, stir to coat, and cook, stirring occasionally, until onions begin to soften and release some moisture, about 5 minutes. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently, until onions are deeply browned and sticky, about 35 minutes longer (if onions are sizzling or scorching, reduce heat; if onions are not browning after 15 minutes, increase heat). Stir in port and continue to cook until port reduces to glaze, 4 to 6 minutes.
2. FOR THE POTATOES:
While onions are cooking, bring half-and-half and thyme to boil in small saucepan; cover to keep warm.
3.
Place potatoes in large saucepan and cover with 1 inch cold water. Bring to boil over high heat, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer until potatoes are just tender (paring knife can be slipped in and out of potatoes with very little resistance), 20 to 30 minutes. Drain.
4.
Set ricer or food mill over now-empty saucepan. Using potholder (to hold potatoes) and paring knife, peel skins from potatoes. Working in batches, cut peeled potatoes into large chunks and press or mill into saucepan.
5.
Stir in butter until just incorporated. Add salt and pepper, then gently stir in half-and-half and blue cheese until just combined. Serve immediately topped with onions.
CAN YOU SLICE ONIONS AHEAD?
Old wives’ tales claim that storing slices of chopped onions in water will help keep their pungency from intensifying, but we found the exact opposite to be the case. We stored sliced onions for two days submerged in water as well as placed directly in zipper-lock bags, and then compared their odor and flavor to freshly sliced onions. The onions submerged in water were unanimously deemed to be the most odorous with the sharpest flavor. It turns out that over time, water facilitates the distribution of enzymes across the cut surfaces of the onion, which in turn leads to an increase in the creation of the thiosulfinates that produce an onion’s strong odor and flavor. Your best bet to tame onion flavor is to simply slice or chop onions as you need them, but if you find yourself with an excess, store them in the fridge in a zipper-lock bag and give them a quick rinse right before using to remove any thiosulfinates on the surface. One trick that does work? Slicing the onion with the grain, from pole to pole, ruptures fewer cells and releases fewer enzymes that cutting against the grain, giving you less pungent onions.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
Merely replacing butter and cream with buttermilk to create tangy, creamy buttermilk mashed potatoes doesn’t work—the finished potatoes are curdled, crumbly, chalky, and dry. We wanted easy mashed potatoes with buttermilk’s trademark distinctive tang, but we didn’t want to sacrifice texture to get them. Many recipes for buttermilk mashed potatoes remove so much butter that the potatoes taste lean and lack creaminess. We started by restoring some of the butter, then we tackled the curdling problem. By adding the butter, melted, to room-temperature buttermilk, we coated the proteins in the buttermilk and protected them from the heat shock that causes curdling. We also simplified the recipe by choosing peeled and cut Yukon Gold potatoes rather than using unpeeled russets (our usual choice for mashed potatoes). Because Yukon Golds have less starch and are less absorbent than russets, they don’t become soggy and thinned out when simmered without their skins.
SERVES 4
To achieve the proper texture, it is important to cook the potatoes thoroughly; they are done if they break apart when a knife is inserted and gently wiggled. Buttermilk substitutes such as clabbered milk do not produce sufficiently tangy potatoes. To reduce the chance of curdling, the buttermilk must be at room temperature when mixed with the cooled melted butter.
2 | pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks |
Salt and pepper | |
6 | tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled |
²⁄ | cup buttermilk, room temperature |
1.
Place potatoes in large saucepan and cover with 1 inch cold water. Add 1 tablespoon salt, bring to boil over high heat, then reduce heat to medium and simmer until potatoes break apart when paring knife is inserted, about 18 minutes. Drain potatoes and return to saucepan set on still-hot burner.
2.
Using potato masher, mash potatoes until few small lumps remain. Gently mix melted butter and buttermilk in small bowl until combined. Add buttermilk mixture to potatoes and, using rubber spatula, fold gently until just incorporated. Season with salt and pepper to taste; serve immediately.
Add 1 minced garlic clove, 3 scallions, sliced very thin, 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley, and ¹⁄
3
cup sour cream along with buttermilk mixture in step 2.
Add 1 bay leaf to saucepan with potatoes in step 1. While potatoes are cooking, melt 1 tablespoon unsalted butter in 8-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add 1 leek, white and light green parts only, halved lengthwise, sliced ¹⁄
4
inch thick, and washed thoroughly. Cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned and wilted, about 8 minutes. Add leek and 3 tablespoons minced fresh chives to potatoes with buttermilk mixture in step 2.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
For our
CLASSIC MASHED POTATOES
, we boiled potatoes in their jackets for earthy potato flavor (and peeled them while still hot). We don’t mind this somewhat inconvenient method when we’ve got time to spare, but thought an easier alternative was in order. Cooking potatoes in their skins keeps the starch granules from absorbing too much water, thereby preventing gluey mashed potatoes. To give peeled potatoes the same protection, we made two alterations. Steaming rather than boiling the potatoes exposed the potato pieces to less water, reducing the chance of the granules swelling to the point of bursting. When they were cooked partway, we rinsed them under cold water to rid them of free amylose, the substance that results in gluey mashed potatoes, and returned them to the steamer to finish cooking. Because potatoes cooked this way are so full of rich potato flavor, we were able to use less butter and substitute whole milk for cream.