Basic mashed potatoes
Mashed potatoes are often overlooked as a hugely useful dish. You can tweak the recipe to make a different version every day for a year.
Tools that you will need:
- Saucepan
- Potato masher
- Potato peeler
- Vegetable knife
- Sieve
- Fork
- Spoon
✅ Quick Tips: Read the recipe in its entirety before you start cooking. This will help you understand the ingredients, steps, and timing involved, and allow you to prepare any necessary equipment or ingredients beforehand.
Basic mashed potatoes
Ingredients
Instructions
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Step one
How many potatoes you cook depends on how much you like to eat them. Generally, you would need one med to large potato, like the one pictured, will be enough for two people.
I personally prefer yellow fleshed varieties, but I only had these white ones today. Yellow ones tend to make a more creamy mash, and white ones a more fluffy one. This is only a general rule though.
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Step two
Peel the potatoes and cut into 1 cm slices, or cubes. Smaller pieces will cook faster than larger ones.
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Step 3
Place in a saucepan with enough water to cover.
Add a teaspoon of salt
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Step 4
Turn the hotplate to high, and then, when boiling, turn down to half or less to allow the potatoes to simmer.
They should be cooked in less than 15 minutes.
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Step 5
Poke some pieces with a fork to see if they are soft.
If soft, drain them in a colander and place back in the empty saucepan (or a bowl)
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Step 5
Add about 1 tablespoon of butter to each potato you used. Add a pinch of pepper, and a tablespoon of milk.
Mash the potato until no lumps remain. If you need to add a little more milk, do so.
Serve
Note
You can add other ingredients to the mashed potato to change the flavour -
Chopped onion, a pinch of mustard powder, some chopped bacon, a pinch of smoked paprika, grated cheese, or a squirt of mayo, etc. Don't be afraid to experiment.
- You get the best flavour with butter but you can use marg if that's all you have.
You can cook potatoes in the microwave if you like.
