Buttermilk Mash

Buttermilk Mash
If you like mash, I highly recommend investing in a potato ricer. Something like a giant garlic press, this is one single-use piece of kitchen equipment that my minimalist kitchen wouldn’t do without. The real bonus, apart from perfect fluffy mash every time is that you don’t need to peel the spuds. Just pop them in the press and mash comes out while the skins stay in. If you don’t have a potato ricer, just peel the potatoes before cooking and mash with a hand held masher and lots of muscles.

The type of potato you use will effect your mash. Waxy potatoes tend to produce a naturally more creamy mash, where as floury or baking potatoes tend to give a more fluffy result. Either is good. It’s a good idea to be prepared to play around with your milk and butter amounts to get the perfect result.

enough for 8-10
8 – 10 medium sized potatoes, scrubbed
1 cup buttermilk
3-4oz (80-110g) butter

1. Cover spuds with cold water in a large saucepan. Add some salt, cover with a lid and bring to the boil.

2. Simmer for 40 – 60 minutes or until the potatoes are very tender when tested with a knife.

3. Drain well.

4. Heat the milk in the saucepan until just simmering. Remove from the heat.

5. Pass each potato through the potato ricer letting the riced potato fall into the hot milk.

6. Add butter and whisk until the mash is smooth and fluffy. Taste & season.

Leftover Potential

OK. Re-purpose leftover mash into a shepherds pie (or make a gardners pie with vegetables like eggplant and tomato)

Variations for Serving Sizes

I generally allow 1 medium potato per person. But if I were cooking for a bunch of Irish people, I’d be inclined to increase this to 2(!)

Serves 4 as a side
4 medium sized potatoes, scrubbed
1/2 cup butter milk
2oz (40g) butter

Serves 18- 20 as a side
18 – 20 medium sized potatoes, scrubbed
2 cups butter milk
8oz (200g) butter

Prepare Ahead

Reheated mash tends to go gluey and ick. The best prepare ahead strategy is to cook the potatoes until tender and drain. Return the spuds to the saucepan and keep covered in a warm place until you’re almost ready to serve, a few hours is fine. Then remove potatoes from the saucepan and heat the milk as per step 4 and continue on. You may like to stir over a low heat for a few extra minutes if the milk hasn’t heated things up sufficiently.

Variations

dairy free – replace the milk with unsweetened soy, oat or rice milk and use a little olive oil for richness in place of the butter, but be careful that the oil doesn’t overpower the flavour of the potatoes.

regular mash – replace butter milk with milk.

short on time? – If you want the potatoes to cook quicker, you can cut into quarters or smaller and they’ll only take about 1/2 hour.

different veg – other root veg make great mash, but because they aren’t as starchy as potatoes you can puree them in your food processor instead of using the potato ricer. CAuliflower is another mash favourite.

slow-carb – puree cooked or canned white beans then warm up in a pan with a little milk or butter milk. Won’t need as much butter as the spuds.

luxe mash – after you mash the spuds pass them trough a sieve so they’re super smooth and double the butter. This will give a more Parisian style ‘pommes puree’ and you’ll be getting rave reviews.

Problem Solving Guide

too dry – heat up some more milk and butter and stir through.

too watery – sounds like too much milk or the potatoes weren’t drained properly. Next time cut back on the milk and add a little at a time. For now you can manage expectations and rebrand the potatoes as potato ‘sauce’.

bland – not all potatoes are created equally in the flavour department. A little extra salt and butter can help boost the flavour for now but next time try a different variety of spud.

lumpy – next time cook potatoes for a little longer and mash more aggressively. If it’s really a problem you can pass through a sieve, but this can be very time consuming.

gluey – when potato gets overworked the starch tends to go ‘gluey’ – not the greatest texture. This can increase with time as well. Not much we can do now, but next time, ease up on the muscle power. Pureeing in the food processor or with a stick blender will cause glueyness as well.

Serving Suggestions

Mash works well as a side to so many things. The obvious choice is to serve it with roast meat, steak or bangers (sausages). But it’s also lovely with fish especially fish ‘steaks’ like tuna or swordfish.

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