4 Levels of Mashed Potatoes: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious

I'm Emily and I'm a level one chef I'm Lorenzo and I'm a level two chef I'm berry from the Institute of Culinary Education and I've been a professional chef for 16 years I guess mashed potatoes remind me of home a little bit I think we ate a lot of potatoes growing up I mean along with other things not just potatoes I make mashed potatoes at least once a week it's just an easy source to have the meal mashed potatoes are one of my all-time favorite sights and I'm gonna be taking them to the next level by smoking them with hey let's start with our potatoes these are things into baby potatoes Yukon Gold potatoes because it is the creamiest for a mashed potato so firstly I'm going to take mine The Wrap potatoes and I'm going to peel these you can leave the skins on but if I want a creamy mashed potato which I'm doing here I'm gonna take the peel off once you've scraped them you don't have to peel them so I'm gonna just chop them up to make them cook faster because if you do them whole it can take a long time I like these potatoes because they are rich decadent and creamy you can tell that when it cooks down it's just gonna be just silk small potatoes are nice because they cook faster and also they still taste great I mean you're not really losing anything taste wise so I could have kind of all the same kind of size this ensures cooking doneness and I'm just gonna get the water started because I want to bring it up to a boil so now I'm gonna add my potatoes it's a cold water it's not heated whatsoever if we place them into hot water and began cooking them they end up being mushy on the outside and raw in the center and the texture will be poor all right my water is boiling so I'm gonna add my potatoes I'm gonna season the sauce and it's very important now to add enough salt at this stage if we don't have enough salt now we're gonna have to compensate that put at the end and we'll end up with a salty mashed potato let's get these boils and let it boil for about 15 minutes contrary to popular belief you never want to boil a potato as cinema allows them to cook through very evenly these have been boiling for about 25 minutes pork tender so now my protects has been simmering for about 10 minutes they're fully cooked and I'm gonna go ahead and strain them alright potatoes are all drained and now I'm going to the next step which is rising them to make them super smooth I use the potato masher just because it's what I have I'm sure there are fancy devices you could use but I do not know what they are so this little gadget this is called a racer look at that it's raining yumminess I mean hello using a ricer you tend to get more force into the potatoes and you can run the risk of making them gluey I'm gonna pass my potatoes through a Tammy to give myself a super fine texture I'm using a bowl scraper this has a large surface area that you can just carefully push the potatoes through I'm just trying to at this point break down all of the potatoes so you don't have big chunks in here the measure is great also cuz you don't have to go to the gym because of the bicep working well just on the one side I guess alright last bit they smell good honestly I would just eat it like this give me some salt and butter forget forget about it so now you can see my potatoes have a superfine smooth texture all right they're all rice and I'm actually to leave it in this pot and let it rest for a little while just to dry it out a little bit more if you don't try these out you'll end up with pasty mashed potatoes I mean you're not making toothpaste next I'm going to add a unique flavour to my potatoes by smoking them with hay so I'm going to add my potatoes to a sizzle platter then I'm going to place this container which has hay in the bottom on top of heating pad so I've procured this hay from a specialist food supplier so if you're trying this at home please don't run to your nearest field for this you might not get the flavor profile that you're looking for so now that the hay is smoking I'm going to add my potatoes and leave to smoke for about 5 minutes by using hay at this point I'm going to add a supple and grassy note to the mashed potatoes now the potatoes have been in for around 5 minutes my potatoes are fully smoked next I'm going to be making some cultured butter so here we have some live yogurt heavy cream and whisk this together until smooth and we are going to leave this to culture at room temperature for 36 hours so now this has been culturing for 36 hours we're going to add our cultured cream mixture to the Kitchen Aid and I'm going to begin to whip the cream until the butter fat and the buttermilk is separated now we're going to take our butter solids I'm going to place into an ice bath to remove all of the bottom milk I'm going to form it into a roll so we can keep it into the fridge until we need it so while my potatoes are drying I'm going to prep my cream sauce a little bit of olive oil I have my potato spoons of garlic now I'm gonna add my two tabs of butter oh oh I like a lot of butter all right I'm gonna throw my milk in also shooby doo-wop I'm gonna add the masa this will help to diffuse a little Southwest flavor into my mashed potatoes it'll also help thicken my mashed potatoes if I go too far and I had too much stuff so now heavy cream and the heavy cream is going to add some richness to the potatoes and loosen them up a little bit I am going to strain the cream into the potatoes another fun part the hats and adds a button up and we're going to stir this in gently this will add a rich flavor and slightly sour notes from our culture oh my god the potatoes are be infused with who doesn't like butter hello now the butter is incorporated I'm gonna turn down the heat and add creme fraiche this creme fraiche will add a tiny note to the potatoes now let's do a little bit of salt just taste it as you go so that's actually already got a pretty good salt content I'm gonna give it just like a little bit more I say salt content like I know what I'm talking about I'm gonna add some smoked Maldon salt this is a salt from England and it has a smoky flavor to it and this will go perfectly with the smoked potatoes I'm gonna add Tellicherry pepper this is a large peppercorn from India allowing the peppercorn to grow large means that we can get a full aroma without that punch that will take over the flavor from the potatoes and the final thing I'm going to do is add our chives so I have my piping bag here and I'm just gonna fill with the potato mixture and you can see how creamy and rich these potatoes are no serving of mashed potatoes would be complete without gravy this is gravy packet I'm actually reading the packet just quickly to make sure that I know what I'm doing into here and now I'm going to miss the water in its pretty advanced recipe don't try this at home this is rendered bacon fat you guys I am going to bloom these red pepper flakes onions celery and carrots instead of a gravy I'm actually going to be covering my mashed potatoes in a chicken and truffle sauce the first thing I'm going to do is season my chicken wings and now I'm going to heat my pan and I want this super hot and smoky I'm going to add some grapeseed oil I'm choosing the oil with a high smoking point and a neutral flavor for this in go my chicken wings so I used a gravy packet just because it's basically got the flavor of gravy but you don't have to make a whole turkey to get it now my chicken wings have nicely browned I'm going to remove the chicken and put some one side and I'm going to strain my pan of any excess grease shallots off the head of garlic some peppercorns and thyme sage in the hot flavor margarine but it's really really delicious [Music] so my flower is the same amount of butter the flour is going to be used to thicken this so now my aromatics have sauteed and sweated down I'm going to add some Madeira wine this is a dry wine it has caramel and orange notes to it and now it's just going to gently scrape the bottom of the pan releasing all of that delicious chicken flavor and I'm gonna reduce this Madeira down by about three quarters in goes the chicken bar we're getting all the yummy bits from the bottom and now I'm going to add back our roasted chicken wings and we're going to reduce this mixture down to a coating sauce consistency here I have some black truffle this is going to give a luxurious flavor to the sauce at the end now my sauce is reduced and all the flavor has combined now I'm going to strain it please do not throw away any of this that I'm straining bacon in the oven with some butter and some chicken broth and you will have yourself some incredible stuffing now I'm going to add a little bit of cold butter now I'm going to add a pinch of salt now the final component is the nice black truffle we're going to allow this to steep for a minute alright this is looking good it's thickened up a little bit and I think it's ready to go okay let's plate so I'm just gonna do a nice big scoop potatoes looks like a nice abortion right there I have to say so I have my potatoes in the piping bag I just pipe right down the center of the plate like so I'm gonna add my gravy now I'm going to add my chicken in truffle sauce let's go for the cheddar cheese let's add a dab of butter and now my chives and my bacon do I need thanks baby why are you going to have bacon it's bacon I just love bacon and last but not least ground black pepper and here are my mashed potatoes and these are my mashed potatoes and here are my mashed potatoes [Music] these look absolutely delicious I can't wait to dig in you guys is really good but I need potatoes along with the aromatic truffle sauce is fantastic together to me this is Sunday dinner I'm gonna play I love that the Grammy is really good let's take a look at how our three chefs handled making mashed potatoes there are two main categories of potatoes Neely and waxey Neely ones have more starch in their cells and when heated the starches swell and stay separate resulting in a nice fluffy texture in waxy varieties the cells tend to stick together for a more dense results Emily used new potatoes which means they were harvested when they were young these are things games baby potatoes they have a higher water content and a slightly waxy texture that makes them good for roasting and holding their shape Emily left the skin on which will add a bit of texture to the final dish I like the skins I don't mind them the skin also contains phenolic compounds some of which increase the nutritional quality of the potatoes Lorenzo used Yukon Gold potatoes which are slightly waxy and get their buttery color from naturally-occurring carotenoid pigments it is the creamiest for a mashed potato better use a specialty type of fingerling potato called vrat which is from France they're more on the mealy side so their cells stay separated after cooking which means you can coat each cell with lots of butter each chef used a different method of mashing Emily used a hand masher I use the potato masher just because it's what I have this is simple and fine but doesn't copes as much starch out of her potato sells as other methods do the more starch that is hopes out the more that can be coated in butter or other fats to make a creamier dish Lorenzo extruded his potatoes through a ricer this process added small amounts of air to them resulting in smooth slightly fluffy mashed potatoes barry used a special piece of equipment called a tammy it's latinus provided more surface area for extruding the starch out of the soft boiled potatoes and aided in promoting fluffiness Emily added butter and heavy cream to flavor her potatoes I like a lot of butter the butter she used was unsalted which allowed her to control the saltiness of the final product the heavy cream added a smooth opacity lorenzo made a cream sauce flavored with garlic and thickened with the corn based starch masa however potatoes are already inherently starchy so the masses thickening properties are only really beneficial if your mashed potatoes are ready whoops Lorenzo's Yukon Gold potatoes are a combination of mealy and waxy so they can withstand the massive amounts of butter he added the butter coats the individual potato cells and adds a ton of flavor and decadence barrios fermentation to add a tangy quality to his potatoes mixing live cultures from yogurt with heavy cream and storing at room temperature for 36 hours allowed lactic acid bacterial cultures to grow this lowers the pH which is where the Tang comes from and thickens the heavy cream by destabilizing the proteins all of these things helped to make his potato silky smooth and creamy he also smoked his potatoes by igniting hay giving them an earthy musty flavor each of the chef's made a gravy which is essentially hot liquid thickened with a roux that's equal parts fat and starch the ruth thickens by a process called gelatinization in this process heat is added hydrogen bonds within the starch molecules are broken and water is absorbed Emily's gravy is a processed and convenient product packet it includes dry pre gelatinize starch in the form of powder seasonings and coloring products like these are salty and worked well if you're nervous about making a lumpy gravy this is very clumpy but it's I'm level 1 it's okay if it looks terrible lorenzo used aromatic vegetables and spices to make his gravy really feel it he also used chicken stock which lightened its color and rendered bacon fat with all-purpose flour to make the roux and thicken it any fat and starch together will thicken a liquid although you don't want to add cold flour directly to a hot broth the outside of the flour particles will do that nice and form a membrane around the dry starchy interiors forming lumps Barry made a chicken based gravy by sauteing chicken wings at a high temperature in neutral grapeseed oil berries flavorings included a sweet fortified wine from Portugal called Madeira which added residual sweetness to his potatoes Emily made her mashed potatoes as a side dish her green sprinkling of parsley is visually appealing and added a fresh quality for his toppings lorenzo used chives and added more butter and black pepper he also added bacon and cheddar cheese the cheese added additional layers of fat and saltiness with sharp pungent notes to balance the salt from the bacon barry has complex and complicated mashed potatoes so his simple topping of chives is a refreshing visually appealing note adding a slight oniony flavor without changing the chemistry of his dish these flavors are a perfect marriage together mashed potatoes seem like they're just a simple part of your meal but there are plenty of things you can do to kick them up a notch [Music]

Channel: Epicurious

Views: 6,864,426

Keywords: mashed potatoes, thanksgiving, recipe, expert chef, amateur chef, make mashed potatoes, mashed potatoes recipe, mashed potatos, expert mashed potatoes, creamy mashed potatoes, best mashed potatoes, perfect mashed potatoes, thanksgiving mashed potatoes, homemade mashed potatoes, thanksgiving sides, mashed potato thanksgiving, easy mashed potato, mashed potato, make mashed potato, fresh mashed potato, mashed potato recipe, smashed potato, smashed potatoes, epicurious

Id: zCDqcMAjl80

Length: 16min 9sec (969 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 27 2019