- [Andy] Hey folks, today
we are learning to make mashed potatoes using nothing
but these strange rocks, thanks to a sponsorship
from Hidden Valley Ranch. Like most people, I love ranch. With Hidden Valley
Ranch's Seasoning Shaker, you can add the flavor
for urban spice blend, all sorts of dishes to
make them taste great. Naturally, the first thing
that comes to my mind is some fully loaded mashed potatoes. Let's get down to basics. (upbeat music) In order to make mashed potatoes, as you may have guessed, we're
going to need some potatoes. First, we're gonna talk types of potatoes, followed by mashing techniques, followed by the requisite mix-ins. So, let's take a look
at the kinds of potatoes you're most likely to find
at your local grocery. First up, the confusingly
named Red Bliss potato. Though normally relegated to roasting, its waxy interior, creamy
texture, and thin skin make it ideal for rustic smashed potatoes. Even more ideal for this
application, I think, are fingerling potatoes, by virtue of their high
skin to flesh ratio. That sounded weird. Next up, grown right here
in the good old US of A, the pride of Idaho, the one
and only Solanum tuberosum, otherwise known as the starchy, fluffy, big honkin' russet Burbank potato. Its high starch content means
that we have to be careful about overmixing, otherwise we will end up with wallpaper paste. Lastly, perhaps the
greatest all-purpose potato, the Yukon gold. Like ugh, Red Bliss potatoes, these have a lower starch content than the russet, but they're less waxy, so, they make for a lighter, fluffier, creamier mashed potato. So, there you have it, your
standard supermarket tubers. Enough talking about potatoes, let's talk about how we
can best mash them up. Let us start with the
lightest and fluffiest, but also, potentially the most finicky, the high starch russet,
which you will notice I am peeling and chopping one at a time. That's because the very
high starch content of this potato will start to oxidize and turn brown rather quickly. So immediately upon
chopping, they are headed into a pre-watered cooking vessel, which we are going to salt
and bring up to a simmer. Starting the potatoes in cold water helps them heat up and cook
more evenly throughout, preventing lumps down the line. Once at a simmer, cook the potatoes for 15 to 20 minutes, until a paring knife
inserted into a potato chunk and twisted effortlessly
cracks the cube in half. Then we just gotta drain these
guys in the sink over there, and then in most cases,
our mashing tool of choice is not a masher at all,
but rather a potato ricer, which is sort of just like
a gargantuan garlic crusher. Why use a potato ricer? Well, two big reasons. First off, it evenly and
lumplessly mashes potatoes. Second, and especially
importantly with russets, it mashes potatoes less traumatically, rupturing fewer starch cells
and keeping your potatoes light and fluffy, not gluey and stringy as can often happen in
overworked mashed potatoes. Now let's take a turn away from the russet and more towards the rustic
with some mashed fingerlings, which just like any potato, we are cutting into evenly sized one-inch chunks. Evenly-sized potatoes ensure even cooking, and are yet another weapon
in the war against lumps. Same deal as before, we
are bringing this to a boil in some heavily salted cool water. Once a boil is reached,
cooking for 15 to 20 minutes until completely
tender before draining, and since we're making
rustic mashed potatoes, this is the one case
in which I can endorse the use of a potato masher. Not only can the lower starch fingerling stand up to the fury of the masher, the rustic texture with
all the skin and everything is gonna cover up any lumps. But what about whipped potatoes, Andy? Well, voice in my head, whipping
potatoes in almost any case means intentionally
overworking the starch. So, if you're gonna do
it, make sure you use the lowest starch potato, the Yukon gold, which as you can see, I'm
not even immediately plunging into cold water, because their
starch content is so low, they will discolor very slowly. Once cut into evenly-sized
one-inch chunks, we are covering with cold
water, generously salting until the water is like
the ocean or tears. Cooking for 15 minutes or until
completely tender, draining, and then if you want to get
the vibe of whipped potatoes, I recommend still ricing them, and then just positively loading them up with the subject of our next chapter of mashed potato knowledge, the mix-ins. Once our potatoes are good and mashed, we must add as a baseline milk and butter. In order to prevent curdling,
you ideally want to use melted butter and refrigerator-cold milk, but having both at room
temperature will work just fine. Do you want light, fluffy mashed potatoes? Well, use russets and
add about 1/4 cup of milk and two tablespoons of unsalted
butter per pound of potato. Do you want smooth,
creamy mashed potatoes? Well, use Yukon golds and
double that milk and butter to potato ratio, swapping
out heavy cream for the milk if you really want to go nuts. Do you really want whipped potatoes? Well, try your hand at pommes aligot, a cheesy French mashed potato in which the starches are
intentionally overworked. Once our eight ounces of heavy cream and four ounces of butter
have been incorporated into our two pounds of riced Yukon golds, we're gonna slowly and in
batches add about 12 ounces of the firm aged Swiss
cheese of your choice. Once incorporated, we're
gonna whip these together using a full-sized whisk
until both the cheese and the overworked starch
have made this stretchy, like somewhere halfway between
mashed potatoes and fondue, the kind of mashed potato that you spread across an oblong plate, topping
with Wagyu beef, demi-glace, and edible flowers. The last bare requirement
of any mashed potato that you're making is
of course, kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. And there you have it, a
bunch of formulas and ratios for the perfect mashed potato to suit your mashed potato needs. But there can be only one
ultimate mashed potato, the fully loaded mashed potato. We're starting with our russets, butter, and heavy cream combo, and beginning our amperage increase with some crispy bacon,
some finely minced chives, an optional teaspoon of cayenne
pepper for a little heat, some scallions for a
little scallion flavor, and you guessed it, a few hefty shakes from our Hidden Valley
Ranch Seasoning Shaker, but even with all that
buttermilk and herb flavor, we're not done. About four ounces of grated cheddar and a few generous twists of
freshly ground black pepper put the kibosh on our potato mix-ins. At long last, it's time to
plate up, but are we done? Are we just gonna serve these as-is? No dude, have you ever met me? We're gonna continue our flavor attack with some ranch compound butter, which is every bit as
delicious as it sounds and made simply by adding a few shakes of our Hidden Valley
Ranch Seasoning Shaker to maybe a half a stick
of unsalted butter, tiny whisking until homogenous
and dolloping generously atop our potatoes. Then we might as well add
more of everything, right? Some more shredded cheese,
some more crispy bacon, some more scallions and chives, and of course, some more shakes from our Hidden Valley
Ranch Seasoning Shaker. And there you have it, thank
you Hidden Valley Ranch for sponsoring this episode and for helping me make the
best salad I've ever eaten. The Seasoning Shaker is great for adding a punch of flavor to anything you make that's missing a little something. You can add it to marinades for meat, sprinkle it on popcorn
or seasoned vegetables. For more from Hidden Valley Ranch, check out the link in the description. (upbeat music)
Now, in some of these recipes, the quantities may seem just a little unusual, uh, like these coconut mockolate holiday nut bars. I've indicated four cups of coconut, and four cups of crushed nut, and only, uh, one tablespoon of mockolate.
As someone who has eaten mashed potatoes several times per week since early childhood and worked as a professional cook, I can’t endorse this video. That cheesy potato paste is not mash. Potato mashers are perfectly fine for mashing potatoes. Cutting them into 1 in cubes is too small IMO and encourages too much water penetration into the potatoes. You should let the potatoes steam dry a for a bit after they’re drained, and that’s when you put cold butter and milk in the pan to warm up (the pan should be back on the hot element, which is turned off). But the trick to taking mash to the next level is, IMO, beating the hell out of them with a wooden spoon once they’re mashed with the masher. Think if it like creaming eggs and sugar - you’re also incorporating air, which makes the mash fluffier.
Obviously, I take mashed potatoes very seriously. 😋
Chef John: "Needs more butter."
I wonder where irish potatoes stand on this scale?
Babish is the man
He ain't the best at the basics