Skip to content
Open menu Close menu

Feed your appetite for cooking with Penguin’s expert authors

penguin logo

Creamy Mashed Potato

by Gizzi Erskine from Gizzi’s Kitchen Magic

A go-to mashed potato recipe which is both creamy and fluffy. Perfect comfort food, this Gizzi Erskine dish is best made with Maris Pipers, butter and cream.

From the book

Introduction

Could mashed potato be the ultimate comfort food? On a cold winter’s night, there’s a lot to be said for tucking into a bowl of steamy mash drenched in butter. But mash can also be a pie topping and the base for many a dish. The secret to good mash is investing in a potato ricer (which looks like a giant garlic press), as opposed to the traditional potato masher. It will ensure you get lump-free restaurant-style ‘pommes de terre purée’. Also, add the butter once the potato has been mashed and not while you’re mashing it, or you will get lumps. The best mash is somewhere between fluffy and cloud-like, and smooth and creamy.

Read more Read less

Ingredients

6 largish potatoes, peeled (I love Marls Pipers for mash)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
50g butter
50ml milk or cream

Essential kit

You will need a potato ricer.

Method

Place the potatoes in a large pan, cover with cold water and add 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring to the boil, and cook for 15 minutes or until softened and cooked through. Drain well and tip into a bowl.

Pop the potatoes, one at a time, into the potato ricer and squeeze them back into the pan: lots of squiggles of potato will spill out and there will be no lumps! (If you only have a classic potato masher, simply return the potatoes to the pan they were cooked in and mash like crazy until the potatoes are smooth.)

Place the pan on the hob over a medium heat and push the potato up the sides of the pan so you can see the base. Melt the butter and milk or cream in the centre of the base, then whip together with the fluffy potato until it holds its shape but isn’t too stiff.

Season with plenty of salt and pepper and serve.

Cheese mash: Add 85g of your favourite cheese – Cheddar, Stilton or goat’s cheese – to the mash when you add the butter. Mustard mash: Add 1-2 tablespoons of your favourite mustard to the mash when you add the butter. Horseradish mash: Add 1-2 tablespoons horseradish to the mash when you add the butter. Roasted garlic mash: Add a bulb or two of squeezed-out roasted garlic to the mash when you add the butter. Colcannon: Add 6 chopped spring onions and 85g of shredded, cooked green cabbage to the mash when you add the butter.

Comments are closed.

newsletter

Subscribe to The Happy Foodie email newsletter

Get our latest recipes, features, book news and ebook deals straight to your inbox every week

From the book: Gizzi’s Kitchen Magic

Close menu