Technology of cooking mashed potatoes

In addition to choosing the right variety of potatoes, it is necessary to observe the technology of its cooking:

• Wash the potatoes, peel and cut into quarters. Do not keep the chopped vegetable in cold water for a long time, but immediately lay it in boiling water. With prolonged exposure to cold water, the starch is washed out.
• To cook the potatoes evenly, cook them over low heat, with the lid closed. Equally important is the amount of water for cooking. The water should only slightly cover the cut potatoes.
• The cooking time is within 15-20 minutes, you should not overcook the vegetable, as it will disintegrate, and the mashed potatoes will no longer be so tasty, and when whipping, lumps may form in it. To check if the potatoes are ready, pierce them with a fork or a toothpick - they should easily penetrate the piece.
• As soon as the potatoes are ready, the water must be drained. To knead it, use a crush, preferably a wooden one, blender or mixer. Experienced chefs advise to knead boiled potatoes with a crush - the mashed potatoes are unusually soft and airy.

How to make mashed potatoes with milk

To make mashed potatoes, you need milk and butter; some recipes include a chicken egg or one egg yolk. The tenderness and taste of the puree depends on the quality and quantity of butter. Do not use butter substitutes for whipping potatoes: spread, margarine, when using them, the taste of the dish will only worsen and it will not be as useful as with butter.

Calculate the amount of butter about 50-100 grams per 0.5 kg of potatoes. In addition to butter, milk gives a delicate creamy taste to mashed potatoes. Its amount should be calculated "by eye", depending on the consistency of the puree you want to get. Milk should be added hot so that it is warm rather than cold when serving. It is believed that the color of the puree is influenced by the temperature of the milk. This is not true.

Its color is influenced by the potato variety, which can impart a light, creamy or yellowish tint to the dish. Beat the potatoes with a wooden crush until the potato-creamy mass is creamy and smooth and the lumps disappear. The splendor and airiness of the dish depends on the intensity and vigor of whipping. To facilitate the work, you can use kitchen helpers: a mixer or blender.

The most delicious mashed potatoes recipes

Recipe number 1. Classic recipe for mashed potatoes with milk

Ingredients for mashed potatoes (for 4 servings):

• potatoes - 1 kg;
• milk - about 200 ml;
• butter -50-100 grams;
• salt.

For the classic mashed potatoes, boil the chopped potatoes and drain. Mash it thoroughly, add soft butter and hot milk, whisking vigorously. When it becomes airy, soft, salt the dish, it is ready to serve.

Recipe No. 2. Paprika puree with bell pepper

Bulgarian pepper and spices give the dish an unusual taste, aroma and color. "Paprica" Mashed potatoes will decorate the festive table.

Ingredients:

• potatoes - 4-5 pcs;
• Bulgarian red pepper - 1pc;
• butter4
• spices: ketchup with bell pepper - 100 ml, thyme, basil, salt.

How to cook:

• Boil peeled, quartered potatoes.
• While it is cooking, prepare the pepper: wash, peel and cut into pieces. Add chunks of pepper to boiling potatoes 10 minutes after boiling and continue to cook.
• After the vegetables are cooked, drain the water from the pan. The peculiarity of the recipe is that it does not use milk, but the water in which the vegetables were cooked, so drain the water into a separate container.
• Knead vegetables with a crush, adding water after boiling and ketchup, turning them into a puree mass. The spicier the ketchup, the more savory the dish will taste.
• Add a piece of butter, spices: thyme, basil to the mixture and stir. Serve the flavorful dish hot.

Recipe number 3. Mashed potatoes with cream cheese and tomatoes

Often served in Italian restaurants, this exquisite dish you can prepare at home for your family. The taste of this puree is unforgettable and very unusual, not at all like the classic one.

Ingredients:

• Potatoes - 5-6 pcs;
• Tomatoes -2 pcs of medium size;
• Creamy soft cheese - 100 gr;
• Butter, sunflower oil;
• Seasonings: 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, salt

How to cook:

1. Boil the potatoes, cut into 4 parts in water, after boiling the water, salt.
2. Wash the tomatoes, cut into cubes (finely), also chop the garlic. In a hot skillet, greased with butter, quickly fry the garlic and add the tomato slices to it. Saute the vegetables, for a few minutes, sprinkle with sesame seeds at the end.
3. Let's start making an unusual puree. Mash the potatoes, adding a little of the liquid left over from boiling the potatoes, cheese and butter.
4. Put the fried vegetables from the pan into the potato mass, stir and serve hot to the table.

Recipe number 4. French-style mashed potatoes with mustard

The spicy, sophisticated taste of this puree is given by the French Dijon mustard with grains, and sour cream, which can also be replaced with heavy cream, will make the dish juicy.

Ingredients:

• Potatoes - 5-6 pieces;
• Sour cream or cream (fatty) -100 ml;
• Pine nuts;
• Dijon mustard - 3 tablespoons, spices, salt. \

How to cook:

1. Boil the potatoes until tender, after boiling, do not forget to salt.
2. Fry pine nuts in a hot dry skillet (4-5 minutes) and chop them.
3. Grind the boiled potatoes with a crush, gradually pouring in the liquid remaining during cooking. Add sour cream or warmed cream, nuts and mustard to the mixture. Mix everything until smooth, fluffy and serve.

Recipe number 5. Mashed potatoes with cheese

Ingredients:

• Potatoes - 0.5 kg;
• Butter - 50-100 grams;
• Hard cheese -200 grams;
• Garlic - 2 cloves, salt, pepper.

Preparation:

1. Boil the potatoes in boiling water, drain the water. Mash it until smooth.
2. Peel the garlic, fry in butter for about 2 minutes.
3. Grate hard cheese.
4. Add garlic, cheese, butter to the crushed potatoes, salt and pepper. Serve hot cream cheese.

Recipe number 6. Mashed potatoes "Tenderness"

The mashed potatoes prepared according to this recipe turns out to be unusually tender and very tasty. Your household will rightfully appreciate the recipe, and they will beg you to cook this dish again!

Ingredients:

• Potatoes-12 pcs;
• Milk cream - 0.5 cups;
• Butter - 2 tablespoons;
• salt.

Preparation:

1. Boil the potatoes, drain the water. Cover the pot with a towel and place over low heat. Dry the boiled potatoes a little so that the moisture evaporates from it. This is done so that the dry potatoes can absorb as much butter and cream as possible.
2. Mash the potatoes thoroughly so that there are no lumps.
3. Add butter to the crushed potatoes (pre-melt it using the microwave).
4. Add hot cream or milk to the mixture, whisking until creamy.
5. Add salt and spices. We serve to the table.

Recipe number 7. Mashed potatoes with pumpkin and sage

How to prepare delicious, bright and very aromatic puree? The bright yellow pumpkin in this super recipe gives the dish a sunny color, and the sage adds flavor to the dish.

Ingredients:

• Potatoes - 0.5 kg;
• Pumpkin - 0.4 kg;
• Parmesan - 50 grams;
• Drain oil - 50 grams;
• Milk - 200 ml;
• Sage - 4 sprigs, nutmeg, salt

Preparation:

1. Boil the potatoes, drain the water.
2. In a separate bowl, boil the pumpkin cut into large pieces, add a sprig of sage for flavor and cook for about 10 minutes.
3. Parmesan should be grated on a coarse grater.
4. In a skillet with butter, simmer the sage sprigs a little to make sage oil.
5. Boiled vegetables: mash potatoes and pumpkin until puree, gradually adding hot milk, parmesan, sage oil and seasoning with nutmeg. Season with salt to taste.

How to make mashed potatoes delicious and tender - the secrets and subtleties of cooking:

• One important point preparation of tasty and healthy puree is a thorough cleaning of potato tubers from eyes, dark spots, unripe places. It is unacceptable to get them into the dish.
• The best cutting for boiling potatoes is to cut the tuber into 4 parts, a finely chopped vegetable loses many useful substances during cooking.
• To add airiness and splendor to the dish, beat it several times. The first one - with a crush, the second - with a mixer.
• In addition to milk and liquid, where the potatoes were cooked, you can use hot meat broth.
• Adding an egg will give the crushed potatoes more nutritional value and more filling.
• Green onions, thyme, basil, nutmeg, saffron are added to the dish as spices and seasonings.

Secrets of mashed potatoes

What could be easier than making mashed potatoes? But for some reason, not every housewife has it tasty. How to make mashed potatoes correctly?

Everyone knows that mashed potatoes are crushed boiled potatoes with butter and milk. It is usually used as a side dish, sometimes as a main dish for a child.
It is surprising, but some housewives make such a simple dish look like a gray paste or a lumpy mass stuck in the throat.

How to make mashed potatoes

The recipe for mashed potatoes is surprisingly simple:

Peel and boil potatoes, salt at the end of cooking;
Drain and mash the potatoes with a crush;
Add butter and milk;
Grind the puree again well.

Why do you sometimes have to choke on tasteless mashed potatoes? What are the hostesses doing wrong?

Secrets of delicious mashed potatoes

1. Potatoes must be completely cooked. Check with a fork; it should freely pierce the tubers.

2. There should be a lot of butter, not a small piece on a huge saucepan.
Take at least 80-100 grams per pound of potatoes.
It is the butter that makes the puree tender and gives a pleasant creamy taste.
All butter substitutes, spreads and margarines are not foods that can be considered healthy.
And they won't make the mashed potatoes tasty.

3. There should also be a lot of liquid in the puree. This is usually warm milk.

Often on culinary sites you can find the statement: do not add cold milk to hot mashed potatoes - the mashed potatoes will turn gray. This is far from always the truth, rather it is not at all true.
The color of the puree depends on the type of potato, and not on the temperature of the milk poured in.
There are varieties, boiled tubers of which turn blue when cooled and retain this color, even if the cooled potatoes are heated.
If mashed potatoes of this particular kind and it has cooled down from adding cold milk, there is nothing you can do about it. In all other cases, the temperature of the milk does not really matter if the mashed potatoes are served immediately.
From yellow tubers, mashed potatoes turn out to be yellow, from white ones - yellowish-cream.

4. Boiled potatoes are not enough just to crush, they need to be turned into a homogeneous mass without lumps. In fact, you need to whip the puree, then it will look like a cream.

Quite often it is advised to beat mashed potatoes with a mixer. However, an ordinary crush with holes works great.
At first, the process is rather difficult: you need to crush all the potatoes, add milk and butter, make sure that the hot liquid does not splash on your hands.

As the puree turns into a homogeneous mass, the process becomes easier - you need not stop there, but continue to beat vigorously further.
Mashed potatoes become fluffier and creamier before our eyes.
If at the beginning of the process it seemed watery, like a mess, then by the end it will become thicker.

What can you add to mashed potatoes?

To give a special taste, sour cream, cream, and processed cheese are added to mashed potatoes.
Sometimes a fresh, raw egg is hammered in.

Someone likes mashed potatoes with a clove of garlic or grated Parmesan, and someone with onions or cracklings fried well in vegetable oil.

Mashed potatoes are both a dietary dish for children and the sick, and a popular side dish for meat and fish. In addition to potatoes, butter and milk, you can add a variety of ingredients to it.

How to choose mashed potatoes

Classic mashed potatoes are boiled and whipped potatoes with hot milk and butter.

To make mashed potatoes tasty, you need to follow a few rules. Potatoes should be of those varieties that loosen and crumble during cooking - "starchy". If the tuber remains outwardly unchanged, although it has been cooked, then such a potato is suitable for frying, but it will not work out tender mashed potatoes.

How to prepare mashed potatoes

First, the potatoes should be thoroughly peeled. This applies not only to the peel, but also to the "eyes".
The pulp around them does not boil well, therefore you should not spoil your lunch or dinner, it is better to remove these places right away.
It is not advisable to cook whole potatoes for mashed potatoes.
It's worth chopping it up.
In this case, the pieces should be approximately the same shape and size.
This will allow them to cook at the same time.
You don't need to cut finely either, otherwise you risk getting useless puree.
All its nutrients and nutrients will remain in the broth.

The milk must be hot.

Puree loves to be whipped for a long time.
When it has a smooth, creamy consistency, it means it can be served.
And if it is still far from homogeneity and creaminess, we continue to work with a crush or blender. Serve only hot.
When heated it loses its wonderful taste.

The best mashed potatoes recipes

1. Boil the potatoes in water for 10 minutes, then drain the water, pour in boiling milk and bring to readiness. Mash in mashed potatoes.

2.Mash the potatoes in mashed potatoes. Stir sour cream with grated cheese and finely chopped garlic, season the potatoes with this mixture. The mashed potatoes need to be kept in the oven for a little so that the sour cream warms up.

3. Mash the potatoes in mashed potatoes, pour boiling chicken broth (by analogy with the recipe for mashed potatoes with milk), beat well.

4. Season the puree with garlic, crushed with herbs, dill seeds, diluted with melted butter.

5. Beat 1-2 egg yolks with a few tablespoons of sour cream, season with mashed potatoes with this mixture. If you are not sure about the quality of the eggs, then do not use this version of the dish. Otherwise, you run the risk of picking up unpleasant, and even dangerous diseases.

6. Add greaves (fry) with a small amount of melted fat to mashed potatoes and beat.

7. Grate hard cheese on a fine grater. Dilute the puree slightly with boiling milk, add cheese and mix thoroughly. The volume of cheese should be about a quarter of the volume of mashed potatoes.

8. Mash the potatoes, add a piece of butter, mix with finely chopped herbs (dill, green onions, parsley) and garlic.

9. In mashed potatoes, diluted with milk, add a handful of crushed walnuts.

Mashed potatoes can be served as a side dish for fish and meat dishes, or can be used in casseroles or rolls. To make the puree tasty, you need to know the secrets of its preparation.

How to make mashed potatoes - what to look for

Secrets of delicious mashed potatoes:

• For mashed potatoes, use well-boiled potatoes.
• Before cooking, peel the potatoes and keep them in cold water for 30 minutes.
• Place potatoes the same size in a saucepan, or cut the potatoes into equal pieces.
• When cooking potatoes, do not put salt. Add it to the ready-made puree.
• Turn the potatoes into mashed potatoes immediately after boiling them, i.e. very hot.
• To make the mashed potatoes tender and tasty, pour boiling milk or cream into it when pushing the potatoes.
• Add butter or margarine to the puree, already melted and hot.
• Use the perforated stainless steel pusher to make the puree. Do not use a blender - it will turn the potatoes into a gooey mass.
• You can flavor mashed potatoes not only with milk and butter, but also with any finely chopped herbs.

How to make regular mashed potatoes

• Fill the potatoes with water so that it covers the top layer by one finger. Bring the potatoes to a boil and cook for 20 to 30 minutes. Determine readiness with a sharp, thin knife - it should easily pierce the potatoes.
• Use a crush to crush the potatoes until smooth. At the same time, pour in as much milk or cream as thick or sparse you want the puree to be. For 1 kg of liquid potatoes, you need 1.5 to 2 glasses.
• Pour melted butter (from 50 to 100 g) into the resulting puree and add salt to taste. Stir the puree with a spoon.

Before serving, keep the mashed potatoes in a hot oven, but no more than 30 minutes.

How to make colored mashed potatoes

For 4 parts of potatoes, take 1 part of carrots (800 and 200 g). Cut the peeled carrots into cubes and boil in a separate bowl until soft. Pour the water, and rub the carrots through a strainer. Use the recipe above for mashed potatoes. Along with butter, stir in to potatoes and carrot puree.

You can also make mashed potatoes with beets or spinach in the same way. You will then have a purple and green puree. Colored puree is good for children who are capricious at the table and do not like potato dishes.

How to make spicy mashed potatoes

These mashed potatoes are served in the trendiest restaurants and they cost a lot of money. But it is very easy to cook it at home:

• Take a head of garlic and cut it in half lengthwise. Place the garlic on a sheet of foil and add 10 cm of the white leek to it. Pour the vegetables with olive oil and wrap the foil. Bake them in a hot oven for 25-30 minutes. After the onions and garlic are tender, beat them in a blender. Peel the garlic before this.
• In a blender, chop a bunch of parsley and a bunch of cilantro.
• Make regular mashed potatoes, but instead of milk, add boiling pure water to it, and instead of butter, add olive oil.
• Combine mashed potatoes, garlic and onion puree, and herbs. Do not forget to salt and pepper the dish.

Mashed potatoes with the addition of celery root turn out to be very tasty. You can take equal parts of vegetables and cook them together. After the potatoes and celery are tender, use any recipe in this article.

Who doesn't love ?! Now it is even difficult to imagine our kitchen without potatoes. Sometimes potatoes are even called "second bread". And there are so many different options for cooking potatoes - fried, boiled, baked. Potatoes are used for pies and pies, zraz and casseroles, even for making dough! And, of course, everyone's favorite mashed potatoes, which are prepared both for a festive table and for a simple family dinner.

But just a couple of centuries ago, our ancestors did not even know about the existence of this vegetable. Who first brought to Russia and taught us to eat potatoes is not known for certain. It is believed that this was the inquisitive Tsar Peter I, the author of a large number of innovations in Russia, many of which were introduced by force. There is a belief that, upon learning about this vegetable in Europe, he sent a potato as a gift to Count Sheremetev. Having bitten a seemingly unsightly fruit, even fearing to call the royal anger on his head, the count could not hide his disgust. Potatoes were tried raw, sometimes even instead of root vegetables, they ate green seeds formed on the plant itself. The first acquaintance of our ancestors with potatoes was not very pleasant. Another confirmation of how important it is to cook correctly and tasty!

But in the 18th century the potatoes were “tasted”. Most likely, they just learned how to cook. At first it was a delicacy among the nobility, and then potatoes spread so much throughout Russia that they became a common food for ordinary people. And now there is no more popularly beloved "Russian" vegetable than potatoes.

I had one friend, the sweetest soul man. It was always a pleasure to spend time with her. From my point of view, she had only one drawback - she did not know how to cook. Do you know what could be worse than a wife who knows how to cook, but does not like to do it? Only that wife who does not know how, but loves to cook. Always with some inner horror, I tried my friend's dishes. If there was a talent for “cooking poorly,” then she clearly possessed it.

Once it was as a treat. Seeing this, I sighed with relief, because it is simply impossible to cook badly! Fried potatoes can be undercooked, overcooked, salted, baked - overdried. But what could be simpler? Even if you oversalt the potatoes during cooking, you can correct it by adding milk, and you can only completely forget about the mashed potatoes to digest! How wrong I was ... you can even screw it up.

But if you use a few simple tips, you can prepare a delicious dish. So:

Choosing and preparing potatoes

Not all potatoes can be mashed. There are varieties of potatoes that, no matter how long you cook, they still will not become soft enough. In such a boiled and pounded potato, pieces will still come across, the mashed potatoes will never be sufficiently homogeneous. By the way, such varieties are poorly suited for mashed potatoes, but they are ideal for and, where it is just important that the potatoes do not lose their structure.

It is important to wash the potatoes and peel them well not only of the peel and eyes, but also of all the darkened spots found under the peel. All these places are like bruises on the body, there is nothing good there. Yes and color mashed potatoes can be tainted. When peeling potatoes, do not store peeled potatoes outdoors - the potatoes will begin to darken.

Peeled potatoes can be cut into arbitrary pieces. The main thing is that they are not too large, and not too small, and what is very important - approximately the same size. Pieces that are too large will cause the surface and the core to cook unevenly. Too small will release nutrients into the water. Pieces of different sizes require different cooking times, and in the same saucepan the small ones will boil while the large ones will still be soggy.

Cook potatoes

There should not be too much water just to cover the surface of the potatoes. After bringing to a boil, you need to remove the foam. Yes, just like when cooking meat broth. There is nothing good or useful in this foam, on the contrary, and it can spoil the taste and appearance of the puree. You need to salt not immediately after boiling water, as many housewives do, but 7-10 minutes after boiling. Salt water will increase the cooking time and cause the potatoes to be hard. To determine how much salt you need, just taste the water, stirring it first after adding the salt. The water should be pleasantly salty, if the water tastes too salty, it will turn out to be too salty mashed potatoes... Another, in my opinion, mistake is to salt the potatoes directly during cooking. mashed potatoes from boiled potatoes. The salt does not have time to combine with the potatoes, and you get a bit of salt.

The water should not boil violently, since the surface of the potatoes will boil faster than the middle, which will affect the uniformity, you also cannot cook the potatoes over very low heat - it will take forever, and friability will not appear. The taste will be irreparably spoiled.

When a knife or fork easily and effortlessly enters the potato, it is ready. We drain the water in which it was boiled. And we do mashed potatoes immediately, until the potatoes are cold. If you need mashed potatoes, say, for, it is still better to cook it, and then leave to cool. Because if the potatoes cool down, they will lose their friability.

Cooking mashed potatoes

Drain the water immediately after cooking. The potatoes must be minced very quickly until they are puree. The water in which the potatoes are boiled is often used to add it back to the mashed potatoes, making them softer and more juicy. But it is better to use warmed milk for this purpose. Never add cold milk to potatoes or cold butter. The difference in temperature will not have the best effect on taste and texture.

Knead the potatoes with a regular crush. It is better not to use a blender and mixer: in this case mashed potatoes will turn into a homogeneous sticky semi-liquid mass. Nowadays, a press is gaining popularity, through which boiled potatoes are pressed to obtain mashed potatoes. This press is the ideal tool for producing a smooth, lump-free puree without the risk of crushing and sticky texture.

We diversify the taste

Keep in mind that different types of potatoes have different tastes. And accordingly, different varieties of potatoes will taste different. mashed potatoes... If you first hold the potatoes in the freezer, and then cook from it mashed potatoes, then it will turn out to be sweetish, under the influence of temperature the structure of starch is destroyed. "Frozen" potatoes are not stored for a long time, so if you use this trick, then only directly with the amount of potatoes that will be immediately used.

Additional ingredients are added to the shredded potatoes. It can be boiling milk (or cream) or butter. Sour cream can be added instead of milk and butter. Puree with the addition of soft cream cheese, for example, "Philadelphia", will be very airy and with a pleasant cheese flavor. Chopped herbs, dill, parsley, onions will give a pleasant spring freshness. Olive oil and garlic add a unique piquancy. Fried bacon - "meaty taste". Turmeric not only gives mashed potatoes nice yellow tint, but also very useful.

In addition to turmeric, other products can be used to add color. For example, chopped green peas will make mashed potatoes green, carrot juice orange, tomato juice red, and boiled beets burgundy. And by adding mashed potatoes (yam), you can not only decorate the mashed potatoes, but also give a sweet taste. From other spices, it is good to use red and black pepper, nutmeg, saffron, in a word, everything to your taste and choice.

Enjoy cooking!

How to make mashed potatoes the right way updated: November 4, 2016 by the author: admin

Potatoes, in all the variety of ways they are prepared, are used very, very often for a side dish. The delicious potatoes of this dish are especially popular among adults and children, but this dish is quite simple, but still not everyone gets an appetizing result.

What is the secret of such a side dish? How to cook mashed potatoes deliciously?

Several important secrets

To make the garnish tender, airy and beautiful, you need to take into account some subtleties. For example, pay attention to The most delicious mashed potatoes come from large old tubers rich in starch, a variety that boils well. When peeling them, try to cut the peel as thin as possible. It is best to use a vegetable peeler for such purposes. Before making a delicious mashed potato, it's important to boil it properly. Cut the peeled tubers into approximately equal pieces. They should not be too small, large potatoes can be cut into four parts, and small ones can be cut in half. It will be tastier if the milk and butter were warmed up before whipping. Finally, you need the right cooking tool. The secret to making mashed potatoes deliciously is to use a wooden spoon. A regular crush makes the garnish denser, as there is no air in the food. Whisk the puree with a spoon or mixer for a much lighter, more airy texture. Please note that when whipping with a blender, the puree also turns out to be not quite classic, it becomes viscous and sticky.

If this texture is to your taste, try adding boiled carrots and onions to the side dish, it will be more appetizing.

To make a side dish for four, take nine hundred grams of potatoes. Boil with salt, it will take about twenty-five minutes. Make sure that the tubers are completely cooked, otherwise the mashed potatoes will come out with lumps. Cover the cooked potatoes with a towel to absorb excess steam. After four minutes, add fifty grams of butter, a few tablespoons of milk and a couple of tablespoons of low-fat sour cream. Beat the mass with a mixer, gradually increasing the speed. You will have a classic side dish, airy and tender.

Now that you know how to make mashed potatoes deliciously, you can experiment. For example, try adding fresh herbs or mustard, some pesto, grated cheese, green peas, wasabi, saffron, green onions, baked garlic. Alternatively, you can fry the onions and add them for a great combination. To make a low-calorie side dish, replace the butter with soft cheese. In order to vary the types of puree, you can also knead it with a spoon, leaving small pieces. The texture of such a garnish is completely different, some people like it even more than usual. Such a dish is much more interesting than ordinary boiled potatoes and no more complicated than classic mashed potatoes.