Mashed potatoes » Culinary recipes of dishes with photos. home cuisine

We haven’t had something simple, tasty and everyone’s favorite on our menu for a long time. Today we will prepare mashed potatoes. By the way, the most important thing for making mashed potatoes is to choose good potatoes that boil. Very tasty puree is obtained from yellow potatoes.

Ingredients:
potatoes – 1 kg;
milk – 200-250 ml;
butter – 150 g;
salt.

How to cook mashed potatoes.

Potatoes should be peeled and washed. I cut each tuber into 4 parts.

Pour cold water so that it covers the potatoes. If there is a lot of water, the puree will turn out to be tasteless.

Bring the potatoes to a boil over medium heat. Remove the foam.

Cook the potatoes over low heat until ready for 20-25 minutes. While the potatoes are cooking, boil the milk. When the potatoes are ready, drain all the water.

Potatoes should be mashed to a homogeneous mass.

Add butter to the puree. It is better to add oil in two stages, and not all at once.

Again, you need to pound well (mash into a homogeneous mass) potatoes together with butter.

If the puree turns out to be dry, then add a little more oil and pound the whole mass. I used about 100-120 g of butter this time.

While we were adding the butter to the puree, the milk had cooled a bit, but it was still hot. We add milk, not all at once either, but gradually. To begin with, add one third of heated milk to the puree.

Knead the puree with a pestle to a uniform consistency. At the same time, you can add a little salt to the puree to taste.

Pour in the remaining milk and mix well again, actively working with a pestle.

That’s it, mashed potatoes are ready! And now quickly to the table, mashed potatoes should be eaten hot and in no case cold.

We turned out far from dietary mashed potatoes. Remember: neither butter nor milk will spoil the puree! In principle, milk can be replaced with the water in which the potatoes were cooked.

Perfect mashed potatoes are a delicate, airy dish with a pleasant taste and a creamy yellow color. Basically, it is mashed (grated) boiled potatoes. So what could be easier to prepare? But still there are some secrets that you need to know so that the puree turns out to be perfect in taste.

Secrets of cooking mashed potatoes.

1. Check the starch content. To make the puree tender and airy, choose potatoes for its preparation with a high starch content. You can find out about the high content of starch in a potato by the usual folk method, if you cut it into two halves. Rub them against each other. If there is a lot of starch, then they will stick together and will not fall apart, even when you hold the top of one half.

2. Which potatoes to choose? Young potatoes are not suitable for mashed potatoes, as they do not contain enough starch. It will come out with lumps, so stop your choice on old tubers.

3. Get rid of the unpleasant smell. Before peeling potatoes, be sure to wash them well. Otherwise, it will absorb the earthy smell. You will not be able to get rid of it, even if you wash the cleaned tubers well afterwards.

4. Cook immediately after cleaning. It is better to start cooking the peeled potatoes immediately and not leave them in cold water for a long time. This affects the taste of the dish, as the starch is washed away.

5. When to put and salt potatoes. It is better to put potatoes in salted boiling water. So the puree will be tastier. Someone does not salt potatoes at all or adds it at the end of cooking. It’s a matter of taste. If you start cooking it in cold water, then the top layer can boil faster, and the middle will remain raw. In addition, part of the starch can pass into water, accordingly, and the taste of the puree will be different.

6. How to cook? Pour enough water to slightly cover the potatoes. After full boiling, reduce the heat and cook until done (20-25 minutes) with the lid closed.

7. What to grind? So, when the potatoes are cooked, drain the water. Get a regular rolling pin and start pressing it. Do not use a blender or food processor under any circumstances. It is clear that it is faster to cook this way, but it will make the puree sticky and heavy.

8. Sequence of bookmarking products. First, you need to simply mash the potatoes without adding anything. Then, little by little, you should put butter, you can not spare it. At the same time, do not stop and continue to mash the potatoes. And after butter, add hot milk or cream, also in small portions. This reveals the taste of the dish. If you pour them cold, the puree will become sticky, and the color will be gray. Those who are fasting can use almond or soy milk.

9. Eat immediately. Puree is not prepared in reserve, it must be eaten immediately, hot.

10. Make the puree special. When you cook potatoes, you can add other vegetables, bay leaf, and pepper to it. And during pureeing, add fried onions, bacon, nutmeg, chopped fresh greens. For example, dill.