Classic American Mashed Potatoes

Life can bring out a lot of negative emotions; loneliness, homesickness, depression, anxiety, heartbreak, nervousness, etc. We all have different ways of coping with these feelings, and in my family, an excellent source of relief. Chocolate, ice cream, cookies, soup, and other soul foods helped me through some rough times. Something about having the sight, smell, or taste of these foods makes it seem like everything will work out and remind me that my problems are small issues that I can overcome. To that effect, I have been going through a lot of these emotions recently and needed a big batch of mashed potatoes to help me feel better. Also, as one of the only two Americans in my city, I was asked to host an American Cooking Class for the international volunteer group here in town. Since my recipe list is not large, I decided to choose mashed potatoes. These photos came from my last bowl of mashed potatoes and will hopefully not only benefit anyone who finds me online, but also the cooking class. Eat up!

What you'll need:

potatoes
milk
salt
pepper
butter/margarine (optional)
other seasonings (optional) 

cutting board
knife
peeler (optional)
masher or strong fork
electric mixer (optional)
pot and mixing bowl
microwave safe bowl or cup (optional)

DISCLAIMER: The beautiful thing about potatoes is the amount of options you have. I am doing a very simple mashed potato recipe which is why I have listed the bare and simplest ingredients and tools I could above. However, you can add almost anything into your potatoes, and altering this recipe is a snap. I'll try to mention any variations I can think of, but if I miss any or if you think of some, leave a comment below for other readers (and even me!) to try in the future.

Okay, pick an amount of potatoes. Any amount will do. Do you want a lot or a little? A few or a mountain? Red skin, Idaho, or another variety? It doesn't matter. Just make sure that you wash them well before starting.

-To those who are truly new to the kitchen - Do NOT wash ANY of your food with dish soap! I have seen this happen before. Just scrub the food under warm running water. Clean scrub brushes that you only use for food are okay, but NO SOAP! 

There are some people who would peel the potatoes at this point, but I prefer to leave the skins on. I feel that it adds a more homestyle feel to the end product and I've been told that there are more nutrients in the skins of most fruits and veggies (root and otherwise), so I skip the peeling step. If that potatoes that you have are rather large, try to cut them up smaller. This will speed up the cooking process since you will have more surface area and less total volume per potato cube. *Trick* Cut all the potatoes into similar sized cubes/shapes so that they all cook at the same rate and you don't have some that finish faster than others.

How do they cook exactly? Observant as ever, reader! We will be boiling our potato chunks in a pot of water. You can bring the water to a boil and then and the potatoes or bring the water to a build with the potatoes in it already. I prefer the second method as the potatoes will cook as the water is coming to a boil. 

Catch the difference between the photos?
My water was taking a long time to boil, so I
just turned up the heat. Changing the temp
during cooking is totally okay! Need more time
to prep? Turn down the heat on your main dish.
Need to get things done? Turn up the heat! Just
don't turn it up too much or your food may
burn or cook more on the outside than the
inside. A few degrees isn't going to hurt and
that is where the expression "I'll put that on the
back burner" comes from - people would put food
on low temperatures on the back burner so that they
would still cook, but at a slower rate, giving them
time to work on other things.

How much water do I need to boil? Well, since I didn't give you an exact amount for how many potatoes to make, I can't give you an exact amount for water. But I can say that you should have enough water in the pot to safely cover the potatoes. I put in the potatoes, and then cover them with water, and then boil it all. *Trick* keeping the lid on the pot helps trap heat and makes the boiling happen faster. I didn't like to do this in the past because I felt that just made one more thing to wash, but if you are hungry and in a hurry for food, this really makes a difference!

How long do I boil the potatoes? Now slow down, friend! Don't rush me here. Boil the potatoes until they are easy to pierce with a chopstick. If you can stab about inside the boiling water and poke through a few potatoes, they are done. Next you can drain the water and put the potatoes in a mixing bowl. BE CAREFUL!! The potatoes and the water will be very hot. People sometimes forget this, so let's keep our kitchen smarts about us. 

For our next steps, we will be adding our other optional ingredients. If you are going to be putting your potatoes in the fridge soon after making them, don't worry about heating up anything after this point. Adding in the other ingredients cold will require them to take away from the heat of the potatoes in order to melt and mix. But if you are eating them for dinner, consider warming up the milk/butter in the microwave (using a safe bowl or cup) before adding them into the mixing bowl with the potatoes. This will help everything stay warm.

While the milk or butter is warming, mash up the potatoes just a bit with the masher. Now, add a touch of butter/milk and mash a bit more. Add some more butter/milk and mash a bit more. Now, add a touch….you get it. Different people prefer their mashed potatoes to be different consistencies (another beautiful aspect about mashed potatoes!!). Most people I have met prefer them firm, so for those people don't add as much liquid. However, some people, like my mother prefer them to be more creamy, so more butter and/or milk is needed when cooking for these people. I started with that new bar of butter in the photo above and ended up using 1/4 of it as well as a splash of milk. My boyfriend doesn't like using butter for things, so I make his mashed potatoes with only milk. Different strokes for different folks. 

*Trick* Adding little bits at a time is the best idea here! You can always add, but you can't take away. Keep adding a little of each until the potatoes are looking like the way you want. I know that sounds vague, but you will get to a point where you will think "These seem perfect!" or "I don't want to mix these anymore!!", which is when you will stop or pull out that electric mixer that I mentioned at the top of the post.

To finish off your soulful food, you can mix in final ingredients like melted cheese, spices such as oregano and garlic powder (which I like to do), or salt, pepper, and Italian seasonings, chunks of grilled or baked garlic, bacon bits, or even more butter!!! However you mix it, these potatoes can be stand alone dishes to help you out of a slump or dress up another dish to round out your meal. For those wishing to add gravy, you can warm that up in a sauce pan before pouring it on the mashed potatoes. Maybe I'll do a gravy post sometime in the future. For now, nom nom nom!!!