Buttery Red Skinned Mashed Potatoes

One of my favorite memories from culinary school was during the first 6 weeks. We had to take skills labs at 7am every morning. We learned proper cuts, mother sauces, reductions, how to cook meats properly, just to name a few. My favorite thing we learned was how to make the perfect mashed potatoes, we even had these for breakfast... I mean you have to taste so you know if they are right. Pair them with a perfectly medium rare NY strip steak and compound butter and game over!

OK- back to this recipe. It is an adaptation of those skills I learned and lent themselves to be open to additional flavors. Toady we are using red skinned potatoes but this recipe works with Yukon golds, baking potatoes and even purple potatoes. The trick with leaving the skins on is to make sure you scrub them really well with cold water prior to boiling.

Ingredients

3 pound potatoes of your choice

Large pot 

Cold water

4 T unsalted butter

1/4 cup of Heavy cream / half and half ( even fat free half and half works great)

Finishing salt or kosher salt

Fresh cracked back pepper

Optional add in Ideas

2 T. Cream cheese any flavor

1/4 cup shredded cheese

Chives or herbs of your choice

Crumbled soft cheese, such as goat or blue

Caramelized onions

Scrub your potatoes in cold water. Cut into 1 inch chunks and place in a large pot. Cover potatoes with cold water and have a lid handy. Bring potatoes up to a rolling boil, and cook your potatoes until you can easily inset and remove a sharp knife into the largest pieces.

Drain potatoes and transfer them to your stand mixer, or back in pan if your using a hand mixer. Slowly whisk potatoes till they just start to break apart. Add in cream and butter and whip at medium speed until only small lumps remain. Do not over mix, or they will go from fluffy and luscious to paste really quick. I'm pretty sure they frown upon eating paste, even in kindergarten now.

 Sprinkle in a palmful of salt and about a teaspoon of pepper into it. Using a spatula, fold together, and now the best part... Give em' a taste. 

If they seem sweet, add more salt. If they taste bland, more butter. Once they are perfect transfer them to your oven safe serving dish and top with a pat of butter and a light sprinkling of salt and pepper. Let the butter pool over the top and they are ready to outshine anything you serve them with. 

Happy Cooking!