Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

As you hopefully know by now, this is the third part of a five part Thanksgiving series. Here are parts one and two.

The post today is a Thanksgiving classic. Almost everyone loves mashed potatoes. I prefer mine with garlic. A good amount of garlic. If you do not like garlic, I would not recommend coming over to my house for most meals served.

While it's a fairly easy dish with basic ingredients that most of you already know how to prepare, maybe my recipe will offer you something different to try, check it out after the jump.

Process

Mashed potatoes. A Thanksgiving staple. Don't screw up or you will have some angry guests. Luckily it's not too hard to screw up.

This recipe can be scaled as needed. This makes enough mashed potatoes to serve four to six people. In addition, I was making several other dishes at the same time and forgot to take as many photos as I normally do, deal with it.

Begin by peeling and dicing the potatoes. Size doesn't matter as long as ultimately each piece is roughly the same. Place into a large saucepan with the salt and cover with water. Bring up to a vigorous boil and let the potatoes cook until they fall apart when poked with a fork.

In another saucepan, mix the crushed garlic and half-and-half together and bring to a nice simmer. Cook slightly until a good garlic aroma develops. During this time, you can drain the potatoes and begin mashing. Each person has their own preference for chunkiness, mash to your hearts content.

Following the mashing, combine the garlic and cream mixture with the potatoes. During this time, you can add the Parmesan. Stir until combined and then let the potatoes sit for a few minutes. This will let the potatoes thicken. If you want, you can fluff them with a fork.

Some of you might be thinking that I should add butter. It is not needed, the Parmesan and half-and-half do just fine on their own and it even has a little bit of a buttery flavor.


Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

4 lbs russet potatoes
2 Tbs Kosher salt
2 cups half-and-half
8 cloves garlic, crushed
8 oz Parmesan, grated

Directions

1. Peel and dice the potatoes. Try to get the pieces roughly the same size (for even cooking). Place into a large saucepan, add the salt and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Keep the burner hot enough to maintain a vigorous boil. Keep cooking until the potatoes fail apart when prodded with a utensil (i.e. a fork).
2. In a medium saucepan, heat the half-and-half and garlic until simmering. During this time, remove the potatoes from the heat and drain out the remaining water. Mash the potatoes to a desired chunkiness and add in the cream/garlic mixture and the Parmesan until combined. Let sit for a few minutes to thicken and fluff with a fork if desired. Serve.