These, ladies and gents, are so good. SO DELICIOUS. My roommate makes boxed mashed potatoes, and I cringe in horror every time I see it out of the pantry. Why? Why bother making mashed potatoes if they aren't THESE mashed potatoes? Isn't it like eating cardboard? Ugh, I am shuddering as I type this. UGH.
You will need: (this is for the full recipe, I only made about 1/3...one person and all)
- 5lb russet or yukon taters
- 1 stick of salted butter (I only had unsalted, but you can always add salt later)
- 1 8oz package of cream cheese
- salt, pepper
- 1/2 cup milk or cream
- whatever seasonings you like
Yup that's it. It's the cream cheese that's key, it makes the taters so creamy. They turn out perfect every time.
To start, peel the potatoes, and rinse them off in cool water.
Once they're peeled and rinsed, chop them up into smaller pieces. This just makes them boil a bit faster, and more evenly.
Find a pot and dump the taters in it. Pour water in so it just covers the taters. Throw the pot on the stove top, and bring to a boil.
You'll want to boil these for about a half hour, or until they are fork tender... aka, you can stick a fork in them with no resistance. They shouldn't be falling apart, but you want them done enough so you can mash them with minimal lumpage. Ha, lumpage. That's a fun word.
Alrighty, once that's taken care of, drain the taters and put them back in the pot. The best way to mash them is to put them back on the stove, and turn the heat on to low. This will get rid of any lingering water. Mash them up with a handy dandy potato masher. I love my potato masher! I've done this with a fork before, but man, so much easier with a masher.
My hand looks like an alien. Moving on. You'll want to keep mashing till it gets to about this consistency.
Once you've reached this stage, you can go ahead and turn the stove off. Now you'll be needing all of these fixin's.
I added paprika for some additional seasoning, but you could easily use cayenne or something to give it a bit of a kick. Or onion soup mix. Or garlic powder. Or if you're reallll fancy you can add some roasted garlic. Go ahead and add all the ingredients all at once. Oh man. Oh bejesus. Check out the creamy that is this photo.
I added a bit of milk to thin it out a tad. You definitely want to taste it. I needed to add way more salt since I only had unsalted butter. I then smoothed it out in a baking dish.
Now at this point you can cover it and use it for later, which is awesome. If you want to do that, just put some butter on top and bake it at 350 for about 20 minutes! It's great if you're having people over and won't have time to cook everything all at once.
Now this is good to go from here. Unless you're Courtzilla, and have a pension for meddling. I went ahead and whipped up this really fancy gravy to spoon over it.
Now I won't list the recipe here, it's farrrr to difficult for most home cooks. Only the truly gourmet would even attempt to make it.
Oh dear, how did that photo get in here?
No matter.
This was so good.
Serve them with mini meatloaf meatballs! Maybe I'll make those tomorrow. It's either that or penne alla vodka. Anyone have a preference? Leave a comment.
Enjoy.
<3 Courtzilla
(Who is, yes, staying in, eating mashed potatoes, writing a blog post, and watching Pride and Prejudice on a Saturday night. It's like I just got dumped or something.)
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