Remember the boiled potatoes from yesterday? Well this is how you mash ’em. It’s basically the same as boiled potatoes. Except you mash them afterwards. And now you’ll have 2 things you can make with potatoes!

Ingredients

Potato(es)

Garlic clove

Salt and Pepper

Butter

Method

Step 1: Prepare the potatoes

Make sure you wash the potatoes first unless you like mud and parasites in your food. Then just peel them and dice them, exactly the same as you did for boiled potatoes.

Crush the garlic and remove the skin.

Tip
There is a lot of nutrition in the potato skins, so you could leave them on. They add some texture and flavour to the mash in the end.

Step 2: Boil the potatoes

Bring water to the boil in a pan and add the potatoes and garlic. Let them boil until soft. The easiest way to tell if they are done is to try and break them with a spatula. If you can get one through them without any resistance they are ready.

Step 3: Save the water

This is important so I’m making it a step all of it’s own. Get a bowl or other vessel ready, and pour the water through a sieve into the bowl, catching the boiled potatoes in a sieve. You’ll use the water in the next step.

Remove the garlic after draining the potatoes.

Step 4: Mash the potatoes

Now we do the mashing! First add some salt and pepper. Use white pepper if you have it, but black pepper also works. Also add some butter.

Use a potato masher or anything to hand to start to mash the potato.

Tip
If you want to save energy you can also use a food processor to make the mash. This will lead to a more consistent texture throughout.

Every so often add a small amount of the water you saved to the mixture and keep mashing. Go easy on the water – you can always add more if it’s not enough but you can’t take it out if you add too much. You may also want to add a bit more butter at this stage, depending on the consistency of the mash.

Tip
If you prefer a creamier mash you can use milk instead of water here. You can also mix both milk and water, depending on how creamy you want it.

Once the potato is at a consistency you like it’s ready to serve! Goes with anything, except for durian of course.

Tip
You can also save the rest of the water to use for making gravy or soup later.

Now you can make two things out of potatoes.

Bonus Recipe: Carrot and Swede

If you can mash potatoes you can make this as well. It’s basically the same, except you use carrot and swede instead.

Ingredients

Carrot

Swede (or turnip, or whatever this crazy Chinese root vegetable I happen to have is)

Garlic clove

Salt and Pepper

Butter

Method

Step 1: Prepare the carrots and swedes.

Wash the vegetables and dice them. These can be diced a lot smaller than the potatoes – they take longer to cook and won’t disintegrate.

Crush the garlic and remove the skin.

Tip
Do not reuse the garlic you used when making the potatoes

Step 2: Boil the vegetables

Bring water to the boil in a pan and add the vegetables and garlic. Let them boil until soft. These will take a bit longer than potatoes to cook.

Step 3: Save the water

This is still just as important! Make sure to keep the water after draining the vegetables.

Remove the garlic after draining the veggies.

Step 4: Mash the carrot and swede

Now we do the mashing! First add some salt and pepper. This time black pepper is actually better. Also add some butter.

Start to mash the vegetables, same as the potatoes.

Tip
You can also use a food processor to do this here if you prefer. Or if you’re dumb like me and didn’t cook them enough, you need to use a food processor.

Every so often add a small amount of the water you saved to the mixture and keep mashing. Again, go easy on the water. You will probably find you won’t need as much butter for this part.

Tip
I don’t care how creamy you like your mash, DO NOT add milk to this one unless you enjoy eating baby food.

Once it’s at a consistency you like it’s ready to serve! Goes well with mashed potatoes, and goes horribly with durian.

Tip
Again, you can save that water for later!