Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Creamy mashed potatoes is a side dish which can never fail to make any meal interesting. There are a lot of variations which you can make to the recipe, to make the dish different from normal, and also more interesting. Many of us have had mashed potatoes for snacks whenever we were hungry. I often would make it myself, when I was studying at the University, in the middle of the night and I was hungry. There is a different fun in making mashed potatoes by adding all the ingredients you can think of in the middle of the night. I will not say all the recipes were yummy, but yes, most of them did turn out to be delicious. Truth be told, I do not remember all the permutations and combinations I used to make mashed potatoes, but here I will give you some easy recipes to make mashed potatoes that are yummy, so you can enjoy this quick snack as well.

How to Make Creamy Mashed Potatoes

Recipe I
This is my favorite mashed potatoes recipe. Apart from the ingredients mentioned, I also add crushed red pepper flakes to this recipe, as I like to combine any cheese recipe with red pepper. Having said that we will now see how to make mashed potatoes from scratch.

Ingredients

• Potatoes 3½ pounds
• Kosher Salt 2 tablespoons
• Half and Half 2 cups
• Garlic Cloves (crushed) 6
• Parmesan Cheese (grated) 6 ounces

Method

• Peel and dice potatoes. Make sure all the potatoes are relatively of the same size. Alternatively, you can cut the potatoes into pieces to make them of the same size.
• Place the potatoes in a large pot and cover them with water.
• Add salt to the pot and bring the water to a boil.
• Reduce the heat to medium and maintain a rolling boil.
• Let the potatoes cook until the potatoes fall apart, when they are poked with a fork or otherwise.
• In a saucepan, heat half and half along with garlic over medium heat, until it is simmering.
• Remove it from the heat and keep it aside.
• Remove potatoes from heat and drain off the water.
• Mash the potatoes with a potato masher and add garlic cream mixture and Parmesan cheese to the potatoes.
• Stir well to combine, let the potatoes to stand for 5 minutes and let the mixture thicken before it is served.

Recipe II
This is the more elaborate of the creamy mashed potato recipe. Although it will not take too long to make, the list of ingredients is longer as compared to the previous recipe. If you are running out of time, then you may want to opt for instant mashed potatoes.

Ingredients

• Potatoes 2 lbs
• Scallions (chopped) 2
• Cream 6 tablespoons
• Celery 1 small stalk
• Unsalted Butter 3 tablespoons
• Garlic Cloves (crushed) 2
• Bay Leaf 1
• Salt to taste
• Freshly Ground Pepper to taste

Method

• Peel and dice the potatoes.
• Put the potatoes in a large pot and cover them with water.
• Add salt, crushed garlic, scallions, celery and bay leaf to the water.
• Bring water to a boil over high heat.
• When the water is boiling, reduce the heat to medium and let the potatoes cook, till they are tender.
• The potatoes should be well cooked, so that the recipe is creamy. It will take about 25 minutes for the potatoes to cook well.
• Drain the water from the potatoes after they are cooked and remove the large pieces of vegetables and herbs.
• Put the potatoes back into the pot and shake them over medium heat, till the potatoes are mealy and dry.
• Cover the potatoes and set aside.
• In a saucepan, put butter and cream and heat until warm over low heat.
• Mash the potatoes with a potato masher, till pulpy.
• Pour warmed cream and butter over the potatoes and whip together until fluffy.
• Now add salt and pepper to taste and serve warm with softened butter.

Both these recipes are simple, but yet are way different from each other. If you like, you can also have mashed potatoes with garlic bread. It is simply awesome!