Few dishes have the great dining appeal of mashed potatoes. Many households use potato flakes from a box, and as you can imagine, I avoid that. The technique of making good mashed potatoes doesn’t seem as widespread as it should be. So, let’s have at least one great mashed potato recipe in our kitchens and we can expand from there.

Today, we will look at buttermilk mashed potatoes for its wonderful tangy flavor. In using buttermilk, we need to be careful about how we work this ingredient into the hot potatoes because buttermilk curdles at 160 degrees, so adding the buttermilk directly to the drained potatoes would be a kitchen disaster. Now, buttermilk is a low-fat product and this contributes to its low curdling point so let’s add some butter to the mix and incorporate some richness into the dish.

We are also using Yukon Gold potatoes for their lower starch content. The higher starch content of say russet potatoes will cause them to absorb more water during cooking and make for soggy mashed potatoes.

If you follow the recipe proportions correctly, you will end up with a wonderful side dish that your family will ask for often.



Buttermilk

Mashed Potatoes

Serves 6 to 8

2 lbs Yukon Gold Potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks

6 Tbl unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature

2/3 cup buttermilk at room temperature

Salt and fresh ground pepper

Place potatoes in large sauce pan and cover with cold water by 1 inch, add 2 teaspoons of salt. Bring to boil on high heat then reduce to medium and simmer for about 15 to 18 minutes, until easily pierced with a fork. Drain potatoes and place in a large bowl.
Mash the potatoes until only a few lumps remain. For those who don’t like any lumps a potato ricer works wonderfully.

Gently mix melted butter and buttermilk together, add this mixture to potatoes and fold in with a spatula. Season with salt and pepper and serve. I hope you all enjoy these as much as I do.



Look for Chef Darrel’s blog on the website of our sister paper, Daily-Chronicle.com. Anyone with questions or comments for Chef Darrel is welcome to call him at 630-235-0672.