Cheap, simple and foolproof. It is rare to find someone who does not like mashed potatoes, an inexpensive luxury that can act as garnish for dozens of Christmas recipes -and outside of Christmas, of course-. It suits roast meats, but also any type of grill; not to mention fish dishes and even for our starters – let’s give the octopus a spin and serve it over puree – and for our vegetables.
Few ingredients (just salt, water and potato) but many versions, almost as many as there are houses in which this simple dressing is made and for which we bring you today some suggestions from professional chefs so that you take the puree to a higher step.
What kind of potato to use? Old potato or new potato? How to start cooking? Just water … or something else? What texture do we want? These and other questions, as well as new ways to revitalize it, are the tips that today we put on the table so that, as always, the mashed potatoes, although it is closer to the mashed potatoes British, raise the admiration of your diners.
How to make garnish hasselback potatoes
The type of potato
Old or new? To cook or to fry? Kennebec, monalisa, sour …? The world of potatoes is a little unknown in our kitchens where, As a general rule, we do not usually pay attention to the variety we buy and simply, especially if they come bagged, we are only guided by what the manufacturer says: gourmet, to fry or to cook.
It is not an error, or not serious, because the potato is so kind that it supports practically everything, But if we want to take the mashed potatoes to a higher step, we also have to look at the type of potato that we will use.
“In the restaurant we use sour potato or monalisa potato”, he explains. Pedro Gonzalez, Madrid restaurant chef Candle, a contemporary eatery with many stews, stews and rich recipes. “For the purees you have to look for potatoes that are more floury and softer, because when they lose the water they have more oiliness “, he reveals.
“They must be floury potatoes, with a lot of starch, like a kennebec“, he also adds Victor Conus, chef of the Vigo restaurant The Table of Conus, where he prepares a Mediterranean and Andalusian style cuisine but with Galician products, the result of his culinary education.
It is the same as you think Guillermo Salazar, Sevillian chef of the Madrid restaurant Orellana House, a promising eating house in the Salesas neighborhood, which is also characterized by having made traditionalism coexist with those Andalusian touches. “You have to look for an old potato, in our case of the sour variety, because it also absorbs more butter“, it indicates.
Cutting and cooking
Little complaint makes the potato, but sublimate it takes a bit more science and that, even for the puree – taking into account that later we are going to mash or mash it -, it matters. “It depends on how you want to puree. If you want to make a creamy you will have to drain the potato more after cooking, if it is only for a puree, you can leave some water “, assures Conus, who leaves another clue.
“We wash the potato, peel it and then cut it into cachelos and cook it from cold in water and salt,” he adds. Why from cold? “If we cook the potato from hot it will take part of that water, and we are not interested because we want it to keep a certain texture, “he says.
Guillermo Salazar prefers to cook it whole. “Washed and peeled, with a good handful of salt, and we remove it when it is about to be undone [clavando el típico palillo para ver el punto]. We strain and in the same pot we dry the potato over low heat, so that it loses the water that may remain, we do not want to take it to the puree, “he warns.
The crushed or crushed
Potato puree is a vast world in which we can find aligot (made with cheese), a parmentier (with cream or butter; or both) or the simple potato puree, where texture is very important and that is why we have to balance with fats, but also to take into account what to crush it with.
“We make a parmentier, which has to be creamy, that’s why we work with the thermomix, where we have the puree between four and seven minutes already salty and not much speed, with the pepper and with the butter, so that it has this texture, “says Pedro González. As you can see, time and speed matter for the result to be ideal.
“For the creamy we need creaminess, so we resorted to the thermomix and a generous proportion of butter, but for the traditional puree, just a fork and add the butter, yes, in ointment, not hot or melted “, clarifies Víctor Conus.
A theory that Guillermo Salazar agrees with. “When we have the potato dry, we add cold butter and we pound it with the rod. It has to be cold because it emulsifies more. If we pour it melted, that emulsion is not produced so much “, he emphasizes, which is what he is looking for so that it has creaminess and body.
In all three cases, the chefs consider that it should not be liquid and that neither should the potato be washed once it has been cut. “We need that starch, that starch that the potato has, which is going to be the one that helps us to give the puree texture”, Guillermo Salazar points out.
The chef’s touches to take the puree to a higher rung
Use broths, different infused oils, spices, some mushrooms or adding other vegetables to the puree are some of the clues that they leave us so that your chickens, meats, fish and, ultimately, any recipe, improve.
- Broth in cooking. “We cook the potato with a little fish broth, so it gets all that flavor. Besides, it is not a liquid broth, but it has some density, so our parmentier -which has cream and butter- is more unctuous “, says Pedro González, who gives us quantities to emulate: 1kg of potato, 100g of liquid cream, 50g of butter and 50g of homemade fish broth. A dynamic that we could emulate for a puree that accompanies a meat, for example, with a vegetable broth or a chicken broth when cooking. “We don’t have to make a very powerful broth. It is enough with a poultry carcass, a carrot and a leek and have them cook for half an hour “, he clarifies.
- Monitor the emulsion. “It is better add the cream and butter little by little, to see what texture we have, because then we can always correct “, considers Guillermo Salazar, who usually puts a pinch of nutmeg and pepper on the puree, in addition to using a liquid cream that is not too heavy, only 18% fat .
- Truffle the puree. “It goes well with magret and duck confits, but also for grilled Iberian products, and it would be enough to add a little truffle in the Thermomix and then grate off a pinch, so that it looks and smells fresh “, warns the chef himself.
- Infused oils. “Fish purees need less seasoning because they can outshine the fish, but those that are for meat accept more seasoning. We can add pinches of thyme, oregano, or cumin in the Thermomix or, directly, make a thyme oil the day before [guardamos varias ramitas frescas en una aceitera] and the next day we bind the parmentier with the oil, instead of butter, “he explains. Something that we could also do with a garlic sauce with a touch of paprika, similar to what is used to dress the potato scramble.
- Give it grace with the oven. It is not necessary to limit yourself to boiling the potatoes in water and in a casserole. The oven can come to the rescue for purees, just as it is often done with mashed potatoes British. “We roast some potatoes, halved in the oven, with aromatic herbs and a touch of oil, and then We mash them with butter. It’s simple and it also comes out very rich and different, “explains Víctor Conus.
- Resort to the sauce. “Anchor some vegetables with a little butter and oil, whether they are leek or onion, as if we were going to raise a stew and grind it also with the puree, which gives it a lot of flavor “, the chef himself considers.
- Play with other vegetables. “Now we make a puree with Jerusalem artichoke, celeriac and parsnip, because it is the season, “says Guillermo Salazar, who advises us to use different mixtures of vegetables that go well for these preparations.” They are very wintery and have a lot of sugar, so they are perfect for the Christmas roasts“He maintains. Víctor Conus is of the same opinion, who recommends” using pumpkin also for these purees, because it gives them a very rich sweet touch and makes them different “, he says.
A whole declaration of intent to take your mashed potatoes (or your parmentier, or your aligot) one step further and give a simple garnish a twist that everyone likes.
More Christmas recipes
Directly to the Palate we love these parties and we have thousands of recipes for you to be sure to hit your Christmas meals.
Don’t miss our special with the 215 best Christmas recipes and 16 special menus. And if you need ideas for specific dishes, here is a good starting point:
Images | iStock / Unsplash / Casa Orellana / La Mesa de Conus / Candela
Directly to the Paladar | The 215 best Christmas recipes and 16 special menus to get it right for sure
Directly to the palate | Tips for a perfect mashed potato