My secret ingredient is sour cream. Most mashed potato recipes call for milk and butter, but sour cream makes them so creamy with just enough tang. It also helps to cut down on the rich flavor.
Sour cream is a great addition to mashed potatoes because it adds richness and creaminess balanced with a subtle tangy flavor. It also gives these creamy mashed potatoes a thicker consistency compared to adding just milk or stock.
Instead, place your potatoes in cold water and allow them to heat up with the water. This will assure your potatoes will cook evenly. Potatoes absorb salt really quickly so it's important to season well with at least ½ teaspoon (2.5ml) of salt to begin. You can substitute the sour cream for all milk.
When it comes to ridiculously creamy restaurant style mashed potatoes, there's not much to it. The secret is just loads of cream and butter. The creamier the mashed potato, the more cream and butter it has in it!
While no one likes mashed potatoes that are dry and chalky, you'll want to use a flavorful liquid to add moisture, like milk, cream or even chicken stock. If you'd like, gently reheat the drained potatoes on the stovetop to dry them out slightly before mashing with your preferred seasonings.
If your mashed potatoes are done too soon, they could cool or dry out before the meal. Start the potatoes during the last hour of cooking, when you start the gravy. If that's too much, keep mashed potatoes warm in a slow cooker. Stir in a little warm milk or butter for added moisture.
Storing Potatoes In The Fridge
Keep them too cold and the starches present in your potatoes will start turning into sugar, making them taste sweet and turn brown when you cook them. On the flip side, keep them too hot, and the heat will speed up sprouting, greening, and dehydration in your potatoes.
If you don't add enough salt, the potatoes will be bland. It's surprising that such a simple ingredient would make a big difference, but it will. Adding salt to the cooking water also helps the potatoes could faster and break apart better, resulting in fluffier and creamier mashed potatoes.
Sour cream is another great last minute milk replacement. It'll add moisture and is neutral in flavor. Stick to a one-to-one replacement.
Yogurt is your best substitute for sour cream. Whether you're baking or making a dip or sauce, yogurt is a 1:1 sub. That means if your recipe calls for 1 cup of sour cream, you can replace it with 1 cup of yogurt. Full-fat Greek or natural yogurts work best, but low-fat or even nonfat can be used, too.
Use a rubber spatula to fold in the hot dairy and salt just until everything is evenly combined. Too much stirring, beating, or mashing will cause more starches to be released, which creates that dreaded gluey consistency.
Soupy, watery mashed potatoes usually happen because the cooked potatoes were cut into pieces that were too small, weren't drained well enough, or were overcooked. Fix them: Scoop the watery mashed potatoes into a pan and stir constantly over low heat to evaporate the excess liquid.
Not salting the water. Like pasta, potatoes absorb the water they're cooked in. Leaving it out means you're starting off with bland potatoes. Follow this tip: Begin the process of seasoning your mashed potatoes by adding salt to the water when cooking the potatoes.
Potatoes: For the fluffiest, smoothest, and most flavorful mashed potatoes, choose high-starch potatoes like Russet, Idaho, or Yukon gold potatoes. Waxy potatoes (such as new, red, or white varieties) require more mashing to become creamy which could result in gluey, pasty spuds.
As already discussed, pastiness is caused by too much potato starch being worked into the mashed potatoes. The main way we combat this problem is by rinsing away starch, both before and after cooking potatoes for fluffy mashed potatoes. Rinsing off starch means that there is less of it that can end up in the dish.
Transfer the mashed potatoes to the slow cooker, and set to LOW. Keep warm for up to 4 hours, stirring once an hour. Stir before serving. The mashed potatoes will stay warm and creamy.
For the very best result every time, always gently warm the butter and milk before adding to the potatoes, rather than adding cold dairy straight from the fridge.
Butter helps make the starchy texture of potatoes richer and eliminates that "cling" some potatoes get when they're freshly mashed. You shouldn't let butter be the only dairy you use, however.
A potato ricer is widely regarded as the best tool for mashed potatoes that are smooth and fluffy.
For starters, egg yolks are an emulsifier. This means that it combines two different elements that typically wouldn't blend together well (like water and oil). What is this? In short, this means that your mashed potatoes will be wonderfully creamy.
Not all potatoes are made to be mashed, what you need is one that's high in starch which will help them fluff up beautifully. Some of the best ones include Coliban, Desiree, Dutch Cream, Nicola, Sebago and Spunta.