Mashed: European-Style Mashed Potatoes

Subject: European-Style Mashed Potatoes
Newsgroups: rec.food.cooking
From: jdawson at npvclub.org (Jake Dawson)
Date: 3 May 2004 11:04:57 -0700
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European-Style

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Optional Ingredients:
• You may add a pinch of nutmeg to the potatoes with salt and pepper to taste.

Cooking Tips:
• Reserve a few slices of butter to place on potatoes in the serving bowl so that the butter will melt in front of your guests.

Special Ingredients:
Yukon Gold potatoes are a relatively new variety to consumers and has a yellow to golden skin color with an excellent texture for boiling and mashing. Sir Walter Raleigh cultivated the humble potato at his home in Ireland, convincing the Irish and the rest of Europe that the potato was not poisonous, but quite fit for human consumption.

Recipe can be found in gourmet Cooking with 5 ingredients
http://www.greenriverjunction.com [dead link. later redirect blocks in archive.org]

European-Style

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

2 pounds Yukon gold or cobbler potatoes
4 whole cloves garlic, peeled
1-1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup sour cream
8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, cubed

• Serves 6-8.
• Peel potatoes and slice into quarters.
• Place potatoes in a large pot with a cover and fill with cold, salted water.
• Add the garlic cloves and bring water to a boil.
• Boil uncovered for approximately 20 to 25 minutes until the largest slices of potatoes are fork tender.
• Drain and set potatoes aside.
• In a small pan, slowly bring the milk and sour cream to a boil, then immediately set aside.
• Mash the potatoes and garlic and place back into large pot. Set on stove at low temperature.
• Gradually add warmed milk to potatoes while using a hand mixer to blend. Beat until smooth and creamy.
• Using a wooden spoon stir in the butter.
• Once the butter is completely melted, remove potatoes from pot and immediately place in serving bowl.
• Serve hot.
From: James McIninch (james.mcininch at comcast.net.spam)
Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 20:41:41 GMT
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Out of curiosity, what so "european" about them? This type of mashed tuber recipe has existed everywhere they are found for millenia.
From: JimLane (ensenadajim at yahoo.com)
Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 13:44:48 -0700
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James McIninch wrote:
> Out of curiosity, what so "european" about them? This type of mashed tuber
> recipe has existed everywhere they are found for millenia.

Agreed. Been raised on this style since diaperhood in the early 40s. Sounds like someone trying to spin something old into something new. And Yukon Gold? Just where in Europe are these taters from?
From: Jill McQuown
Date: Thu, 6 May 2004 06:57:16 -0500
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JimLane wrote:
> Agreed. Been raised on this style since diaperhood in the early 40s.
> Sounds like someone trying to spin something old into something new.
> And Yukon Gold? Just where in Europe are these taters from?

This is pretty funny... garlic mashed potatoes are a fairly "new" rage, at least here in the States. I don't get the big whoopla but, whatever :)

Yukon Gold ORIGIN: Released jointly by Agriculture Canada and the University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada in 1981. Yukon Gold was selected from a cross between W5279-4 (a yellow-fleshed diploid hybrid of Solanum phureja and haploid cv Katahdin) and Norgleam. It was tested under the pedigree G6666-4Y.

Uh, that means they aren't grown in Europe :)
From: Melba's Jammin' (barbschaller at earthlink.com)
Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 07:51:29 -0500
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Jill McQuown wrote:
> Uh, that means they aren't grown in Europe :)

Are you sure? I think it means they didn't *originate* in Europe..
From: Steve Wertz (swertz at cluemail.compost.gov.invalid)
Date: Mon, 03 May 2004 18:50:05 -0500
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Jake Dawson wrote:
>2 pounds Yukon gold or cobbler potatoes
>4 whole cloves garlic, peeled
>1-1/2 cups whole milk
>1/2 cup sour cream
>8 tablespoons (1 stick) butter, cubed

There's more dairy than there is potato. I'd cut the milk down to 1 cup, axe the sour cream, and use 3 sticks of butter. *Thats* the european-style potatoes I know - Tons of butter.