How to make mashed potatoes

Mashed potatoes are loved by both adults and children. It can be a separate dish or served as a side dish for meat, fish, mushrooms.

It can be prepared from one potato or with the addition of other vegetables - carrots, onions, spinach, beets. And from this mash turns out multi-colored: pink, orange, green, yellow.

But before you start experimenting with different additives, you need to learn how to make regular mashed potatoes correctly.

Experienced housewives will cook it without difficulty. But those who begin to master the culinary skills of hostesses sometimes encounter unexpected problems. For example, mashed potatoes are obtained with lumps or an unpleasant grayish color. Why is this happening?

Mashed potatoes: cooking details

For mashed potatoes, take already grown potatoes, because the new potatoes are boiled for a long time and do not have that crispness with which well-ripened tubers are endowed.
For mashed potatoes, use table-grade potatoes with a starch content of 12-18%. Such potatoes are well boiled soft, but do not fall apart. It can be identified by a thin skin, shallow eyes and light pulp, which does not darken for a long time on the cut.
But it must be remembered that when boiling, a strongly boiled down potato boils with water, becomes watery and tasteless. When boiling such potatoes after 15 minutes, drain most of the liquid, reduce to a minimum the fire and cook the tubers almost steamed, tightly closing the pan with a lid.
If for many dishes potatoes can be boiled “in uniform”, then for mashed potatoes, potatoes must be cleaned.
Tubers for mashed potatoes should be the same, then they will be brewed simultaneously. Leave large potatoes for frying or, as a last resort, cut into 2-3 pieces.
Sometimes the potatoes darken when cooked. To avoid this, add one tablespoon of vinegar to one liter of liquid in water.
If you put garlic or bay leaf into the water in which you boil the potatoes, the boiled potatoes will be much tastier.
Cook potatoes until ready. From poorly boiled potatoes, you will get mashed potatoes with lumps, as you can not crush them properly.
Turn potatoes into mashed potatoes while hot. Puree from the cooled potatoes will turn out viscous and tasteless.
Use potato broth to dilute mashed potatoes, make soups and sauces, as there are a lot of useful microelements in it. But if there is a suspicion that the potato was grown in an area unfavorable from the point of view of ecology, it is necessary to pour out the broth, because not only useful substances, but also harmful substances, have been transferred from the potato to it.
Knead potatoes for mashed potatoes by hand, with a tolkushkoy or pestle. When using a blender, mashed potatoes turn out to be sticky and viscous.
Puree diluted with hot milk. By adding cold milk to hot mashed potatoes, you run the risk of getting potatoes of a bluish hue (this reaction is due to starch).

Mashed potatoes with milk

Ingredients:

potatoes - 800 g;
milk - 230 ml;
butter - 60 g;
salt - 10 g per 1 liter of water.

Preparation Method

Peel the potatoes and rinse them under running cold water. It is believed that after such a procedure, it will become crumbly, which is very important for poorly boiling soft varieties.
Dip the tubers in boiling water, while it should cover only a centimeter of vegetables. As soon as the water boils again, salt it. Due to this, the loss of minerals contained in potatoes will be minimal. Boil the potatoes with a moderate boil, cover the dishes with a lid.
When the tubers are soft, drain the broth and leave the saucepan with the potatoes on the hot plate to evaporate the excess liquid.
Immediately, without letting the potatoes cool down, knead it with a wooden tolkushka or pestle.
Put salt, oil. Continuing to stir, pour in a thin stream of hot milk.
Knead the mashed potatoes until it becomes fluffy and even small lumps disappear.

Pink mashed potatoes (with carrots)

Ingredients:

potatoes - 800 g;
small carrots - 1 pc .;
milk - 230 ml;
salt;
butter - 60 g.

Preparation Method

Peel potatoes and carrots, wash them. Dip potatoes in boiling water, salt and cook until ready.
Cut the carrot into circles, fold it into a small cauldron or stew-pan, put a piece of butter, pour some water (so that it only covers the bottom). Let it go until soft. Do not salt!
Drain broth from potatoes. Combine both types of vegetables, chop into mashed potatoes. Continuing to rub, put the butter, pour the hot milk. Puree whisk until pomp.

Mashed potatoes with egg

Ingredients:

potatoes - 800 g;
eggs - 4 pcs .;
butter - 25 g;
salt.

Preparation Method

Boil peeled and washed potatoes in salted water until soft. Drain broth, dry potatoes from excess moisture. Rub through a sieve or crush.
Put the raw egg yolks. Put on a very small fire and use a whisk to mash the potatoes thoroughly. Keep on the stove until it thickens and becomes a kind of dough.

This puree is great for making a kind of cookie. To do this, put it on the table, sprinkled with flour, roll into a thick layer, cut into rectangles. Brush with egg and bake in the oven until golden brown.

Mashed potatoes with onions

Ingredients:

potatoes - 800 g;
onions - 3 pcs .;
butter - 50 g;
eggs - 5 pcs .;
potato decoction for recipe number 1 - 120 ml;
milk - 120 ml for recipe number 2;
salt;
black pepper;
nutmeg - optional.

Preparation Method No. 1

Chop onion finely. Lightly fry in butter until yellowish.
Boil the potatoes until soft, drain the broth, and dry the tubers. Crush in puree.
Add the browned onions. Stir in the broth as you stir. Put salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste. Stir well.
Enter the egg yolks, mix.

Cooking method number 2

Peel potatoes and onions, wash, boil until soft in salted water.
Explain or skip through a meat grinder.
Put the butter, pour in the hot milk. Put on a very small fire, whisk until fluffy.
Add egg yolks, stir until smooth.

Mashed potatoes with spinach

Ingredients:

potatoes - 800 g;
spinach - 200 g;
milk - 100 ml;
salt;
butter - 50 g.

Preparation Method

Boil the potatoes until soft, drain the water, and mash the potatoes with a crush.
Wash, dry the spinach, mince.
In the mashed potatoes, put the butter, pour in the hot milk, add the chopped spinach. Put the saucepan on the mash on a small fire, warm it well. Remove from heat, whisk thoroughly with a spoon until fluffy.

Pumpkin Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:

potatoes - 800 g;
pumpkin - 500 g;
milk - 150 ml;
butter - 50 g;
salt;
black pepper;
nutmeg - to taste;
pumpkin seeds.

Preparation Method

Boil the potatoes in salted water until soft. Broth drain.
Cut the pumpkin into cubes, put into a saucepan, add 25 g of oil and 50 ml of water. While stirring, simmer until the pumpkin is soft, about 25 minutes.
Put the pumpkin in the pot with the potatoes. Using tolkushki mash vegetables in mashed potatoes. Add butter, hot milk and spices. Beat the mash thoroughly until smooth.

Mistress to note

Serve pureed hot.

To puree turned out uniform and lush, it can be wiped through a sieve, and then beat.

Do not leave the mashed potatoes the next day, as its taste and color deteriorate significantly.

While fasting, milk can be replaced with potato broth, and butter - sunflower.

Do you like meat? Take the minced meat, fry it until cooked in the pan, add to the mashed potatoes and mix well.

Mushrooms can also be added to puree. Before that, wash them thoroughly, chop them finely, fry them in a frying pan or boil them. Then combine with potatoes and mix well.