Mashed Potato as a side dish

Firstly, what a great board - there’s heaps of good reading to be had here, to be sure.

If I’m ever going to eat sausages or bratwursts I would always want it to be served with mashed potato. I like a creamy mashed potatoes when I’m eating sausages, but prefer a more savoury or spicy mashed potato with bratwursts. I’ve actually got some of my favourite recipes on my blog.

What’s you’re favourite mash – and what you prefer to eat it with. Where have you had your best mash?

Philmash,try making the mashed potatoes with some sauteed bacon and onions.Add hot heavy cream to finish.

Hi iqdiva,

Sauteed bacon and onions! Yum. That sounds great - Ill be sure to try that out.

I've started "cheating" with my mashed potatoes. I usually don't keep creamer, but have found that plain old non-dairy, non-flavored creamer works really well with my mashed potatoes. I like them a little on the chunky side, and usually mix in about 6 or 8 garlic cloves that I have boiled in the water with the potatoes. I enjoy them the most with meatloaf, swiss steak, chicken fried steak or chicken and gravy. Yummy!

Ooooooh. Here's some.

1) Mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. Cut the liquid in your potatoes a little bit first.

2) Colcannon; mashed potatoes with cabbage and onions. 6 lbs of potatoes and 2 medium onions per head of cabbage; or, 3 lbs of potatoes and half a head of cabbage per onion. Make the mashed as you always do, sautee the onions and cabbage with 1/4 lb of bacon and mix in.

3) Add 2 lbs/1lb (depending on recipe size) of cooked ground beef to colcannon to make Bubble & Squeak (leave out the bacon).


Tom

I mash mine with horseradish (prepared) about 1 tablespoon to a big bowl of potatoes, then add the cream, s&p, sour cream and butter. It gets served with some good beef, either tenderloin or a rib roast.
Sometimes I'll stew some celery until it's real tender, and drain it and put it in my 'taters. Add the butter and cream, s&p, and serve it with some kind of buttery seafood.

I boil them in chicken broth (canned ok) and 1 or 2 cloves of garlic.
When soft, drain most of the broth out, mash up with the softened garlic in it, add butter if you like, no milk needed. Very good.

I boil mine in 1/2 stock and 1/2 water
Add 5 or 6 cloves of garlic to the water and boil them with the potatoes
when tender strain
mash potato and garlic with butter
add 1 container of sour cream
season with WHITE pepper and a bit of salt.

Mashed Potatoes as a side dish

Says who?

Me.

I gotta have some meat for the main course, taters are always a side. Well except when I make up a batch of giblet gravy with a lot of giblets in it. I then make almost a soup out of the gravy and mashed taters, a very thick soup. That has been dinner a time or 3.

MikeS.

Hey Mosca, I like your style! Mashed potatoes and sauerkraut sounds awesome! Im Going to try this out for sure. Do you recommend kraut out of a can or would you make it from scratch?

Bangers and mash!

Oh yeah, and I like them for brekkie.

quote:

Originally posted by MikeS.

Me.

I gotta have some meat for the main course, taters are always a side. Well except when I make up a batch of giblet gravy with a lot of giblets in it. I then make almost a soup out of the gravy and mashed taters, a very thick soup. That has been dinner a time or 3.

MikeS.

Throw some corn or fried okra on the plate with that, add a couple of biscuits, and it's good eating.

John

Good mashed potatoes are probably one of my favorite side dishes with most all meals. I use a little warmed milk, salt, butter and sometimes some white pepper and mix it smooth, but still a little thick. I can eat it with a little amount of "lumps or chunks," but prefer it smooth, BUT I cannot eat it with skins mixed into it (often referred to at some restaurants as "dirty" mashed potatoes). Mashed potatoes with skins are definitely not "in" with me, but I know others like it for some reason, which is fine.

quote:

Originally posted by Philmash

Hey Mosca, I like your style! Mashed potatoes and sauerkraut sounds awesome! Im Going to try this out for sure. Do you recommend kraut out of a can or would you make it from scratch?

Phil, I know it's easy but I still buy my sauerkraut at the store.

For me, there's nothing like a plate of mixed sausages (bratwurst, knockwurst, kielbasa, frankfurter) with mashed potatoes and sauerkraut and good strong brown mustard.

Tom

quote:

Originally posted by Mosca

Ooooooh. Here's some.

1) Mashed potatoes and sauerkraut. Cut the liquid in your potatoes a little bit first.

2) Colcannon; mashed potatoes with cabbage and onions. 6 lbs of potatoes and 2 medium onions per head of cabbage; or, 3 lbs of potatoes and half a head of cabbage per onion. Make the mashed as you always do, sautee the onions and cabbage with 1/4 lb of bacon and mix in.

3) Add 2 lbs/1lb (depending on recipe size) of cooked ground beef to colcannon to make Bubble & Squeak (leave out the bacon).


Tom

Tom, what you call Colcannon, I call Bubble and Squeek. I always make mine from leftovers, but I make sure I make enough mashed potatoes and cabbage the first time round so that I can have Bubble & Squeek the next day.

Has anyone ever read "The Wind in the Willows" where poor Mr. Toad is in jail and the jailer's daughter brings him B&S to comfort him?

Whatever you call it, it's only one of the best dishes known to mankind! (And I am NOT exaggerating.) YUM!

quote:

Originally posted by Trishkaidekaphobia

Tom, what you call Colcannon, I call Bubble and Squeek. I always make mine from leftovers, but I make sure I make enough mashed potatoes and cabbage the first time round so that I can have Bubble & Squeek the next day.

Has anyone ever read "The Wind in the Willows" where poor Mr. Toad is in jail and the jailer's daughter brings him B&S to comfort him?

Whatever you call it, it's only one of the best dishes known to mankind! (And I am NOT exaggerating.) YUM!

Trish,

What I call B&S is Colcannon with cooked ground beef added. Either way, it's great stuff! Next morning I reheat it in the skillet and have it for breakfast, with hot sauce. I did a quick recipe search over the internet, and it looks like B&S can be made with or without the beef. And Colcannon never has ground beef, but sometimes has bacon (like I make it) and sometimes has sausage.

Good topic!

Tom

I will be making a small batch of colcannon tomorrow with half a head of leftover cabbage I didnt need to cook with my corned beef.My Mother,being Irish,had potatoes at EVERY meal(same as my Grandmother and her Mother before her)so I kinda burned out on regular mashed potatoes...but colcannon is a true favorite of mine!!!

mash with lots of butter, warm milk, salt and pepper. Also, try adding a little sprinkling of Tony Chacere's seasoning. Not enough to overpower it, but definitely enhances the taste - I call it Cajun Accent.

My Dad was Irish and hated potatoes, my Mom German and liked them. I bought a bunch of kale to make some colcannon this week. I went through many phases of taste in my life. Loving potatoes, disliking them and now again loving them. I guess I love potatoes now and everything I can do with them. Next is homemade hash with the corned beef I made yesterday!

quote:

Originally posted by MikeS.

Me.

I gotta have some meat for the main course, taters are always a side. Well except when I make up a batch of giblet gravy with a lot of giblets in it. I then make almost a soup out of the gravy and mashed taters, a very thick soup. That has been dinner a time or 3.

MikeS.

Oh well. Homemade mashed 'taters for me often serve as the base for my entire meal. I do the "soup" thingie quite often, too. Valhallia!

just mashed potatoes and saurkraut for me.
i love the stuff.

Go to one of the best recipe sites on the web, www.allrecipes.com and type "mashed potatoes" in the search box and you'll get 140 recipes for mashed potatoes. Take your pick!

I like potatos mashed and chunky not whipped and smooth. boiled in salted water or veggie stock, drained and fork mashed with butter or garlic butter

I just had "Purple Viking" mashed potato. Purple Viking is a fairly new variety, said to make the very best mashed potatoes.

Potatoes are generally not grown from true seed, but rather parts of another potato (so called "seed" potato). You have no doubt seen sprouts on your potatoes if you store them too long. If you cut the sprouted potato so that each piece has a sprout, and plant the pieces, you, too, can grow potatoes. Generally 5 lbs of "seed" will get you 50 lbs of crop, so it takes time to build supply of a new variety.

Purple Viking has purple skin and snow white flesh, and organic seed is reasonably available this year. (if you want some for your home garden, google "Maine potato lady"). I bought some and decided to eat some before planting the rest. I also gave 3 good sized spuds to my brother to "test". His wife, being of Ukranian decent considers herself to be a potato expert by blood. My family agrees that Purple Viking is the best masher ever. My sister in law and her kids think so too. My brother thinks it is all hype, and a potato is a potato.

IMO, if you see Purple Viking at a farmers market this summer, you shoud buy some. It will be a few more years before it shows up in mainstream supermarkets. YUM!
 
Update, Mar 25, 2009. THe Maine Potato Lady is long since sold out of Purple Viking. I would have ordered more. Look for it at farmer's markets this summer, and if you see it, buy it!!! I have already had 2 unsolicited calls from chiefs asking if I will have it this summer. (More and more restaurants shop at farmers markets, in season, as the "Eat Local" fad gains steam) Speaking of fads, they were not especially interested that I will have a larger supply of Mirai (tm) sweet corn this summer. Mirai corn is still great, but I guess it is so "last year". 

Since when have mashed potatoes become a, "side dish". I always thought they were the main dish and everything else were the side dishes.

My favorite mashed taters? A few lumps, plenty of butter and chopped raw onion. Triple yummo!

Mashed potatoes with:
 
Fried chicken & gravy.
Fried pork chops & gravy.
Any gravy!!
Sauerkraut & weiners.
Liver & onions.
 
I use Yukon gold potatoes, peel,  put whole peeled potatoes in cold water,cut into 2 inch chunks, rinse, cover with fresh cold water, add salt, bring to boil & then simmer until fork tender.
 
I know that some cooks will only use a ricer to make mashed potaotes, but I don't like to have too many gagets in my kitchen.  I drain the potatoes, put the pan back on the burner, shake to pot around to remove all  moisture.  I heat butter & half 'n' half(or cream if I'm feely really decadent) in the microwave, just heat, do not boil.  Then I beat the potatoes slow with a mixer, slowly add the butter & half 'n' half mixture & beat until smooth.  I always need to add more salt.
 

Champ is a favourite of mine.  It's an Irish dish of mashed potatoes with spring onions and lots of butter.

I cook a bone-in Pork roast with Sauerkraut in a Crockpot. Make a up batch of Mashed Potatoes with salt, butter & milk, (I like more stuff in them but the Bride doesn't). Put a pile of taters on a plate make a hole in the middle & fill it with Kraut, serve with the pork roast.

Hello All,
I love mashed potatoes with plenty of pepper and salt in
it.  and when I am in a mood, I'll swirl in some yellow mustard.
Mashed potatoes goes with any meat I eat...any meat.
It is the perfect side dish, and mix it corn, it is even better.
Take Care,
Fieldthistle