Like any great Turkey meal, the secret is in the taters.
If your mashed potatoes don't cut it, the whole meal is a bust — and that's a problem.
But fret not. We here at Short Order consulted with a mashed potato connoisseur: Danny Serfer from Blue Collar. He was kind enough to pass on his recipe (and explicit instructions) for Blue Collar's creamy mashed Yukon gold potatoes.
Next is the recipe, so throw on that apron.
Ingredients
3 pounds Yukon gold potatoes
1 pound unsalted butter
1 quart heavy cream
Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
Directions
- Pre heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Cover potatoes in water (leave the skin on).
- Bring to a simmer (Chef Danny says, "NEVER, EVER, EVER LET IT BOIL HARD OR YOU WILL MESS THE WHOLE THING UP. I PROMISE... Perfect mashed potatoes is all in technique as there are only a few ingredients."
- Check to see if they're fork tender but not falling apart (about 35-45 minutes into it), drain
- Put potatoes on a roasting pan and put in 350 degree oven for 7 minutes (the expert says, "this is important, as you let the potatoes dry out a bit and allow them to absorb more cream and butter.")
- While potatoes are in oven bring quart of cream to a boil dice the butter into cubes
Combine
- If you have a food mill, put the potatoes and butter in it. Serfer says, "the butter should lube everything up real well so the potatoes go through the holes easy."
- If you don't have a food mill, use a potato masher
- Add the cream and fold everything together, add salt and black pepper. "Yes, black pepper," Mr. Sassy Pants Serfer says. "It tastes better than white pepper and who the @#$! cares if it looks like there are black flecks in it! It tastes infinitely more delicious than white pepper."
- "Add more salt than you were thinking because you are a home cook and not using enough salt."
- Keep warm by covering the bowl in plastic wrap, and placing this bowl on top of a pot with a small amount of simmering water.
And one final note from our chef: "The trick to amazing mashed potatoes is all in technique. The potatoes can never get too hot or the starches explode and become unable to absorb all the delicious cream and butter," he says. "That is why you do not boil them. Ever. Drying them out is important because it gets rid of the excess water which will take away from the creaminess."
"If you did everything right, you should have potatoes that (despite having copious amounts of butter and cream) are actually very light in texture."
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