Mashed Potatoes with Herb-Scented Cream

Poole's: Recipes and Stories from a Modern Diner

Want a fancied-up version of mashed potatoes that still goes with everything? This recipe fits the bill.

Ashley Christensen has the full recipe on her site here: https://ac-restaurants.com/blog/recipe-herb-scented-mashed-potatoes/

Captions

[00:04]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with Heather today we are once again
[00:09]: doing an evening video because we're
[00:13]: gonna have this for dinner tonight and
[00:15]: we are going to be making my children's
[00:18]: absolute least favorite food ever mashed
[00:23]: potatoes we're working from the pool's
[00:26]: diner cookbook and we're going to be
[00:30]: making mashed potatoes with herb scented
[00:32]: cream so our first job is to get the
[00:39]: cream going so I have quite a lot of
[00:44]: heavy cream here and going into a
[00:48]: saucepan and I'm just going to save this
[00:55]: because when we're done we're going to
[00:57]: strain the cream straining the solids
[00:59]: out of the cream and I'm just gonna
[01:01]: strain it back into here which will be
[01:02]: very convenient we have some thyme
[01:06]: sprigs I just kind of estimated cut them
[01:09]: off of a plant that I bought because the
[01:11]: grocery store did not have any little
[01:13]: clamshell packages we have a fresh bay
[01:17]: leaf I'm sure you could substitute a
[01:20]: dried if you wanted we have half of a
[01:24]: shallot and you'll see that I did not
[01:25]: bother to peel this and that is because
[01:29]: we also have half of a or not a whole
[01:33]: head of garlic cut in half across the
[01:37]: equator you can see on both sides you
[01:39]: can kind of see the the cloves and we're
[01:43]: gonna be straining all of the the peels
[01:45]: out so it doesn't really matter and we
[01:48]: have some peppercorns now these are
[01:51]: gonna go on the stove we're gonna bring
[01:53]: it up to a boil and we're gonna let it
[01:54]: sit for 15 minutes so I'm gonna get that
[01:57]: started right now
[01:58]: so I already realized I did something
[02:00]: wrong the thyme is supposed to go in
[02:02]: after it boils so I pulled that out
[02:05]: we'll put it in after now while that is
[02:10]: steeping boiling and seeping I'm going
[02:12]: to go ahead and
[02:13]: my potatoes we've peeled them and cut
[02:16]: them up into about 1 inch pieces closest
[02:20]: you can get we've got a mixture of
[02:25]: russet potatoes which are basically
[02:27]: baking potatoes and those are very
[02:29]: fluffy and Yukon Gold potatoes which are
[02:33]: a little waxy er than those so there's a
[02:35]: difference in texture here and usually I
[02:39]: do when I make baked potatoes oh shoot I
[02:42]: forgot one of my potatoes I'm gonna have
[02:43]: to cut that up so I'll cut that up but
[02:47]: usually I only use one kind of potato so
[02:49]: we'll see if this makes a huge
[02:50]: difference
[02:51]: usually I use red potatoes which are
[02:53]: very waxy but we are going to add some
[02:58]: salt to this and we're going to bring it
[03:00]: up to a boil and cook them until until
[03:04]: tender now she does have very specific
[03:07]: measurements for both the salt and the
[03:10]: water for this I'm sure you don't have
[03:12]: to be all that specific or either one of
[03:14]: those but I'm following the recipe as
[03:17]: closely as I possibly can so I'm gonna
[03:19]: cut my last potato up and we'll get
[03:23]: those boiled and I'll show you what they
[03:25]: look like when they are done to her
[03:28]: preference or to what she says in the
[03:31]: recipe and I'll show you when the cream
[03:36]: is done I will strain it show you how I
[03:41]: strain it out got my potatoes here
[03:46]: honestly they're probably a little
[03:47]: overdone I had had them just keeping
[03:53]: warm while I waited for the cream to
[03:55]: finish because they were done well
[03:59]: before the 18 to 20 minutes that she
[04:02]: suggested so I'm going to drain these in
[04:04]: a colander and then put them back in
[04:08]: this pan I have my cream that has been
[04:12]: it's really heavy
[04:14]: but has been soaking for about 15
[04:16]: minutes boiled I turned it off at at the
[04:18]: time and I've just got a
[04:35]: [Music]
[04:39]: sorry just got a fine mesh strainer here
[04:43]: caught all of the stuff my potatoes are
[04:46]: really much more done than I would have
[04:49]: liked but they took a lot less time than
[04:51]: then she said so it didn't all work out
[04:55]: very well now this is kind of a
[04:58]: controversial mashing method first she
[05:00]: wants you to do it over a low heat but
[05:02]: just didn't want to set up the cameras
[05:04]: over there and it'll be fine like this
[05:06]: because my my cream is still hot and my
[05:09]: butter is not super room temperature but
[05:12]: I should be fine potatoes are really
[05:15]: cool so you're going to use a hand mixer
[05:19]: for this which I've been told and I've
[05:24]: had some really bad mashed potatoes that
[05:26]: were made with a hand mixer but we'll
[05:29]: see we're putting in quite a lot of but
[05:33]: putting in half of the butter that the
[05:34]: recipe calls for and half of this cream
[05:38]: just to start with and now we're just
[05:48]: going to mix use the the hand mixer and
[05:50]: mix them in the pan now we're supposed
[05:55]: to add a little more cream a little more
[05:58]: butter until we get it to a very silky
[05:60]: smooth texture we may not use all of
[06:03]: this cream in all of this butter I'm
[06:05]: sure I can find another use for it if I
[06:07]: can't
[06:13]: I think I'm done I am going to add
[06:26]: someone check it taste it and check it
[06:29]: for salt need some salt I'm gonna put
[06:35]: about half of what she recommends in
[06:37]: there and mix it up again and see if it
[06:40]: needs one got a clean fork just you know
[06:49]: hygiene I'm gonna go with a little more
[06:56]: salt but I don't think don't do more
[06:57]: than that
[06:58]: so go with that I'm gonna whisk it up
[07:02]: again alright that is it for these
[07:13]: potatoes I think they're a little bit
[07:15]: thinner than I would prefer put a little
[07:18]: bit too much of the cream in there but I
[07:19]: have some cream left over part another
[07:21]: batch of mashed potatoes or whatever and
[07:23]: didn't quite use all the butter so we'll
[07:26]: let you know how to turn now
[07:36]: on this episode of cooking the books of
[07:39]: Heather we want cooking from the pool
[07:41]: steiner cookbook and we made mashed
[07:43]: potatoes with herbs scented cream now we
[07:49]: had a lot of the cream leftover first of
[07:51]: all it was really easy to make it didn't
[07:54]: take long the potatoes actually cooked
[08:01]: much faster than it said in here and
[08:05]: honestly I probably should have checked
[08:07]: them earlier but I just didn't think
[08:09]: that they would be done that early so my
[08:12]: potatoes were a little waterlogged
[08:14]: because they got a little overdone but
[08:16]: they were still delicious they and they
[08:18]: did not get gluey so in this recipe you
[08:22]: use a hand mixer or I'm sure you could
[08:25]: use your stand mixer if you wanted to
[08:30]: but you use a hand mixer in the pot and
[08:35]: add the cream and as much as you need
[08:39]: and it doesn't get gluey
[08:43]: which is great because that's sort of
[08:44]: one of the things that can happen when
[08:47]: you overwork mashed potatoes but these
[08:49]: ones did not I think maybe the
[08:50]: combination of the russets and the and
[08:54]: the more waxy Yukon Golds helped we did
[08:57]: have plenty of the cream left over I
[08:59]: think we ended up using about half of
[09:02]: the cream total and honestly I used it
[09:07]: for some gravy the second time we ate
[09:10]: these and it was a nice compliment so
[09:14]: you know I made my usual gravy and I
[09:16]: like to add a little bit of cream to my
[09:17]: gravy and so I used this cream instead
[09:22]: very good we my husband and I enjoyed
[09:28]: these an awful lot it's a nice sort of
[09:33]: different a little little addition to
[09:37]: the mashed potatoes they're still mashed
[09:39]: potatoes they're still the same and the
[09:41]: flavor is very subtle like she says
[09:45]: herbs scented cream it's not super
[09:48]: in-your-face
[09:49]: but it's really delicious and it but
[09:52]: it's so will go with a lot of other
[09:54]: things and I know I talk about my kids
[09:58]: every time so they did not eat it well
[10:02]: they tried it but again they hate any
[10:06]: kind of mashed potatoes so there was no
[10:08]: expectation that they were going to like
[10:09]: these just because they were Ashley
[10:12]: Christensen pools Dino mashed potatoes
[10:14]: and you know that didn't work out but we
[10:18]: actually happened to have quite a bit
[10:22]: left because it makes a very large
[10:24]: amount of mashed potatoes so it's a
[10:26]: great great if you're gonna have a lot
[10:27]: of people over for Thanksgiving and eat
[10:29]: a lot of mashed potatoes this is a great
[10:31]: recipe for that because you'll end up
[10:33]: with plenty we have enough in the
[10:37]: freezer for another couple of meals at
[10:42]: least so and I did want to mention that
[10:46]: mashed potatoes reheat very very well
[10:48]: sort of boil in bag we have a food saver
[10:51]: a you know a vacuum sealer and as long
[10:55]: as the potatoes have some fat in them
[10:59]: like this cream they will reheat
[11:01]: beautifully potatoes have a tendency to
[11:06]: have an off texture when they've been
[11:09]: frozen but this way they will be fine
[11:11]: and now if you can't eat them all at
[11:17]: first then you can have them another day
[11:21]: so I hope you enjoyed watching me cook
[11:25]: and if you did please hit the thumbs up
[11:27]: button subscribe and come back next week
[11:31]: and watch me cook something else
[11:34]: [Music]