Garlic Mashed Potatoes
By jddoherty
Infusing mashed potatoes with the flavor of roasted garlic is easy—if you have an extra hour to roast a head of garlic. Our goal was to find an easier way.
Test Kitchen Discoveries
Cut the potatoes in small pieces to allow more surface area to soak up garlic flavor and to promote even cooking.
To eliminate excess starch, which produces gluey mashed potatoes, give the raw, cut russets a good rinse under running water before adding them to the pot to simmer.
Taking a cue from our mashed sweet potatoes recipe, we simmer cut potatoes in half–and– half, butter, water, and garlic, sugar, and salt to avoid the “washing away” of flavor that can come from boiling in just water. We use just enough liquid when simmering to prevent the potatoes from scorching.
Roasting garlic can be time–consuming, so we wanted to find a faster, easier way to infuse mashed potatoes with the flavor of roasted garlic. To mimic that sweet flavor without oven, we sprinkle in just a teaspoon of sugar while sautéing the minced cloves.
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Ingredients
- Cutting the potatoes into 1/2-inch pieces ensures that maximum surface area is exposed to soak up garlicky flavor.
- 4 pounds russet potatoes , peeled,
- quartered, and cut into 1/2-inch
- pieces
- 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted
- butter , cut into pieces
- 12 garlic cloves , minced
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 1/2 cups half-and-half
- 1/2 cup water
- Salt and pepper
Preparation
Step 1
1. Place cut potatoes in colander. Rinse under cold running water until water runs clear. Drain thoroughly.
2. Melt 4 tablespoons butter in Dutch oven over medium heat. Cook garlic and sugar, stirring often, until sticky and straw colored, 3 to 4 minutes. Add rinsed potatoes, 1 1/4 cups half-and-half, water, and 1 teaspoon salt to pot and stir to combine. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered and stirring occasionally, until potatoes are tender and most of the liquid is absorbed, 25 to 30 minutes.
3. Off heat, add remaining butter to pot and mash with potato masher until smooth. Using rubber spatula, fold in remaining half-and-half until liquid is absorbed and potatoes are creamy. Season with salt and pepper. Serve.