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This home style version I’m sharing today is not quite as indulgent – but certainly still very rich! Stir in the butter and milk. Add the butter and milk, gently stirring until the potatoes reach your desired consistency. Taste and season generously. The “universal” models guarantee 85% efficiency, but their great advantage lies in their value for money.
Double sieve– To achieve a perfectly smooth Paris Mash the way it’s made in restaurants requires a lot of effort. After the first mash using a ricer or grinder, the potato is then pushed through a fine drum sieve.This requires serious effort – both time and strength! We have a drum sieve floating around in the RecipeTin Family and I’ve used it once for Paris Mash – and I’m not sure if I ever will again!In the absence of a team of sous chefs to sieve the potato for me, I skip the double sieve and accept that mine is not quite as smooth as restaurant versions – and that’s totally ok. While you might notice the lumps if you eat plain spoonfuls of the mash, once it’s on the plate and you’re eating it with steak or whatever you’re serving it with, you don’t even notice the minor imperfections. I love the way mashed potatoes taste when you push the potatoes through a fine mesh sieve . It gives you the smoothest, most luscious mashed potatoes you’ve ever eaten. But, if you like a slightly chunkier mash, use a potato masher. There are even different kinds of mashers: smooth mashers or chunky mashers depending on how you like your potatoes. Don’t over mix.Boil the potatoes until they are cooked through and through and then drain off the water; follow the steps of the basic cooking method ‘boil’ Waterlogged potatoes mean gluey mashed potatoes. To avoid this, make sure you drain your potatoes really well. I like to use a giant slotted spoon to scoop the potatoes out of the water. It’s a lot easier than lifting a heavy pot of hot water. Start potatoes in cold water Many older recipes tell you to add the cheese in thin slices, rather than grating it in. I try both methods, and I’m still puzzled why it would make any difference: all suggestions appreciated. When it comes to the perfect mashed potato recipe, it’s all down to flavour. For many, texture is also key - some like robust, roughly mashed potatoes, some like fluffy or whipped, while others like theirs to resemble baby food or purée. Because I’m in the smooth mash camp, I don’t think potato skin belongs in mashed potatoes. But some people love that texture contrast. And for those people, I say, feel free to leave the skins on! Can you mash potatoes in an Instant Pot?
Local resident Jeanne Strang notes that “as it is hard work to beat the mixture, this is traditionally the role of the man of the house, sometimes even assisted by another strong man”. Fortunately, if you’re making it in domestic quantities, you don’t need to be a man, let along a strong one, to make perfect aligot. Potatoes Felicity Cloake’s perfect aligot features lancashire cheese, a bit of mozzarella, and a dash each of creme fraiche and garlic. Seasonings Dry out potato over low heat– once the potato is mashed, stir it over low heat to steam out any residual water which will intensify the potato flavour and start the process of making it really creamy; To make the puree extra creamy: add some butter (about 25 grams per 1 kg potatoes). However, you don’t need to. Boil in SALTED water – this will season the potatoes all the way through – until potato is very, very soft. It should virtually crumble when you jab it with a fork;Yukon golds are perfect for mashing because they’re starchy, beautifully yellow, and have a rich buttery potato taste. They’re also a more dense potato with a thin skin, and when you use them, you get a more luxurious mash. Put your potatoes in cold, heavily salted water and bring it up to the boil (rather than adding them to already-boiling water). This will stop the potatoes overcooking on the outside and cook them more evenly. If you salt them during boiling, you do not need to season them at the end. Interestingly, it seems this could be a relatively recent development in aligot’s long history; David, writing in 1960, makes no reference to it, and Strang simply describes the dish as “creamy”. That said, given tomme fraiche is naturally rather stringy when melted, I’d recommend also sneaking in a bit of mozzarella, as McGlynn and Gizzi Erskine’s Slow suggest, to give your aligot a little spring in its step. Legendary French chef Joël Robuchon is credited with the original creation of this mash, his simple but decadent pommes puree (“pureed potatoes”) becoming his signature dish at his many restaurants. It’s since spread far and wide, and you’ll find it on the menu of upmarket steakhouses and French restaurants around the world. Chef Guillaume Brahimi, one of Robuchon’s protégés, popularised the dish here in Australia, fittingly coining it Paris Mash! However, I’ve discovered through online comments that, unbeknownst to us professionals, there are people up and down the country who like their mash lumpy. This under-represented section of the population actively chooses to resist fully mashing their spuds, preferring to give them more of a casual crush instead.
Cook the potatoes whole– optional! This is how chefs do it – because it stops the potatoes from becoming waterlogged so you get a more intense potato flavour. But it does require a bit of a juggling act to peel the potatoes while hot!Potato ricer, grinder or masher– I use a potato ricer which is an easy way to make smooth mashed potato. If you don’t have one, just use a handheld masher. Tip: Potato mashers with round holes work the best because they mimic the effect of a potato ricer; The first big choice that will determine the success of your mash is the variety of potato. Only last week, and even with the crown of potato royalty weighing heavy on my head, I mashed red skin potatoes that were just simply too waxy. In the end it turned out I had made – please forgive me – gloopy mashed potato. It happens to the best of us. Cover your pan of potatoes with cold salted water, then heat to ensure they cook thoroughly and evenly. If you fill your pot with boiling water, the outsides of the potatoes will start to soften long before the heat reaches the centre, and you’ll end up with a water-logged surface and hard middle. This will result in lumps once the potatoes are mashed. It's also a good idea to select potatoes that are roughly the same size – chop any large ones to roughly the same size as the others. Cover the pan with a lid, too, to create an even cooking environment. The water needs to cover all the potatoes, or the uncovered edges will remain less cooked than those that are submerged. A gentle simmer as opposed to a raucous boil will encourage the heat to penetrate right to the centre of each potato. Why cooking and draining are important Since this dish puts potatoes in the spotlight, using the right kind of potatoes is so crucial. Ideally, I would have liked to use Yukon Gold potatoes or russet potatoes. Since we don't have those here in India, I've used old potatoes rather than new ones. New potatoes have more water content than old potatoes, so they're foamy and crumbly - not the best choice for mashed potatoes. Lumpy, bland mashed potatoes can ruin a good mood like no other. So use the right potatoes!!
This is an ultra-creamy mashed potato as served at top tier restaurants and good steakhouses. It’s called Paris Mash, and it’s got a soft, almost pourable texture, it’s creamy yet fluffy, and it’s unapologetically rich. I’ve delved so heavily into potato recipes over the last two years that I have been dubbed the ‘Potato Queen’ online. My videos on social media have had over 200 million views and even Nigella called me the ‘High Priestess of potato’.
The best potatoes for mashed potatoes
How much you add depends on how extreme you’d like the end result to be, so I’ve provided a range below. McGlynn’s recipe in The Modern Cheesemaker suggests 900g gruyère and 450g mozzarella to 1.5kg potatoes, which gives an extremely satisfying, stretchy consistency, but you may want to dial down the cheese content, because, as Holt notes, “it largely depends on the nature of the rest of the meal” (and perhaps the state of your arteries, though really, anyone with concerns in that department should probably steer clear of this recipe in the first place). Remember, aligot ought to be elastic, but never rubbery. I've seen a lot of people making mashed potatoes in a stand mixer or using a potato mixer. While this may seem convenient, using a stand mixer can overwork the potatoes and make them lose the desired consistency. Sieving potatoes might seem like a tiresome step at first. But trust me, the satin smooth texture and creaminess of the mashed potatoes when you sieve the boiled potatoes is to die for. Thank me later. Most restaurants use the sieve method to get that creamy irresistible mash! Use a sieve which has slightly larger pores. A sieve that's too fine will take way more arm strength and time. Infusing Butter and Garlic Not what you might expect in a Gallic classic, perhaps, but then, this Gallic classic might not be quite as you might imagine if you’ve watched waiters or stall-holders stretching the potatoes several feet in the air to prove their extraordinary elasticity. DO NOT use a food processor blender– this activates the starch and makes the mashed potato gluey (it’s inedible, I made that mistake in my youth!); Heat up your cream or milk prior to adding it to your sieved mash so that it will combine more easily.
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