Mashed Potatoes with Cream and Mushrooms

Main Dishes | European cuisine

⏳ Time

1 hour

🥕 Ingredients

🍽️ Servings

Description

Mashed Potatoes with Cream and Mushrooms

Ingredients

Salad Potatoes - 10 pieces
Cream - 5 fl oz
Butter - 2.8 oz
Salt - 0.7 oz
Onion - 3 pieces
Safflower Oil - 1 fl oz
Pickled Chanterelles - 2 lbs

Step by Step guide

Step 1

You won't believe it — let's peel the potatoes! I've seen a couple of people boil potatoes and then peel and mash them into something resembling mashed potatoes. So, peel as many potatoes as will fit in your pot (if you want to make a small amount of mashed potatoes — don’t take a huge pot and try to boil just 2 potatoes in it. After making the mashed potatoes, there’s a chance you won’t eat it all right away, and it will sit — the thinner the layer of mashed potatoes spread across the bottom of the pot, the faster it dries out and turns into a rock, so it's better to have a thicker layer and a smaller pot). After peeling the potatoes, cut them — you can cut them into cubes, rounds, diamonds, or even hieroglyphs, the main condition is that all pieces should be as uniform in size as possible (I cut them into half-moons about 1–2 cm thick). This is necessary so that all the potatoes cook at the same time.

Step 2

If you are slowly but surely cutting the potatoes, it’s better to place them directly into the pot that you have filled with water, the water should be about 2 fingers higher than the level of the potatoes. Peeled and cut potatoes quickly turn black in the open air. When all the pieces are cut and packed into the pot with water, add 2–3 pinches of salt (for 3 liters, use 1 teaspoon of salt without a heap, and base your proportions on that).

Step 3

Put it on the heat, set it to 9 out of 9, and cover with the lid slightly ajar so that the water doesn’t boil away and splash everywhere, making you clean the stove. The potatoes should boil for an average of 1 to 1.5 hours, depending on the size of the pieces you cut. The cooked potatoes should easily break apart when pierced with a fork; it’s important not to overcook them, check them every 10 minutes after half an hour of boiling to understand when they are ready and how much time is needed for cooking.

Step 4

While the potatoes are boiling, chop the mushrooms. If you have medium-sized mushrooms, just cut them in half, and that will be enough; almost all mushrooms shrink significantly during cooking, reducing in size by 2–3 times. Also, it’s not advisable to soak the mushrooms; you can rinse them in water, but they will quickly absorb moisture and will have a different texture by the end of cooking. If you bought mushrooms from the supermarket, they are definitely clean enough, but if you still want to wash them, be sure to lay them on a towel to let the water drain off. Peel and chop the onion into half-rings about 3–5 mm thick. Then, heat a frying pan (remember its dryness; if it’s dry, pour in the oil; if it’s damp, evaporate the water first, then pour in the oil), set it to 7 out of 9, and add the oil. When the pan is heated, add the onion and sauté it for 3–4 minutes until it becomes transparent and golden around the edges. Add the mushrooms to the onion and sauté them together for 15–20 minutes, stirring every 3–4 minutes — the mushrooms will be ready when they shrink to 2–3 times their original size and turn golden (an indirect sign, the steam — the less there is, the closer the mushrooms are to being 'done'). Remove from heat.

Step 5

After the potatoes are cooked, drain all the water from them (try to drain as much water as possible). Add a piece of butter, cover with a lid, and wait for it to melt. Then add the cream and mash the potatoes (it takes me about 5–7 minutes of active work with a potato masher to break up all the potatoes and eliminate lumps. I do not recommend using a blender — you will get a homogeneous mass, but it will be very runny and will not resemble mashed potatoes).

Step 6

When serving the mashed potatoes, sprinkle each portion on the plate with the mushrooms and onions (I personally just mix the sautéed mushrooms and onions with the mashed potatoes, but as experience has shown — not everyone likes mushrooms).