Rustic Garlic Mashed Potatoes

I had a craving for mashed potatoes tonight, but we don't have a masher. So Joey put me up to the challenge: could the stand mixer mash potatoes so as not to cream them but leave them perfectly lumpy yet smooth. The stand mixer pulled through once again. Here's a recipe for deliciously rustic garlic mashed potatoes.

Ingredients 

4 medium sized yellow potatoes, unpeeled and chopped into squares

2 Tbsp butter (approx.)

1/4 cup milk (approx.)

4-5 cloves of garlic

salt and pepper to taste

Steps

1. boil potato squares until quite soft 

2. strain and dump into your stand mixer bowl 

3. attach flat beater

4. add butter and start mixing setting the mixer to 'stir' 

5. add garlic 

6. add milk and continue mixing until at desired consistency. (As I mentioned above, Joey and I like our potatoes just a little lumpy and maintaining the skin on the potatoes adds to the texture. If you prefer  your mashed more whipped, I would suggest peeling your potatoes and turning your mixer on higher)

Recipe in Photos: 

Boiling the potatoes

Potatoes and butter added to the stand mixer bowl. Milk on hand to add as it mixes

The finished product. The meat and veggies were still cooking so I transferred the potatoes to a casserole dish and popped it in the oven to keep warm. 

Suggested fare: serve potatoes with pork chops and pan-seared Brussel spouts served with a wild mushroom gravy. 

What I Learned:

• Artisan can whip up a mean mashed potato dish. Delicious! (and exactly what we were aiming for)
• I highly recommend this approach - no need to mash by hand and certainly tops boxed versions
• Mashed potatoes don't have to be a laborious initiative. The stand mixer simplifies the process and produces a delicious side. 

Given that I do not have a potato masher, and even if I did, it would be a whole lot of extra work to use the masher instead of the stand mixer, I give this recipe a score of three whisks.