How to Make Mashed Potatoes Almost like Grandma's

Nothing says holidays and special family celebrations to me like fresh home made mashed potatoes. Nope, boxed mashed potatoes just don't do it for me. When I was a little girl, no one made mashed potatoes like my grandma. The potatoes where always creamy and buttery; and they should have been, she added cream and a full stick of butter to them! While they tasted wonderful, these mashed potatoes weren't exactly figure friendly.

I have figured out a way to reduce the fat in the mashed potatoes without sacrificing flavor. If you want to figure out a way to reduce the carbohydrates too, your on your own there.

Here's a list of ingredients:

6 medium Idaho Russet (white) potatoes
½ stick of butter
1 1/3 cups reduced fat buttermilk no substitutions
pinch grated whole nutmeg.(optional)
salt and pepper to taste

First a word about the potatoes. It's very important to be selective about the type of potatoes you choose. Some potatoes are waxier than others. You don't want a waxy potato because it affects the creamy consistency of your finished mashed potatoes. The Russet potato is the perfect all purpose potato when it comes to making excellent mashed potatoes.

First wash your potatoes and peel them. Then slice them into one inch slices. This will cut down the cooking time ensuring that you'll be sitting down to homemade mashed potatoes as soon as possible. Place the cut up spuds into cold clean water. Move the potatoes around a little and drain out the water. Fill the pan again with cold clean water. This step will remove some of the extra starch in the mashed potatoes.

Place the pan on the stove and cook on medium heat until the potatoes are cooked to the point that they are fork tender. The potatoes will be softer and fall apart slightly when poked with a fork or knife. Drain the potatoes of the cooking water but leave them in the pan.

While the potatoes are cooking, place the buttermilk in a pan on the stove and warm it over medium heat. The buttermilk may appear to curdle, don't worry this will not affect the quality of your finished mashed potatoes.

Place the drained potatoes back in the stove and move them back and forth on the hot stove burner for a few seconds to remove the last of the excess water. You don't want water logged potatoes otherwise your mashed potatoes will taste more watery than creamy. As a result, you will have richer tasting mashed potatoes.

Then put the butter in the potatoes. It's best to use butter only because in my opinion nothing can replace the taste of real butter. Also, light butter won't work in these mashed potatoes because it's whipped. When you melt whipped light butter you have far less volume of butter than what you would with regular butter. The result will be that you won't get the same amount of butter as what's called for on the recipe because of it.

Add the buttermilk into the potatoes and butter mixture slowly, a little bit at a time. The buttermilk has a richer consistency than regular milk and it will taste like cream when you've finished your mashed potatoes

Keep adding a little bit of the buttermilk to the potatoes mixture a little bit at a time while mashing the potatoes using a potato masher or a hand mixer. The potato masher will give you a few lumps in your mashed potatoes if that's what your prefer. The hand mixer will give you fluffy white mashed potatoes if you prefer that kind of consistency. It all depends on your preference. Stop adding the milk when you have the consistency of mashed potato you want

Add a pinch of whole grated nutmeg not ground nutmeg there is a definite flavor and aroma difference. Blend it into your mashed potato mixture. Taste the mashed potatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you can afford the calories garnish the top of the mashed potatoes with a pat of butter. Serve while steaming hot. This recipe yields 6-8 servings.