Buddy’s Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

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I couldn’t find my original recipe for my roasted garlic spuds so I am adapting with this one…

Good, Nope…

Great, OH YEAH!!!

You can even prepare this dish several hours before eating! If you plan to do so, use only half of the cream, pile the garlic mash into a heat proof bowl and cover with foil until required. About 1/2 an hour before dinner, stand the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water and stir occasionally. At the last minute, beat in the remaining heated cream……and serve!

Ingredients:
  • 2 heads roasted garlic
  • 4lbs Maris Piper (red) potatoes, peeled and quartered
  • 3oz (120g) unsalted butter
  • ½ cup (125ml) sour cream
  • 2 Cups grated cheddar cheese
TIP

I like to roast several heads of garlic at the same time, use one for the garlic mashed potato recipe and then keep the others for alternative uses. They are excellent on a steak (with truffle oil), puréed in soup, rubbed on toast or fresh bread, enhance a bruschetta, mixed with vegetables, or mashed and served on the side with cheese.

Preparation Roasted Garlic:
  1. Cut the top ¼ inch off the head of garlic.
  2. Rub the olive oil, salt and freshly milled black pepper all over the surface.
  3. Wrap the clove with a small piece of kitchen foil.
  4. Place on a baking tray and roast for 25 to 30 minutes until just tender.
  5. Remove from the oven. Once cool, Peel the skin off (don’t worry about any browned parts of the clove as they will add color and flavor).
Preparation Garlic Mashed Spuds:
  1. Peel the potatoes – Optional: I don’t peel mine but remove some as I run it through the ricer but I think about peeling them every time to avoid the challenge of clogging up the ricer
  2. Cut the potatoes into 1.5” cubes or so
  3. Put the potatoes into a large saucepan and cover with cold water.
  4. Season with ½ teaspoon of salt.
  5. Over a high heat, bring the pan to the boil, cover and simmer steadily for approximately 20 to 25 minutes until tender in the centre.
  6. Carefully drain off the water, and then while holding the lid firmly in place, shake the pan vigorously to start breaking up the potatoes.
  7. Cut the butter into chunks and add it along with the sour cream, cheddar and the garlic cloves to the hot potatoes. Place the lid back on the pan and leave for a few minutes for the butter and cheese to melt.
  8. Run the potatoes (with ingredients) through a ricer twice. (if you don’t have a ricer, you can use a mixer but they aren’t as smooth)
  9. Add milk or cream to get the desired consistency and a generous seasoning of salt and freshly milled black pepper to taste. It’s now ready to serve.

 

TIP

Even though this garlic mashed potato recipe is enough for 8, you can always make up the full amount even when serving less people. The reason being is that it is excellent fried a day or 2 later for a dish that here in the UK, we call “Bubble’n Squeak”!

To make Bubble’n Squeak, simply fry ½ a finely diced onion in 2 tablespoons of oil until softened. Then add the garlic mashed potato and some leftover chopped green vegetables such as cabbage, broccoli, green beans, or peas. Season with salt and freshly milled black pepper. Turn occasionally adding a little more oil if it starts to stick to the pan. Continue to fry over a medium heat for 15 to 20 minutes until it all starts to crisp and brown.

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Buddy’s Garlic infused Olive Oil and Crunchy Fried Garlic

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So I used to make this in small portions when I was making veg as a seasoning but I found that I made it so often that it was better to make it in bulk and then I diversified.  There are a ton of uses for just garlic olive oil and the crunchy garlic goes on just about anything.

For fresh veg, just steam them in the microwave, add the garlic olive oil, crunchy garlic, a little fresh squeezed lemon and salt and better yet, zest some of that lemon as well and you have a side dish that rivals the main.

Works great with spinach, broccoli, samphire (I now see a pattern) and you can also oven roast your veg (have you tried oven roasted cabbage)?

Ingredients:
  • 3 bulbs of garlic
  • Salt
  • 500ml (2 1/4 Cup) Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Preparation Oil:
  1. Mince all of the garlic
  2. Place all of the oil in a large pan over medium high heat
  3. Once oil is hot (seems glossy), add garlic to fry
  4. Fry the garlic, stirring constantly until the garlic starts to brown (be careful not to burn it as it makes the oil bitter and make sure it is actually browned as it turns soggy for crunchy garlic otherwise)
  5. Immediately remove from the stove and strain using a fine sieve into a bowl (being careful to reserve the garlic)
Preparation Crunchy Garlic:
  1. Place the reserved fried garlic and place in a paper towel lined baking tray to soak up the residual olive oil (this may need done a few times)
  2. Sprinkle with salt to taste

I have no idea how long this will keep as we go through it too fast for it to go bad but I’d guess months

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