Thursday, December 11, 2008

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

I'm running really late this morning getting this posted. I have been inundated with telephone calls from family in New Orleans. It's snowing there and they are very excited. My niece measured five inches of snow on the ground and my mother said it's coming down and looks very pretty. I think that weather is moving this way and we might get some of the white stuff tomorrow.

It's funny in Knoxville, and I don't know why, but when snowy weather is on it's way, people mob the grocery stores for white milk and white bread and I don't understand why. I have asked and asked and all everyone does is shrug their shoulders. Do people sit in a circle and eat white bread and drink white milk or what? I'm clueless since I'm not a snow bunny by birth. If anyone knows, drop me a line.

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes -

Before you start boiling potatoes we need to get the garlic roasted. For this recipe, I roasted three heads of garlic. If you haven't roasted garlic before and want to learn how, click here
My family, especially my oldest daughter and me, love garlic and mashed potatoes, so I boiled 3 lbs. of peeled russet potatoes in salted water.






Drain the cooked potatoes and dump them back into the pot. Squeeze the 3 heads of roasted garlic into the pot with the potatoes.


Add 1 cup of low fat sour cream, I'm trying to keep this somewhat healthy, 2 tablespoons butter, 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese (optional, I just like this in my taters), salt and black pepper to taste. Get out the hand mixer and put it on low to break up the potatoes. You'll need about 4 ounces of evaporated milk now. While the hand mixer is running, stream in a little evaporated milk at a time and raise the mixer speed up one notch. Keep streaming in the milk until you achieve the consistency of the mashed potatoes you like.






This goes great with meatloaf and roasted asparagus!


I've had several requests for red gravy and brown gravy. I wasn't thinking completely yesterday wherein I constantly mentioned red gravy. In New Orleans, spaghetti sauce is called red gravy. So if you make a meatloaf and you prefer non-brown gravy that's not ketchup use your favorite home made or jar spaghetti sauce. No offense because I am a ketchup lover from way back put putting plain ol' ketchup on a meatloaf kind of makes my tummy cringe. I've added ketchup to a sauce for meatloaf and it was good, but it wasn't brown and got a thumbs down from Mr. Katherine.
Here's how I make a brown gravy:
Make a medium brown roux - pour 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil into a pot and heat over medium high heat. Once the oil is heated add 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour and stir constantly with a wooden spoon. Do figure 8's, but keep it moving. BE VERY careful not to splash or you will burn yourself. The mixture will gradually turn brown, you want to to be about a caramel color for this gravy. This will take about 10 minutes, but wow, the roux will get a nutty smell to it, it's heavenly.
Now add 1/2 onion chopped, 1/2 green bell pepper chopped to the roux, wow now your kitchen is really smelling good and people will come from every room in your home as will your neighbors, to see what you're cooking, seriously, they will.
Saute the onions and bell pepper until they begin to wilt. Add 1 teaspoon of minced garlic and saute for another minute. Lower heat to medium and add 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, 1 dried bay leaf, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, salt and pepper to taste. Add 1-1/2 cup of beef broth 1/2 cup at a time and combine with a whisk. The mixture will be thick. Whisk in 1 cup of water 1/2 cup at a time until you get the desired thickness. Add more beef broth for more gravy volume. Lower heat to low and let simmer covered until you are ready to make a volcano with your taters!

13 comments:

Marjie said...

I noticed when we lived in Knoxville that people would stand in line to gt a cart and buy whatever was left on the shelves. I do believe Red Food and Food Lion pray for snow, to get their best sales days ever! I simply don't understand it, and except for 3 winters in Knoxville, I've lived and driven in snow forever.

I always made sure I had staples, including powdered milk, in my house, so I could avoid the supermarkets in front of an oncoming storm.

I also didn't understand the thinking of drivers, which was once stated to me: "Y'all gotta give full power to the drive wheels to get y'all's car through this!" Which inevitably resulted in y'all's car having full power in a ditch or as a telephone pole accessory.

You did give me a good laugh remembering these incidents.

We're having freezing rain. Give me snow any day!

Debbie said...

I thought people rushed to the grocery stores when it snowed only here in Virgina!. Totally crazy. The carts here are filled with bread and milk too. No idea why. I your mashed potatoes look great. I love garlic too!

Pam said...

I so love roasted garlic anything but especially roasted garlic mashed potatoes. Excellent recipe. Thanks for clearing up the red gravy - I wondered if it was spaghetti sauce.

Ralonda said...

People do the same here in Dallas... not that we get much snow anyway. It's just funny to watch because I'm orginally from Indiana. However, I'm guily of stocking up on hot chocolate and easy bake cookies for the kiddos, b/c usually if we do get a good amount of snow I'll let the kids skip school (that is, if they aren't closed)... but please don't tell anyone! I can't believe New Orleans got 5 inches! That's awesome!
Anyway, your garlic mashed potatoes and meatloaf look delicious... I will be adding them to my list of things to make as soon as I can get back on some sort of schedule.
By the way... thanks for keeping up w/ my blog posts... it's fun to read your comments about my new lil' bundle of joy... hopefully after we get back to normal around here all my posts won't be just about the new baby! lol

Aggie said...

Oh I bet that roasted garlic tastes heavenly in those potatoes!

I looooove your new look! Hannah did a fantastic job!

Mary Bergfeld said...

It is hard to beat roasted garlic in perfectly mashed potatoes. Yours look luscious.

Maria said...

Bring on the garlic. I love it!

April said...

Oh, this is my comfort food!! And btw, not Kroger, but Walmart! LOL!!

gigi said...

The stocking up is just like we prepare for a hurricane. Just incase the snow turns to ice and everything in town closes up at least people will have bread and milk to eat. They may not have any heat but they will have some bread to eat.

I love the garlic potatoes and learning how to make brown gravy. I don't make much gravy at all.

Reeni said...

Those taters sound amazing! Thanks for letting us know what red gravy is. I know that some Italians call their tomato sauce gravy depending on where their from but not in my family. If I had remembered that I would of known what you meant. People here in NY do the same thing when a storm is coming!

jesse said...

Wow, those mashers look perfect! I mean, perfect texture, perfect volcano shape, and I'm sure it tasted phenomenal!

HEATHER said...

Well I'm glad you cleared that up about the red gravy!
I live about 90 miles north of Knoxville in London KY and the same white bread/milk frenzy happens here too. I'm like Marjie, I have always suspected that the Kroger people are behind the forecasts.
Strangely enough all we had forecasted for today was floods.

Peter M said...

Roasted garlic is one of the tricks chefs use to heighten flavour and mashed potatoes are sublime with them.