The picture: mashed potatoes and corporate meatloaf. Meatloaf was free.
Cost per person: $1.50
Of course the corporate meatloaf is just a side dish. The meal is mashed potatoes. My first “you are in charge of x” when growing up was to make the mashed potatoes. This served me well as a teen because I could make gigantic batches to insure that I wasn’t going to starve eating whatever the other course was even if it was extremely low calorie 90s recipes. Between my brother and I we could easily eat three or four pounds of potatoes in a single sitting. There were never any leftovers.
Being 100% honest, I would eat that. Is it gourmet food? Nah. But if I’m getting that served to me for free? I’m not gonna complain. Meatloaf looks dry/burnt on the bottom edge, but those potatoes look like they slap.
Great thing about microwave meatloaf, it’s nearly impossible to burn some with that much juice.
I grew up in a meat and potatoes house too. They’re such a versatile veg. I like to add a little flour and egg to mashed and fry them up to make a sort of latke.
What is a “corporate” meatloaf
Mass-produced product from a grocery store that requires nothing but heating and serving.
Explains why it looks like a brownie covered in ketchup.
Oh that makes sense, honestly looks tasty
Flavor was within typical range and so was the texture. I’m not really a fan of meatloaf so I’m not the best judge. But it was edible. Though that the whole thing was only 660 calories makes me think it has a lot of filler in it.
The potatoes look good, but please for the love of peas put it on a bigger plate.
Big plates are hard on my wife when she does the dishes. Disability sucks. But, yeah. I should use bigger plates
PROTIP: Add an extra hour to your prep time by making roasted garlic butter beforehand. Then mash it in with the potatoes.
I’m all about roasted garlic, cream and rosemary but the wife says no.
What’re your top mash tips? Looks like pretty solid mashed potatoes to me!
Grab potatos. Russet is my default. Clean the potatoes, about 1.5 pounds worth.
Chop into roughly equal chunks of about 1 cubic inch allowing for minor variation due to curved surfaces.
Cut in half length wise.
Cut each half in half length wise.
Cut into the 1³inch chunks.
Put in a two quart pot.
Add cold water to cover plus another two inches.
Add salt. Maybe 2 tsp worth.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium high to prevent boilover when the starches release. Cook until fork tender.
Drain. Add 2-4 tablespoons of butter. Add 1-2 tsp of fresh ground black pepper.
Use a hand mixer to blend until everything is a consistent size.
Add 1/2 to 1 cups of milk or heavy cream. Or maybe half a cup of sour cream.
Blend until smooth with stiff peaks. Maybe add less dairy if you will be serving with some kind of sauce like pressure canned ketchup and thyme with pork chops or a gravy.
Add more salt if needed.This is how I learned it as a kid. It’s how I cook it today. But maybe you boil it on heavy cream and rosemary. Maybe you add roasted garlic. Maybe you add curry powder. Maybe you peel them (I never do).
Maybe you use a ricer instead of a hand mixer. But if you do make sure to peel them because skins and ricers don’t mix.The important thing is that there are no lumps, you use enough salt, you serve them the hot so the starches don’t crystalize, and that you add enough fat to them. But absolutely, never any lumps.
Thanks! Interesting to blend it with a hand mixer. I’ll give this a try next time I make mashed potatoes. I usually struggle with some lumps left in the mix. I’ve tried making it with a potato ricer and then stirring in butter/salt. It turns out really nice and fluffy, but it’s a pain to put so many pieces through the potato ricer lol.
Mixer makes it easy.
Cost per person: $1.50
I do like mashed potatoes, though you gotta peel said potatoes, and I don’t like peeling potatoes.
sighs
I should probably just order more instant mashed potatoes.
I never peel the potatoes. They are always skin on between the boil and the hand mixer they are soft and hard to detect. But they do contribute to nutrition, texture and add variety of color in a tiny amount.
I do stock instant potatoes. They come in handy when you don’t want to deal with 15 to 25 minutes (induction vs direct heat) over a pot of boiling water when the humidity is already too high in the house. I’m not a fan of the granuale texture but sometimes I just deal with it.
