Today we are cooking mashed potatoes in a rustic style. By that I mean we’re keeping the skins on and doing a rough mash to give us some good texture and adding tons of great old school flavors. These aren’t your Thanksgiving style — liquefied, one texture, squeeze through your teeth mashed potatoes — these potatoes are big taste !

Rustic Mashers

Ingredients:

• 5 Russet potatoes – cut in halves.
• 1/4 Cup fat free sour cream
• 1/4 Cup milk
• 1/4 Cup horseradish
• 1/4 Cup grated Parmesan
• 1 Teaspoon salt
• 1 Teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 Teaspoon paprika
• 1/4 Teaspoon pepper

To get things started we need to cook the potatoes. For mashers we will use boiled potatoes. Boiling potatoes is quick and easy provided a couple simple rules are followed. First, fill a soup pan halfway with water and add the potatoes. The potatoes need to be fully submerged in the water. It is important to start cooking the potatoes as the water heats up. This will create a potato that is cooked evenly. Next, bring the water to a boil and cook the potatoes until fork tender. When cooking is complete the potatoes need to be removed from the water to stop the cooking so they don’t get overcooked. Pour into a strainer — being careful that you don’t burn yourself from the steam. Let the potatoes sit for 5 minutes so the liquids in the potato stop boiling.

The potatoes are cooked and have cooled down a bit so they are now ready to be worked with. Using a knife cut each piece of potato in half and add to your mashing bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients. Mash until all liquids have been turned into the potatoes. For mashing I use a pastry blender. If you don’t have a pastry blender you can use a big fork or spoon to mash everything together. Serves 4-6.