[3 - 3] hey for it's Kenji we're going to make
[4 - 6] potatoes we're going to do this kind of
[6 - 8] a fluffy style mashed potatoes so you
[8 - 9] know there's a couple ways you can make
[9 - 11] mashed potatoes you can do sort of like
[11 - 12] a French you know fancy French
[12 - 15] restaurant style Palm puree where the
[15 - 18] potatoes are really creamy and buttery
[18 - 20] um or you can do sort of more the mash
[21 - 22] you know the the fluffier style which
[22 - 23] you know you would have on side of your
[24 - 26] Thanksgiving table um the real key
[26 - 28] difference between the two Styles comes
[28 - 31] down to choice of potato um so I'm going
[31 - 33] with these kind of russet potatoes uh
[33 - 34] which have a sort of grainier texture
[34 - 35] that comes out a little more fluffy than
[35 - 37] something like a I don't know like a
[37 - 40] Yukon Gold or a a red creamer potato you
[40 - 42] know a creamier potato um so these will
[42 - 44] come out fluffier uh the other important
[44 - 46] factor is the way you deal with uh the
[46 - 48] starch so potatoes have starch in them
[49 - 50] uh and depending on how much of that
[50 - 51] starch you release and how much of it
[51 - 53] you retain in your mashed potatoes it's
[53 - 55] going to change the texture uh so if you
[55 - 56] want your potatoes nice and fluffy you
[56 - 58] want to actually try and remove as much
[58 - 60] of that starch as possible possible um
[60 - 62] so that means uh I'm going to first
[62 - 65] start by peeling them okay and then I'm
[65 - 67] going to dice them
[67 - 69] up I'm going for about you know about
[69 - 71] 2in dice doesn't have to be super
[71 - 73] precise I'm not doing a huge batch here
[74 - 76] because we don't eat a ton of these but
[76 - 79] uh about 2 in dice 1 to 2 inch dice all
[79 - 81] right and the idea here is that we're
[81 - 83] increasing the surface area of each
[83 - 85] piece of each potato so that we can
[85 - 87] rinse away more starch um if you were to
[87 - 89] cook these potatoes whole in their skin
[89 - 91] skin which um a lot of people do for
[91 - 92] mashed potatoes and then take the skins
[92 - 94] off and mash them um you retain more
[94 - 95] starch and so you end up with a sort of
[95 - 97] creamier mashed potato as opposed to a
[97 - 99] fluffier mashed potatoes so if you want
[99 - 101] them creamier cook them whole with the
[101 - 103] skins on if you want them
[103 - 105] fluffier peel them and cut them into
[105 - 107] pieces uh now the other thing we're
[107 - 109] going to do is rinse these I'm going to
[109 - 112] take off as much starch as possible so
[112 - 115] in the same way that when you rinse rice
[115 - 118] um you wash away the excess starch so
[118 - 120] that the rice doesn't become as sticky
[120 - 122] when you cook it same thing happens with
[122 - 125] potatoes so I'm going to give these a
[125 - 126] couple Rines and you can see all that
[126 - 128] water is kind of a little bit
[129 - 131] cloudy from all the excess starch that
[137 - 137] off now you might ask yourself oh well
[137 - 139] if cutting into into 2in
[139 - 141] pieces reduces the starch what about if
[141 - 143] I cut them even smaller hey what about
[143 - 146] if I actually sort of grate them um what
[146 - 148] happens if you do that is that the
[148 - 151] potatoes will never soften it's pretty
[151 - 154] strange um so the reason why is because
[154 - 156] potatoes have calcium in them as well um
[156 - 158] and when that calcium is released from
[158 - 160] inside their cells it bonds with the
[160 - 163] pectin uh in in there in the uh which is
[163 - 164] sort of the glue you know the
[164 - 166] carbohydrate glue that holds cells
[166 - 168] together plant cells together um and it
[168 - 170] strengthens it it kind of buttresses it
[170 - 171] and so what happens is if you cut your
[171 - 175] potatoes too small uh say you grate them
[175 - 176] or you cut them really really fine you
[176 - 178] could boil them for hours and hours and
[178 - 180] hours and they will never soften it's a
[180 - 182] really weird thing um so I go for about
[182 - 184] two 1 to 2 in pieces I'm going to put
[184 - 185] them in a pot
[188 - 191] water I'm using cold water to start the
[191 - 192] idea here is that you want the potatoes
[192 - 195] to kind of cook through evenly if you
[195 - 197] drop them into boiling water the outside
[197 - 199] of the potato will cook overcook before
[199 - 201] the interior has a chance to cook all
[201 - 202] the way through and then what happens is
[202 - 205] that uh the outsides become water logged
[205 - 206] and you kind of end up with watery
[206 - 208] mashed potatoes and so by starting them
[208 - 211] cold you cook them a lot more evenly
[211 - 212] because the heat sort of travels through
[212 - 214] them as the water in the pot comes up
[214 - 217] the potatoes also heat up uh and so you
[217 - 218] end up with less water locked potatoes
[218 - 220] you get a stronger potato Flavor in Your
[220 - 222] finished product um all right so what
[222 - 222] I'm going to do is I'm going to let this
[222 - 225] come to a boil uh or simmer I'm going to
[225 - 226] turn it down to a just a bare simmer and
[226 - 227] I'm going to cook it just until the
[227 - 229] potatoes um are cooked through I'm not
[229 - 230] going to make you watch that but I will
[230 - 234] be back in about 15 minutes or so um so
[234 - 236] these potatoes have been simmering
[236 - 237] they're done I can tell they're done I'm
[237 - 239] using a cake tester this is a device
[239 - 241] that I think every kitchen should have
[241 - 242] uh it's really good for testing the
[242 - 244] dness of vegetables or testing how hot
[244 - 246] how cooked meat is things like that um
[246 - 248] also for testing cakes um so when your
[248 - 249] cake tester goes through without
[249 - 250] resistance those potatoes are done you
[250 - 252] don't want to overcook them because they
[252 - 254] will get water logged if you do all
[254 - 256] right so now I'm just going to take them
[263 - 263] out I'm going to set this pan back over
[265 - 268] low heat just to dry it out you'll see why
[268 - 271] heat just to dry it out you'll see why in a second uh meanwhile I'm going to
[271 - 273] rinse these potatoes one more
[273 - 276] time with hot water I don't want to cool
[276 - 278] them down too much but you do want to
[278 - 281] rinse off that excess starch so this is
[281 - 283] sort of the second starch removal step
[283 - 284] we did it once at the beginning we're
[284 - 287] doing it once again now and now when you
[287 - 288] rinse them off like that you are adding
[288 - 289] a little bit of extra water to the
[289 - 291] surface that is not going to evaporate
[291 - 293] properly so what I do now is I put them
[294 - 297] pot give them a little
[297 - 300] shake and that hot pot is going to to
[300 - 301] allow some of that excess surface
[301 - 303] moisture to evaporate so we'll let that
[303 - 305] sit for about 30 seconds um meanwhile I
[306 - 308] have over here I have some butter so a
[308 - 310] couple tablespoons of melted butter um
[310 - 311] along with some milk you could use half
[311 - 312] and half you can use heavy cream this is
[312 - 314] just whole milk and butter so probably
[314 - 316] about a cup of milk uh and about four
[316 - 318] tablespoons of butter of course the
[318 - 320] Richer you want your potatoes uh the
[320 - 321] more fat you should add in there so more
[321 - 324] butter heavy cream instead of uh milk or
[324 - 326] what what have you all right so we have
[326 - 329] two options now we could just use
[329 - 331] something like this a potato masher and
[331 - 332] just go straight in the pot very easy
[332 - 334] very simple way to do it um I'm going to
[334 - 336] use a ricer just because I prefer this
[336 - 339] kind of smoother texture that you get
[339 - 341] from using a potato racer a potato racer
[341 - 344] essentially pushes potatoes through uh
[344 - 346] so what it does is it separates all the
[346 - 349] potato cells Without Really uh rupturing
[349 - 350] too many of them without releasing too
[350 - 352] much starch um which is really what
[352 - 355] you're trying to avoid uh so the way you
[355 - 357] handle potatoes now after they've been
[357 - 359] cooked uh is the other sort of big
[359 - 361] determin in factor in how starchy
[361 - 362] they're going to end up so if you were
[362 - 365] to say um put this in a food processor I
[365 - 366] don't know if you've ever tried doing
[366 - 369] that I've tried doing it if you put um
[369 - 371] cooked potatoes in a food processor and
[371 - 373] uh whirl it around you release so much
[373 - 375] starch that they turn almost into Like
[375 - 377] Glue they they turn into you know
[377 - 378] there's this there's this uh recipe
[379 - 381] called Palm aligo which are um
[381 - 383] essentially like pureed potatoes that
[383 - 385] have a lot of cheese added to them to
[385 - 386] the point where they become really
[386 - 388] stretchy you can get that sort of
[388 - 390] texture without any cheese at all if you
[390 - 392] put these in a uh food processor they
[392 - 396] become almost like glue um now a if you
[396 - 397] were to put them say into like a stand
[397 - 399] into a stand mixer and whip them around
[399 - 400] um you can actually get them pretty nice
[400 - 402] and fluffy without rupturing too many of
[402 - 405] the cells that's a good way to do it um
[405 - 408] a ricer or a food mill I think uh is the
[408 - 409] best sort of compromise at home you know
[409 - 411] at at a very fancy restaurant like you
[411 - 413] know restaurants I used to work at if we
[413 - 414] wanted to make a really smooth potato
[414 - 416] puree that wasn't gluey at all you would
[416 - 418] use a thing called a Tammy which is
[418 - 420] essentially like a very very fine mesh
[420 - 424] um screen that's stretched over a uh
[424 - 425] like a round frame and you put the
[425 - 427] potatoes in it and you force them
[427 - 428] through you push them through uh this
[428 - 431] fine mesh screen it takes a lot of work
[431 - 433] um you know but I guess that's why uh
[433 - 435] restaurant you know fancy restaurants
[435 - 436] are expensive and why fancy restaurant
[436 - 438] Cooks don't get paid very much because
[438 - 440] they got to do a lot of Labor to get
[440 - 442] those potatoes smooth enough for their
[442 - 444] customers to eat um all right so I'm
[444 - 446] using a ricer which is kind of the
[446 - 447] compromise it pushes through without
[447 - 450] shearing too many cells
[450 - 453] so you get a really smooth potato
[453 - 459] puree that's not gluey in the
[462 - 462] slightest all right and at this point I
[462 - 463] mean I don't know how well you can tell
[463 - 466] but I can I can sort of feel that these
[466 - 468] potatoes are very sort of nice and loose
[468 - 471] um and uh not really sort of sticky or
[473 - 476] all and that's a good thing all right so
[476 - 478] I'm going to put these back into the
[491 - 491] and I'm going to use a rubber spatula
[491 - 494] here you don't want potatoes to cool
[494 - 496] because what happens when they cool is
[496 - 498] that there starch retrograde so it have
[498 - 500] it sort of what what it does is it
[500 - 502] recrystallizes um and that's what sort
[502 - 504] of staling is that's why mashed potatoes
[504 - 505] are never really as good the second day
[505 - 506] because that starch retrogrades
[506 - 508] recrystallizes and then it becomes very
[508 - 509] difficult to get it
[509 - 511] smooth again um so I'm going to build a
[511 - 514] little mount in here and pour
[514 - 520] my milk and butter mixture on the
[522 - 522] outside I'm going to season with some
[522 - 525] black pepper you could use white pepper
[525 - 526] but I like a lot of black pepper in my
[529 - 531] mashed potatoes and
[531 - 535] potatoes and salt potatoes need to be seasoned real
[535 - 537] well okay then we're going to slowly
[537 - 540] sort of incorporate
[540 - 543] that milk and cream mixture into
[543 - 545] here I'm using a spatula just because
[545 - 547] it's kind of the gentlest way to do it
[548 - 549] and because it allows you to sort of of
[549 - 551] course kind of lift and scoop and scrape
[551 - 552] and make sure that nothing's burning to
[552 - 554] the bottom that you're really
[554 - 569] incorporating everything go go light
[569 - 580] fluffy let's give it a
[583 - 583] taste I'm going to go all in with the
[583 - 585] uh rest of the milk and butter I like my
[585 - 587] potatoes nice and
[587 - 589] Rich you can do them however you want
[589 - 591] that you know I know a lot of people
[591 - 592] don't like having all that excess butter
[592 - 593] and they really like to sort of have the
[593 - 596] sort of drier texture of uh you know
[597 - 599] potatoes if you want to go go sort of
[599 - 601] the the whole nine yards and make
[601 - 603] something like a you know like a palm
[603 - 607] rushan you uh you do equal parts butter
[607 - 609] and potato that one you would almost
[609 - 610] definitely have to use a Tammy to get
[610 - 612] the texture correct uh and then you
[612 - 614] would slowly add cubes of butter one at
[614 - 616] a time making sure that they emulsify
[617 - 618] into the potato mixture until you're
[618 - 621] about even Parts potatoes and butter um
[621 - 623] and that is a you know sort of a very
[623 - 626] fancy uh Rich French way to do mashed
[626 - 629] potatoes but I'm doing a sort of
[629 - 639] you know compromise here here yeah all
[645 - 645] now one thing about potatoes is that
[645 - 647] mashed potatoes is that you know as I
[647 - 648] mentioned they're best the day they're
[649 - 651] made because once you cool them down it
[651 - 652] becomes very difficult to reheat them
[652 - 654] and get that same sort of smooth creamy
[654 - 657] texture um what you can do though is put
[659 - 662] sealed uh bag a silicone bag or a
[662 - 664] plastic bag uh and then heat them up in
[664 - 666] a warm water bath um the next day and
[666 - 668] that's sort of the best way to reheat
[668 - 671] them I find you know barring that the
[671 - 673] microwave is a pretty good way uh
[673 - 674] because it Heats through without sort of
[674 - 676] drying them out anymore you can heat
[676 - 677] them through to the inside without
[677 - 679] drying them out too much I'm going to
[679 - 680] get my pad of butter
[680 - 683] there I guess not just for presentation
[683 - 684] because everybody likes to have that
[686 - 689] butter I think everybody does I don't I
[689 - 691] don't speak for everybody I speak for me
[691 - 694] all right let's get our potatoes in
[694 - 696] right let's get our potatoes in there these are seasoned nicely I think
[696 - 698] I I eyeballed the salt and pepper but I
[698 - 699] eyeballed it just right this time it was
[699 - 701] a little risky I I know I put a little I
[701 - 703] was bordering on too much salt and I was
[703 - 704] a little bit afraid that I might have
[704 - 705] put in a little bit too much but then
[705 - 707] tasted it and it's okay usually I try
[707 - 710] and UND season at the beginning and sort
[710 - 714] of work my way up to the right level of
[717 - 717] seasoning but I like to live
[737 - 737] butter and I need to get a spoon and say
[737 - 741] Yum Yum Yum mm
[744 - 744] good what do you think of
[744 - 747] that that is looking pretty good
[753 - 753] do we want to make a little channel for
[753 - 757] the butter to melt down into all right
[757 - 760] here I'll go over to this camera and I
[760 - 762] will just so you can see what these
[762 - 765] potatoes look like look at that steam
[766 - 769] butter and let's check the texture so
[769 - 776] you see not gluey at all creamy
[778 - 778] fluffy you know the only other thing I
[778 - 780] could think that would really uh that
[780 - 783] I'd really ever put on mashed potatoes
[783 - 786] like this is maybe a little bit of uh
[786 - 788] chives on top I love chives on mashed
[788 - 790] potatoes uh or even sliced scallions
[790 - 791] mixed into it sometimes I even like to
[791 - 794] put like sauteed kale or cabbage in my
[794 - 796] mashed potatoes but normally I do I
[796 - 798] stick with just chives scallions or Let
[798 - 809] It Go naked all right so right so good
[811 - 814] all right so the keys are cut them into
[814 - 815] right so the keys are cut them into pieces so that you can rinse off excess
[815 - 817] starch rinse them under cool running
[817 - 818] water a couple times until all that
[818 - 821] starch goes clear uh cook them just
[821 - 822] until they're done start them in cold
[822 - 824] water cook them just until they're done
[824 - 825] don't overcook them so they don't get
[825 - 827] water logged rinse them one more time
[827 - 830] under hot running water uh put them back
[830 - 831] in the pot to let them dry out a little
[831 - 834] bit the hot pot and then add hot milk
[834 - 835] and melted butter incorporate it all
[835 - 837] with a spatula and that is how you get
[837 - 838] oh when you mash them of course of
[838 - 839] course sorry when you mash him you want
[840 - 841] to use a ricer or a food mill and that
[841 - 844] is how you get the fluffiest mashed
[844 - 846] potatoes all right um I'm not going to
[846 - 847] feed him to home home because he's
[847 - 849] upstairs with my wife and she is working
[849 - 851] but um guys gals non-binary Pals I will
[851 - 870] see you next [Music] [Music] time