Cookbooks

Lockdown recipe: Mashed Potatoes, from the book ‘Cooking for Happiness’ by Kornelia Santoro

‘When I have to digest a blow, I turn to mashed potatoes…’

Opinions about mashed potatoes are divided: people love or hate them. My men belong to the second category; I love mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes render life soft for a little while – no conflict, no hard edges. When I have to digest a blow, I turn to mashed potatoes. A little gravy or fried eggs turn them into a complete meal. If you need mashed potatoes, chances are you feel bruised, and not ready for a lot of cooking.

Heston Blumenthal’s way of preparing mashed potatoes is way too complicated for me. I admire his passion and his knowledge of molecular gastronomy though. Heston simmers his potatoes for half an hour in salt water at seventy-two degrees. Then he rinses and boils, dries and infuses milk with potato peels before finally mashing them, pushing the mash through a sieve and adding an indecent amount of butter. Give me a break! Exactly seventy-two degrees! Heston’s directions work well for hobby cooks. Grudgingly, I have to admit that my recipe might not result in the best mashed potatoes, but they do the job and you don’t have to watch a pot for half an hour.

 

INGREDIENTS (Serves 6)

1 kg starchy potatoes

300 ml milk (you might need a bit more)

150 gm butter

Salt

Pepper

Nutmeg

 

METHOD

You need potato pieces of equal size so they cook evenly. You need to cook them just right, not too long and not too short. You should not overwork potatoes during mashing; otherwise starch might turn gluey. You need to warm up milk and butter so they mix easily with mashed potatoes. A potato masher and a fi ne sieve are essential. I use a potato ricer. It forces potatoes through small holes and delivers a more uniform result than a masher. Peel potatoes and cut into pieces. I use a pressure cooker to boil them. Add about two centimetres of water and two teaspoons of salt. Cook for ten minutes on low flame after the first whistle. Drain and let cool down. You need dry potatoes that are not too hot. Heat milk with butter and stir. Mash potatoes in a bowl, add warm milk and stir carefully.

 

HEALTH BENEFITS

The potato is a tuber – part of an underground stem that nourishes the leaves of the plant. The effect of potatoes on our bodies largely depends on the way of cooking. Baked in the oven, steamed or boiled, it offers a lot of nutrients for our health. Potatoes contain plenty of vitamin C and B6, copper, potassium, manganese, and dietary fibre. A cup of baked potato supplies more than 26 per cent of the daily intake of vitamin B6. This alone makes the potato a valuable asset in the kitchen. Vitamin B6 is involved in more than 100 enzymatic reactions everywhere in the human body. Many proteins and parts of the DNA require vitamin B6. This vitamin is of vital importance for our nervous system and the performance of our brain cells. It also helps to break down glycogen in muscle cells and the liver, providing energy when needed.

(Excerpted from the section ‘Comfort Foods’ from the book Cooking for Happiness by Kornelia Santoro, published by HarperCollins India in 2016. Weaving together years of scientific research with her own experience of depression, Kornelia is an award-winning food writer and her book offers a hundred easy-to-prepare recipes that will nurture your brain and help you fight those dreaded lows. Once psychotherapy helped her conquer her eating disorders, she discovered the magic of eating right, which has since infused her life with a sense of balance that she had not imagined possible. Full of mouth-watering recipes, Kornelia’s secrets will reduce your stress levels, elevate your mood and make you want to eat more! Download the book here: https://amzn.to/2ySefBY)

HCI

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