NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665

February 18, 1999

Prairie Fare: Smashing Tubers

I love mashed potatoes, but I don't eat this dish very often because I tend to side with Julia Child. My mashed potatoes absolutely must include cream and butter.

Actually, I prefer whipped potatoes, and if I recall correctly how Julia feels, we disagree on that point. She favors mashing only. Mashing smashing, I say. I like to get out my hand-held electric mixer and transform the merely mashed into cloud-like mounds with a silken sheen.

I can still remember the best whipped potatoes I ever made. I'm not sure if it was three, four or five Christmases ago, but I remember the taste and texture like it was yesterday. I used a potato-rutabaga combination in about a 4-to-1 ratio. (The Scandinavians call a similar mixture Rotémos.) After mashing, I introduced the roots to warmed cream and melted butter, which became a match made in the culinary hereafter once my mixer had worked its wonder. To this marriage, I folded in white wine Worcestershire sauce, crumbled crisp-cooked bacon and chopped fresh chives, along with salt and white pepper to taste.

It's difficult to describe in words exactly how the flavors of the rutabaga and the bacon melded. It's easiest to say the potatoes tasted like more, especially when teamed with the gravy I'd made for that meal, a delicate-yet-distinctive combination of homemade chicken broth and white wine, enlivened with some bacon fat, which I combined with flour to make the roux.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to inflate my culinary abilities. I'm only re-living the memory. Do you think I might go a little overboard on the occasions I make whipped potatoes? Does it seem as though I'm a potato perfectionist?

Guilty as charged. So it's probably no surprise that I've been looking for lower-fat ways to enjoy the luxury that whipped potatoes can become. The recipe that follows doesn't call for cream or butter and that's OK. I love garlic, so I consider it a fair trade-off. Besides, I still get to use my electric mixer.

Garlicky Whipped Potatoes
Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:
1 pound red potatoes
½ cup skim milk
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
½ teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoon fresh chives, chopped (optional)

Procedure:
Peel potatoes, cut into quarters and place in cold salted water for about 15 minutes. Drain in colander, rinse well and place in 2-quart saucepan containing 2 cups of boiling water. Cook covered for 20 to 25 minute or until tender. Meanwhile, have milk warming over low-to-medium heat. Add garlic to hot milk and cook until soft, about 20 to 30 minutes. Remove cooked potatoes from heat, drain in colander and replace in saucepan. Keep covered until garlic is soft. Add milk-garlic mixture and white pepper to potatoes, mash with potato masher and then whip with an electric mixer. If desired, garnish with chopped fresh chives.

What's Your Take on This, Julie?

Long before the invention of the electric mixer—or the potato masher for that matter—potatoes were part of history. The Incas began cultivating potatoes about 500 B.C., but early Europeans were suspicious, probably because potatoes belong to the nightshade family of plants and some members are known for their poisonous properties. At various points in history, potatoes received blame for diseases like leprosy. This vegetable was even tried and burned at the stake on occasion.

Later, spuds became a mainstay in European diets thanks to promotion by a French pharmacist, and the nicknames became quite positive. German and French words for it translate to mean "apple of the earth." Swedes called it the "earth pear." In 1719, potatoes started sprouting up in America.

Since then mashed spuds have become a comfort food and a centerpiece of special-occasion meals like Thanksgiving. But you don't have to wait for a special occasion, and you don't have to feel guilty about enjoying them. A serving of Garlicky Mashed Potatoes contains 141 calories, 0.3 grams of fat and 2 grams of dietary fiber.

Potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin C, potassium and vitamin B6. They also provide protein, fiber—and no cholesterol or fat. Despite these positives, potatoes are always accused of causing weight gain. The problem is that people rarely eat them unadorned. Toppings like regular sour cream, bacon and cheese can send calorie and fat levels soaring.

If you want to prepare low-fat mashed potatoes, use warmed chicken broth or buttermilk instead of whole milk and butter, and save 40 calories and 4 to 5 grams of fat for each ½ cup. Bake or boil potatoes in their skins, and you'll preserve 8 percent more potassium, 20 percent more vitamin C and 5 percent more B6, compared to the peeled version.

Also remember portion size when watching your waistline. Spuds come in a variety of sizes. A medium potato or ½ cup of mashed potatoes is considered a serving. Or, size up a potato the high-tech way: a computer mouse is about the size of potato serving.

Store raw potatoes in a cool, dark place. But keep raw potatoes out of the refrigerator because the starch will convert to sugar. Always pierce potatoes before baking to allow moisture to escape for a fluffy texture. And if you wrap potatoes in foil prior to baking, always unwrap leftovers and immediately refrigerate. Outbreaks of botulism, a foodborne illness that can be deadly, have been linked with improperly cooled foil-wrapped baked potatoes.

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Sources: Dean Hulse (701) 231-6136 and Julie Garden-Robinson (701) 231-7187

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