I have many failed attempts in the kitchen before (herbal chicken soup from packet is a pack of lies, literally), thus I am always skeptical of cooking alone. Born blessed with mummy and sister dominating the kitchen, you can imagine me sitting in front of the television, shouting towards the kitchen, "MOM! Can we eat yetttttt?". Heh, I know I is spoilt.
Hereby, presenting my first cooking series, Cooking Virgins Episode 1 : Basic but Awesome Mashed Potatoes with Gravy. Please, get your pen and paper ready just in case I type too fast (eh ceh ceh lol).
Ingredients :
For the mashed potatoes you'll need
- around 6 potatoes depending on the size
- milk (I used HL fresh milk, but anything full cream would do also)
- butter
- cheese (grated cheese preferably, but those usual slice cheddar cheese would work the same)
- salt
For those who fancy gravy with their mashed
- butter
- quarter chicken stock
- flour
- leftover water from boiling the potatoes
Method :
1. Wash the potatoes, peel off their skins and diced them so that it is easier to cook and mash later.
2. Transfer the diced potatoes into the pot. Fill the pot with water until the potatoes are covered. Allow water to cover 1 inch above the potatoes.
3. Add one tablespoon of salt to the water.
4. Let them boil for around 20 minutes until tender. You can try to use fork to poke the potatoes to determine if they are soft enough to be mashed.
5. Once tender, turn off the gas and pour out around 300ml of the boiled water to a separate bowl (this is going to be used to cook the gravy).
6. Drain off the rest of the water but leave around 1 tablespoon of water in the potatoes so that when you mash them later, it would not be too dry.
7. Heat around 6 tablespoon of milk.
8. Cut the cheddar slices into smaller pieces so that they would melt among the potatoes later. (Do not be lazy, do not tear them by hand!)
9. Grate butter using fork until you've achieved around 2 table spoon of butter.
10. Mashing of potatoes! There's actually a specific tool to mash potatoes, but I used a fork instead.
11. Add in grated butter, milk (2 tablespoon at a time) and cheese bit by bit and mashed them all up.
12. Sprinkled some pepper to taste.
13. Then, you heat a small cube of butter in the pan and stir in flour (small fire please, or the pan goes black in no time).
14. Add in the left over potato water quickly. The reason I used the leftover water is because the starch from the potatoes help to thicken the gravy and add taste to it. Do not pour in all of the water. Use common sense, add in bit by bit or else the gravy would turn really watery.
15. Toss in the chicken cube and stir till the gravy thickens.
Side notes :
- I screwed up a bit on the gravy cos i put in half a cube of chicken stock, my brother in law said it was a bit too salty. Thus he diluted some corn starch in water and stir till the gravy thickened.
- I bought really small potatoes (no choice, the shop selling only small sized potatoes :S) so the portion I've made only enough to serve 3 pax.
- Heating of milk is very important. I do not know why, but it has to do with mixing hot and cold stuff at the same time. Heh. Amateur mah.
That's it, pretty easy recipe! And it taste yummeh. Pictures as evidence ;)
Got presentation somemore. Mashed in style!
On the left would be the gravy
The whole process took me around 1 and a half hour to make. Would be a lot faster if I had assistance. Such hard work, nah see one more time my awesome mashed potato!!
Now call me chef! Heeee
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