Oregon Transplant: Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

We are getting so close to Thanksgiving, I thought I would share my holy grail recipe for mashed potatoes. They are made with milk and sour cream, a sprinkle of fresh herbs, and the most important part, a truckload of freshly roasted garlic. Oh yeah. Don't make this recipe for date night, unless of course part of your date entails rebuffing the advances of vampires.

Roasting your own garlic is required to get the best results with these potatoes. You can try using those store-bought garlic pastes or jars of minced garlic (nothing against them, I have jarred minced garlic in my pantry 24/7), but I must warn you- there is no flavor there. I don't know what it is about garlic mashed potatoes, but I almost feel like your garlic to potato ratio should be practically 2:1 to get the best garlic flavor. You have to use a lot. When I make these potatoes for me and the hubby, I use 2 whole heads of garlic. Yep, you read that right. 2! I promise you, it's the only way to get that flavor.

Don't be intimidated by roasting garlic. It couldn't be any easier. Simply slice the top of the garlic head off. Wrap the head in aluminum foil. I place the garlic in the oven at this point. Then I set the oven for 400º, set a timer for 45 minutes, and walk away. When time is up, I remove the garlic from the oven and place on top of the stove to cool until dinner time. Right before I throw the garlic in the potatoes, I squeeze all the garlic goodness out of that head. You're done! You will not believe the flavor you will get by doing this.

Roasting your garlic in this fashion is a great way to get complex, savory flavor in a number of other dishes. Try fresh roasted garlic in your Alfredo sauce (to-die-for!), on pizza, in casseroles, or even as part of the mirepoix for a soup (the onion, celery, carrot part). You could even take a couple of cloves and spread them on bread for a sandwich (the cloves are very soft). Or add a little mayonnaise to the garlic for an aioli for that sandwich.

My point? There's a million things to use roasted garlic in, and it will make all of them taste better!

I just happened to use my crop of garden-grown red potatoes for this batch. Yum yum!

P.S. Those were my potato plants very early in the season, in June. They were really pretty plants, I'm definitely growing them again next year. But next year, just, more. More, more, MORE!

For whatever reason, my fresh potatoes took a lot longer to soften in their simmering water than store-bought do. I'm not sure why, but I made a mental note for my potato crop next year :) Has anyone else ran into this with homegrown potatoes? Just curious.

What you are going to need:

Milk (I use whole)
Roasted garlic (squeezed from the heads)
Freshly minced parsley (a must for me, but it could be optional depending on your preference)
Sour Cream
Butter (of course!)
Kosher salt

Kosher salt is definitely the way to go.

I rounded out the meal with Slow Cooker Turkey Breast and roasted asparagus. The hubby and I were in heaven.

Oh, did I mention I've been working on this post since March? Haha. I only make mashed potatoes two, maybe three times a year, so not a lot of opportunity to finish this post was to be had. I made mashed potatoes in March to go with the turkey breast, and I made them again in August with our garden potatoes to serve with a rotisserie chicken. Thanksgiving will likely be the third and final time I make these this year. I guess that helps make up for the whole milk and all the butter, huh? :-)

How was everyone's weekend? The hubby and I's was pretty busy. On Saturday, the hubby and I ran our very first mud run. It was soooooo much fun! I'm not kidding! It was a 5k that was broken up by about 10 obstacles that included balance beams, climbing ropes and walls, and shimmying through mud puddles. I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed the breaking up of the run by doing these obstacles. I told the hubby I felt like a kid again. Here's some pictures from the run:

The hubby and I slogging through a creek.

Climbing one of the walls.

The hubby on the wall.

The hubby climbing a log obstacle.

Climbing up a mud pile.

Crawling through the mud!

A very difficult balance beam.

So muddy!

After the race, the hubby and I promptly changed into our Duck gear and headed down to the brewery for pizza and beer. Our Duck gear must have been the lucky charm, because Oregon ended up beating #7 Stanford later that night!

On Sunday, the hubby and I spent the day at our nieces' cheerleading competition. I'm so amazed at her bravery, because there's no way I could have competed in front of sooooo many people at her age. She's going to be an amazing cheerleader when she gets older. Maybe the hubby and I will see her cheering for UK basketball someday??

I certainly hope so :-) Did I mention her team placed 1st in their division and will be heading to State next month? So proud of these girls!

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all have a great week!

Ingredients (serves 4):

2 whole heads garlic
1 1/4 cup potatoes (I like to use red, but you could use any kind you desire!), diced
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup sour cream
3 tbsp butter
1/2 tsp kosher salt
crack of fresh black pepper
2 tbsp fresh parsley, minced

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400º. Take garlic heads, and slice the very tops off. Wrap garlic heads in aluminum foil. Place in oven. Bake for 45 minutes. Remove from oven, and allow to cool.
2. Peel your potatoes if you are using standard baking potatoes. If you are using red or a waxy yellow potato, simply dice your potatoes. Place in a large pot, and cover the potatoes with about 2 inches of water. Place on the stove and bring to a boil. Boil potatoes until tender, anywhere from 15-25 minutes. While the potatoes are cooking, squeeze all garlic pulp from the heads. Set garlic aside, discard the heads. Remove the potatoes from heat and drain. Immediately place potatoes in a large mixing bowl.
3. Add reserved garlic, milk, sour cream, butter, salt, and pepper to the potatoes. Using a potato masher, ricer, or an electric hand mixer, mix potatoes until creamy and combined.
4. Fold parsley in with a spatula. Taste test potatoes, and add salt and pepper if needed. Serve immediately!

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