Rosemary Mashed Potatoes

Despite all my cooking over the past year, I've still been guilty of sticking with instant mashed potatoes.  Now, some people absolutely hate them, but I mix in a bit of cheese and pepper and find them to be pretty good.  But when I made Salisbury Turkey Steak a few days ago, I had just picked up a bag of red potatoes a few days prior.  I decide to make some fresh mashed potatoes to go along with dinner because if I'm going to put so much effort into a meal, the side should at least match.

I followed pretty much the same method as I did in Turkey Shepherd's Pie a few weeks back, though last time I used russet potatoes and this time also decided to add sour cream and some Rosemary this time around.  A while ago ago I had some Rosemary seasoned potatoes at a restaurant and let me tell you, they were flat out awesome and I need to find a way to recreate it.

First I cubed the potatoes into chunks about 1-2 inches in size.  I placed them in a pot of water and heated it to boiling, letting it cook for about 20 minutes, until the potatoes were soft.

I drained the water and mashed them with a potato masher until they were creamy.

I stirred the potatoes with a spoon and added in the milk, sour cream, white pepper, black pepper, and rosemary.

Now that I've gotten started with fresh mashed potatoes, I'm hooked.  With a few extra minutes fresh mashed potatoes are worth the effort over instant (though my mom told me years ago she always would add some instant potato flakes to fresh mashed potatoes to stretch them out, so maybe there is a happy medium).  Served with the gravy from the Salisbury Turkey Steak, these were fantastic.  My husband felt they were a little too creamy, so here's where maybe tossing in a few potato flakes or cutting back a little on the milk would have been helpful.  Butter would have been good to add in, but I wanted to keep them light so I skipped it this time.  I thought they were ahhhhmazing, however since the Rosemary was barely noticeable, I'm thinking I need to add more next time and switch to fresh herbs.  I think garlic would be a great addition as well, but now that I've got this down to an art it's time for twice baked potatoes, combining the forces of baked and mashed potatoes to achieve side dish perfection.

Rosemary Mashed Potatoes Recipe

Ingredients:

2-3 red potatoes
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon sour cream
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/3 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon rosemary

Instructions:

Clean potatoes and cube into chunks about 1-2 inches in size, then place in a pot of water and heat to boiling.  Cook for 20 minutes, until potatoes are soft.  Drain water and mash with a potato masher, until potatoes are creamy.  Stir in milk, sour cream, white pepper, black pepper, and rosemary and serve.