The Challenge
We are going to catch up this week, I promise! This (meaning, last) week's challenge includes the 1770 House Meatloaf and these Truffled Mashed Potatoes, found here or on page 187 of Foolproof.
Mary's Take:
How many of you are mashed potato lovers? I know at least one person (I shan't name names) who loves her some mashed potatoes as a late-night, post-bar, 2am-on-a-cruise snack in the same way I'd want a burger. It's her comfort food.
And they are comforting. They're served at holiday meals, which we all love (and miss), they're warm and creamy, and they're a great vehicle to get all the juices and gravies that come with my beloved pot foods. But their taste and texture, to me, is just boring. (Our brother would use the word, "meh", but I hate that word, so I will refrain.) [Lea: You "hate" that word? Weird.]
These truffled mashed potatoes, on the other hand, add that hint of truffle-y richness [Lea: No idea what that means.] that pushes them to the other side of boring. John isn't a fan of truffle-flavored foods. He's not going to order the truffle fries that one might find at a fancier burger joint, in the same way he's not interested in ones cooked in duck fat. Both are just too rich for him.
So when I was planning to make these mashed potatoes alongside the 1770 House Meatloaf (you know, 2 birds with one stone and all that...never mind that I even scheduled them together to get those 2 birds), he wasn't feeling it and offered to make a different potato that day. Who am I to deny help in the kitchen (not to mention mashed aren't my fave)? Wins for all!
Days later, the week was coming to an end and I still needed to fulfill my challenge recipe; I opted to make them with the steak we were serving to a couple of (vaccinated) friends who were coming for dinner. I knew that he still wouldn't enjoy the truffle part, so I made half regular mashed - half truffled mashed.
Mashed potatoes across most recipes are made the same way: cut (and maybe peel) your potatoes, boil them until done, drain, mash (or whip) with the liquid, add your seasoning, and you're done.
(Exciting pic right there.)
Fun fact of the week: the recipe calls for white truffle butter which I didn't know meant Italian truffles (as it turns out, I just got lucky when I bought the Italian truffle butter). Black truffles, which have a more subtle flavor, come from the south of France. White truffles tend to hail from Italy and are more flavorful. Ina uses truffle butter, which has little pieces of truffle in it, rather than the oil because, as she says, "truffle oil can vary enormously in terms of truffle content." Good to know, right? [Lea: Oh, sure.]
Lea's Take:
Who knows what a truffle is? [Mary: Um, moi?] [Lea: I mean, besides you.] I never really took the time to think about it before because (surprise) I don't eat truffles. Any time people talked about truffles, I thought they meant the dessert. But then I was watching an episode of "Billions" (if you haven't watched that show, you should), and the lawyer's girlfriend kept adding shaved truffles to her meal, which was making her meal more and more expensive and the lawyer more and more nervous because he couldn't afford it. [Mary: They're insanely expensive. And require a special pig to forage for them. Who doesn't want pig nose drippings on their dinner? Fools.] [Lea: You mean, truffle lovers? I agree.] Aaaaanyway, truffles are, in fact, not (only) a dessert, but a fungus. Yum!
I agree with Mary, mashed potatoes are boring. But, they are comfort food, so we eat them often at my house. Fun fact about me: there is never enough salt on my mashed potatoes. Like, ever. I'm constantly adding salt to my potatoes as I'm eating them. I'm weird.
My potato story will be short. I, of course, couldn't find truffle butter at our vanilla grocery store. To be fair, though, I had no idea where to look. Were they with the other butters? Or with the mushrooms in the produce aisle? Mary told me she found the truffle butter, which, I thought, meant I was going to go over there and get the 3 oz. I needed. But, guess what? I didn't. [Mary: I do live about 12.5 minutes away from her, so you can see why it's too much of a hassle. Maybe she could pay me for delivery service.] [Lea: SOLD!] So, my potatoes were regular old mashed potatoes with Parmesan. To add to that, we have no comments about the potatoes from my family. [Mary: Because they were boring.] [Lea: Wait. My family is boring or the potatoes were boring? Yes and yes?]
The Verdict
Mary: I very much preferred these truffled potatoes over the plain ones. Disclaimer, though: because I didn't measure exactly half of the potatoes when I split them into their truffled and non-truffled teams, I have no idea if my apportionments were accurate. I didn't use all of the half-and-half/butter mixture called for in the recipe, since the potatoes were getting really wet, so mine were likely not as strongly flavored as they would have been. I actually made more of a purée than a mash. It's possible I cooked them for longer than I should have, too (see the wine in the pic above and remember I was playing the part of the dynamic and engaging hostess).
(Another stunning food photo, no?)
Our guests noted that they enjoyed these better than the regular mashed as well, and even John, with his aversion to truffles, liked them.
For you, if you plan to make them, I'd recommend going light on the truffle butter at first, and tasting to see if you'd like more flavor before adding all of it.
And for my friend, I'd gladly join her in ending the evening with a bowl of (truffled) mashed potatoes if it meant we could be on a cruise again!
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