How to Boil Potatoes for Mashed Potatoes

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Lori with Figs Catering in Austin, Texas on behalf of Expert Village today we are going to show you how to make a entire Thanksgiving meal. Now that we are going to make our roasted garlic mashed potatoes I need to prepare my potatoes. As you can see some of the potatoes are different sizes and that is going to mean different cooking times. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to cut my larger potatoes to mimic the size to the smaller ones. Also the smaller that you cut them the quicker that they cook so another little tip. For our roasted garlic mashed potatoes we are going to leave the skin on cause we like the flavor and the texture of the skin. However if you don't like the flavor and the texture of the skin no problem just go ahead and remove the skin before you do this step. So I'm just going to go ahead and cut it in half and set it aside. Because this one is a little bit larger I'm going to use it into 4 even pieces. Another thing to note while you are preparing your potatoes to boil go ahead and make sure that you got your water on and that it is coming to a boil that would help save you a little bit of time. And my favorite potatoes to use for these roasted garlic mashed potatoes is the Yukon gold potatoes they naturally have a nice buttery flavor and a great texture for mashed potatoes. You can however use Russet potatoes. Now that we have our potatoes nice and ready to boil I'm going to add them to my boiling water and my water has been boiling and it is to a boiling boil and I'm also going to add plenty of salt. You want your water to taste like salted water. I'm going to let my potatoes boil until they are tender."