{thirsty thursday} — smashed fingerling potatoes

i have been craving mashed potatoes ever since long before our first frost on october 5th – {what the heck?!} — and i finally made some at home.  you wouldn’t think mashed potoatoes would be a “seasonal” food, but apparently according to some, they are. i tend to think of them as a seasonal-transcendant food, but i also tend to think against the grain – whatever.

typically i use creamer potatoes for my mashed taters, and i use a special kind of butter that leaves every guest asking, “what did you put in those mashed potatoes?!?!?!!!”  i take a lot of pride in making some mean mashed potatoes.  it’s one of my few specialties.  not a super difficult dish by any means, but i do think that i was a potato farmer in a previous life, no doubt… so i pour a lot of my soul into my mashed potatoes.  and as we all know, my soul tastes like butter… 🙂

this time i opted to try something new.  i decided to make “smashed fingerling potatoes” instead.  a slightly different potato, but still a creamier texture.  and i used a different butter.  no matter, it still turned out amazing.

here are the simple ingredients :

2 pound bag of locally grown organic fingerling potatoes.  apparently the most common way to make these is to slice them in half and roast them… but you know me, i’m not a conventional chefographer…

i have recently decided to include ONLY organic dairy in my diet. mostly personal reasons – but just watch any food documentary like “food inc,” or  “food matters” and decide for yourself.  plus, it just tastes WAY BETTER!

simple steps here, folks.  scrub your potatoes well and add them to a large stovetop pan filled with water.

boil until tender… about 20 minutes or so.  i keep the skins on all of my potato dishes – it’s where all the nutrients live.  and you know, we need nutrients to live 🙂

if you have a tool like this, it will come in handy!

drain your potatoes when ready.  just add in a little milk and butter at a time and go with what tastes good to you.  remember you can always add more, so start small and increase as you go… i think i use about 1/2 cup organic whole milk and that entire stick of butter.  yeah, it’s saturated and not at all low-calorie, whatever – hit the treadmill tomorrow!  sprinkle in some S&P, as well and then use a fork or cool tool featured above and go to town!  and since this is “smashed” fingerlings, i kept the dish kind of chunky…

i topped mine with freshly-chopped chives and of course… a yummy brew :

i stuck with the local theme, and had a classic lager from breckenridge brewery – avalanche.  typical lager style colour and clean, earthy body.  it has a nice crisp finish and a caramel richness throughout.  it’s a great basic lager and it complimented the creamy potatoes so well!

Tags: beer, comfort food, easy, fingerling potatoes, food, lager, mashed potatoes, simple, smashed potatoes, thirsty thursday, vegetarian