Proper potatoes, smart substitutions make great mashers

Does your vision of Thanksgiving Day dinner include a serving dish mounded high with steaming mashed potatoes, dusted with paprika with melting butter streaming down the sides?

If that vision becomes reality, you're headed for trouble on weigh day trouble.

In my pre-lean days, I made mashed potatoes so enriched with butter, whipping cream, sour cream and egg yolks that calling it decadent was an understatement.

Over the years, I've learned it's possible to prepare decadent-tasting mashed potatoes without adding fat and calories like I once did. It takes knowledge, smart substitutions and good technique.

Start with the right potato.

There are three kinds: low starch/high moisture (red bliss); medium starch (Yukon gold); and high starch/low moisture (russet).

Low-starch potatoes hold their shape when cooked, making them perfect for a potato salad. Medium-starch potatoes aren't good baked but do hold their shape well after cooking.

High-starch potatoes, like Russets, don't hold their shape well after cooking, which is why, when baked, you can press them open with a fork. These potatoes are perfect for mashed potatoes, producing fluffier mashed potatoes than their low-starch brethren. Toss some medium-starch potatoes into the pot to keep the mashers from becoming too sticky.

You'll make better mashed potatoes if you select potatoes that are fresh. Look for tubers without blemishes and that are heavy for there size. When squeezed they should feel very firm.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into 1-inch chunks. To keep the chunks from oxidizing (turning brown) you can hold them in a pot of cool/cold water for up to 24 hours.

Put the chunks in a pot large enough to cover the potatoes with about 2 inches of cold water. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat so that the pot doesn't boil over due to the starch being thrown off into the water. The potatoes are done when a knife tip inserted into one meets no resistance.

While some people like the workout involved in using hand-held potato masher, I opt for the efficiency of a stand mixer. But, I've found the best method is to press cooked potatoes through a ricer back into the empty, warm pot in which the potatoes were cooked.

I use a rubber spatula to mix in the remaining ingredients: warm low-fat milk instead of whipping cream, fat-free or reduced-fat sour cream for full-fat sour cream, Butter Buds or fat-free margarine and salt and pepper. A rubber spatula helps keep mashed potatoes light and fluffy.

If you're not serving them right away, make potatoes with an extra 1/4 cup milk and scoop them into a heat-safe glass bowl that fits snugly over a pot containing about 3 inches of barely simmering water. Cover the bowl with a damp, lint-free towel. a layer of plastic wrap, and finally the pot's lid or aluminum foil. This should hold them for up to two hours.

Try my recipe for guilt-free mashed potatoes. To make up for flavor lost from cutting the fat, I've added oven-roasted garlic. I bet your guests won't even miss the fat.

• Don Mauer welcomes questions, shared recipes and makeover requests for your favorite dishes. Address them to Don Mauer, Daily Herald Food section, P.O. Box 280, Arlington Heights, IL 60006 or don@theleanwizard.com.

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Recipes</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=252891"> Sinless Oven-Roasted Garlic Whipped Potatoes <span class="date">[11/24/08]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>