I'd like to start off by saying "Congratulations!" to all of you who have joined the First 100 To Rubb The Chubb Club! If you are nervous about joining, just do it! All the cool kids are! And you'll get a FREE can-coozie while supplies last! Any-who off to the blog:
Welcome to the first Simple Side recipe! Sides are an extremely important part of your meal and can be a stress if not properly prepared for. That is why I am starting this whole concept of simplicity with side-dishery. And the first one will be the first side dish that I went after to master: Mashed Potatoes!
I think the best part of getting my driver's license in the beginning was adventuring to all the restaurants I used to go to in my youth. One such place was Reatta Pass where my buddy P-Daddy and I were delighted by the most delicious garlic mashed potatoes ever. As we sat there I decided I must learn to make them and here is a version of them:
What You Need:
Potatoes
Butter
Sour Cream
Cream Cheese
Minced Garlic
Salt/Pepper
Shredded Cheese
So here's where this recipe strays away from the norm, most times we boil our potatoes to cook them through before mashing. This recipe calls for them to be microwaved instead. This reduces prep-time, dish cleaning and gives them a texture than is undeniably-not-from-a-box!
First, wash and scrub your potatoes. Then get a little stabby with a fork to poke holes in them. Not necessarily Norman Bates stabby but like "hey I have to cause we're in prison but we're still buddies" stabby. Then cook each potato individually in the microwave using your Potato Setting.
As they come out dice them up and put into a microwave-safe dish. Slowly but surely you will go through all your potatoes and be ready to mix in your ingredients. But first, use your fork to mush them up a little. Don't worry about peeling them. The skin adds color, flavor and texture to the mix. And somewhere, sometime I read that the skin holds all the nutrients. Or maybe it's that Russia holds most of the world's conifer trees. I get the two mixed up.
Now the picture above shows us using: a sliver of cream cheese, a tablespoon of butter, a small spoon of garlic and a large spoon of sour cream. Dump all of them into the potatoes. Then add salt and pepper to taste (taste it real good!).
Now before you even say it, yes double the cream cheese, butter and sour cream. Why? Because it is delicious and we all know it. And no I don't use milk in my mashed potatoes. Why? Because wasting milk here prevents it from being used for eggnog during the holidays. Duh.
Start to mix it all together until you reach your desired texture. Then sprinkle on the cheese. I used good ol' cheddar here, mostly because I like the contrast of colors. But any standard cheese will work. Try feta if you're feeling frisky (or have some left over).
You can then cook it in the microwave just to melt the cheese and make it warm for when dinner is served. Or if you have made the mashed potatoes in an oven-safe dish throw it in there at 400 degrees for roughly ten minutes. This is a great trick if you pull it out just as your dinner guests are arriving so they have no idea you used the microwave for the majority of the work.
And it is now time to enjoy! Hope you enjoy the recipe and don't forget to use the hashtag ThumbsUpRubbsUp when posting your Chubb-Rubbed meals!
-Chubbs