Love Handle Mash Potatoes

Christmas is right around the corner and you know what that means... big overindulgent dinners. Being that this time of year most of us let ourselves indulge on foods we normally don't eat because of the calorie or fat content, I thought I share my love handle mash potatoes recipe that will go perfect with that festive dinner or once in a while on your ordinary dinner table. (If your family is like mine one of the must side dishes to our Goose or Turkey is mash potatoes.) Normally my mash potatoes aren't as rich or calorie laden as this recipe, Ok, Ok I admit it, I usually just cook the ones out of the box. But that's because I have a hard time with making good mash potatoes because we all know that really good mash potatoes taste the best with loads of butter and lots of whole milk, or even better cream. But since I try to make healthy choices and lower calorie dinners for my family, it's hard for me to load up all those extra calories. The reason why I call these love handle mash potatoes is because of the evaporated milk and all the butter, guaranteed to give us love handles. For an extra flavor to these amazing potatoes I like to add roasted garlic, these flavors just come together so well I guarantee you'll make them again.

First step:
1-2 whole roasted garlic bulbs, your choice
olive oil
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
pinch of rosemary
muffin or mini tart mold (optional)
aluminum foil

1. The first step is to roast the garlic(s) in the oven, pre-heat oven to 200 C / 392 F. Wash the garlic bulb(s) and trim off just the top to expose the tip of the bulbs. Place the garlic inside the mold or on top of aluminum foil. Drizzle olive oil over the entire bulb, sprinkle the spices. Cover with aluminum foil if using a mold or wrap into a pouch. Roast for 20-30 minutes, until the garlic feels soft or cooked all the way through.

In the mean time prepare the potatoes:

1 kilo( 1.202 lb.) potatoes
1 1/2 tsp salt (to taste)
1 pinch of black pepper
200 ml (3/4 cup) of evaporated milk
50 grams (1.8 oz) butter
Large pot with boiling salted water
colander
potato masher

1. Fill half way a large pot with salted water and bring to a boil. While you wait for the water to boil wash and peel the potatoes. Slice the potatoes into quarter or eighths depending on the size of potatoes you use, try to cut symmetrical sizes so that they all cook through at the same rate. While your waiting measure out and prepare the rest of the ingredients.

The garlic should be done by now, allow to cool a couple of minutes. Once it's cooled enough for you handle you can either break it apart and remove one by one of the cloves by squeezing it into a plate or bowl. Or just grab the entire bulb and squeeze out all of the garlic.




2. Once the potatoes have cooked through strain them and add them back to the same pot. Cut the butter into small chunks and distribute around the potatoes, allowing the butter to melt. Next add the garlic, spices and half of the condensed milk, using the potato masher start mashing. Slowly add the rest of the condensed milk or add more depending on the thickness that you desire. (I like my mash potatoes a bit chunky so I don't over mash). Taste for salt, when you serve sprinkle some dry rosemary and your done, ( for extra calories you can also top with more butter). Dig in!




Here is a good guide on selecting the right potatoes for your specific cooking needs, Select the Right Potato

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Knedliky Czech Bread Dumplings

As promised here is the recipe for the knedliky , Czech bread dumplings, to go with the goulash from the previous post.( I apologize for taking so long to post this, as you know the last 2 months of the year are always chaotic and unfortunately I haven't spent as much time on Spicie Foodie as I would have liked. ) Knedliky, are served with many Czech dishes , of course goulash, and well pretty much any dish that has a sauce to it. There are also several varieties of knedliky , the most common in my experience have been these bread ones, potato knedliky, and a round variety made with spices and herbs (similar to an Austrian dumpling). There are also round dumplings that are stuffed with smoked pork (really good) and served with sauce and cabbage. The other rounds ones are the fruit filled ones, also delicious, the one's stuffed with blueberries are my favorites. But before I get ahead of my self with all these dumplings/knedliky , I'm going to give you the basic standard recipe for these bread dumplings. ( The others will have to wait and added to the list of recipes to share with you :) ) .


Your ingredients: 400 grams of coarse flour ( 3 cups) , 15 grams of yeast (.6 ounce),150 ml Milk ( 1/2 cup + ), 1 egg yolk, salt, 2 withe bread rolls slightly stale, flour for rolling. Utensils needed- large bowl, kitchen towel, cutting board, large pot, thick string, tongs ( not thongs, yes I often misspell tongs with thongs, these sexy little underwear wouldn't really help you here. ) .


1. Dice the stale bread rolls into small pieces, set aside. Heat the milk to just warm to the touch,(do not over heat it or you'll kill the yeast). Sieve the flour into a bowl, add the salt and combine well. Next make a well in the center of the flour and crumble the yeast into the flour,add about half the milk. Let it rise and wait for the yeast to "melt" into the milk, this should take about 8 minutes. The yeast will begin to foam and if it does not the yeast is dead so you need to start all over with fresh yeast. Then add the egg yolk and a little bit more of the milk, start working it into the flour. Continue adding the milk until the mixture starts to form a dough,and all the milk is used. Start working the diced bread into the mixture until it has been well incorporated into the dough. If it is too dry add a few more drops of milk until it sticks together.
2. Dust a cutting board or counter with some flour and and knead the dough for about 8 minutes and form either 1 large cylinder shaped roll or cut it in half and make 2 cylinder rolls. Once you have the shape cover and let them rise, for about 40 minutes. (*Tip* Some people like to cut the dough, shape it and put inside coffee mugs and left to rise. This is so the shape is better kept and then the dumplings are steamed instead of boiled.*)

3. Prepare a large pot of salted water and bring to a boil. If the dumplings have lost a bit of their shape reshape them with your hands. Place your dumplings in the boiling water and let boil for about 25 minutes. Remove from the boiling water and place on a cutting board. Using a string start to slice the dumplings. The string is easier than using a knife because it will be very difficult and it will stick to the knife. A good slice size is about 1-1.5 centimeters.


That's all quite easy isn't it? Just add 3-4 knedliky(dumplings) to the plate of goulash and you are ready to dig in! If you have left overs just store them in a plastic container in the refrigerator. To reheat the dumplings the best method is to steam them for 7 minutes.


Oh an by the way even though I knew how to make knedliky from scratch this was my first time actually doing it myself. I usually buy the ready made ones from any of the local shops. It was easy and I would definitely try it again ( well unless I was feeling lazy or didn't have the time to wait:) ).

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