Potato purée


Potato purée
The French have fond childhood memories of this, and while nothing will ever be as good as "Maman" made, here's a fairly straightforward way to make it.
253 K 4.3/5 (36 reviews)
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Last modified on: October 3rd 2010
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For 1 kg 300 g, you will need:

Change these quantities to make:
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Times for this recipe
Preparation: 50 min.
Cooking: 45 min.
All in all: 1 hour 35 min.
When should you start or finish this recipe?
If you start now, at , you will finish around : ?.Change start time
To finish around 7pm, you'll need to have started before: .Change end time

Step by step recipe


Stage 1 - ⌛ 40 min.
Potato purée  : Stage 1
Wash 1 kg potatoes but don't peel them. Put on to boil in a large pan of lightly-salted water.

The potatoes are cooked when a knife blade goes through them easily.

Stage 2 - ⌛ 2 min.
Potato purée  : Stage 2
Remove them from the water as soon as they are cooked (don't leave them to cool in the water, they might take on an unpleasant taste).

Stage 3 - ⌛ 5 min.
Potato purée  : Stage 3
As soon as they are cool enough to handle, peel them and remove any small blemishes (the "eyes" of the potato).

Stage 4 - ⌛ 15 min.
Potato purée  : Stage 4
Cut into pieces and pass through a vegetable mill using the finest setting.

If you don't have a vegetable mill, use a potato masher (a sort of grid on a handle), but it's hard work.

Stage 5 - ⌛ 2 min.
Potato purée  : Stage 5
Put the mashed potatoes in a pan.

Stage 6 - ⌛ 5 min.
Potato purée  : Stage 6
Stir constantly over low heat for 4 or 5 minutes to dry the purée.

This is to improve the texture.

Stage 7 - ⌛ 3 min.
Potato purée  : Stage 7
Then add 125 g butter cut into small pieces, a little at a time, stirring well until the butter is completely incorporated.

Stage 8 - ⌛ 2 min.
Potato purée  : Stage 8
Add 125 g cream and mix again thoroughly.

Stage 9 - ⌛ 1 min.
Potato purée  : Stage 9
Salt and pepper. Your potato purée is ready.

Already quite delicious just as it is, you can serve it "Irish style", for example, with a little chopped chives.

Stage 10 - ⌛ 20 min.
Potato purée  : Stage 10
You can improve it even further by passing it through a sieve. It's long and tiring...

Stage 11
Potato purée  : Stage 11
...but you'll have the finest, smoothest potato purée ever.
Remarks
I advise you to use white pepper rather than black; it's less noticable in the finished purée (no little black bits).

The great chef Joel Robuchon liked to say that he built his restaurant's reputation on its potato purée and green salad. Indeed, I got the idea of using the sieve from him, but please note that in his day he used 250g (½ lb) of butter for 1 kg (just over 2 lb) of potatoes!
Keeping: Several days in the fridge, in a closed jar.
Source: Home made.
Nutritional information
Proteins (gr)Carbohydrates (gr)Fats (gr)Energy value (in k-calories)Energy value (in k-joules)
Whole recipe20 RDI=9 %200 RDI=20 %140 RDI=20 %2,170 RDI=110 %9,090 RDI: 110 %
Per 100 g1 RDI=1 %20 RDI=1 %10 RDI=2 %170 RDI=9 %730 RDI: 9 %
The % figures are calculated in relation to the Recommended Dietary Intake , or RDI of 2,000 k-calories (or 8,400 k-joules) per day for a woman
Possible allergens in this recipe: milk
How much will it cost?
  • For 1 kg 300 g : 2.40 €

Change currency:

Note: Be careful, these prices are only an estimate, you can consult the table of prices by ingredients used for this estimate.
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