Almost Not Mashed Potatoes

Had an interesting almost disaster with mashed potatoes today.  I use a pressure cooker.  You add a bit of water, use the steaming tray and place the washed and cut potatoes on the tray.  Close, bring to pressure and let cook for 10 minutes.  Drain, add butter, milk, and seasoning.  Then you can mash away.

Except when I began to mash it was clear many of the potato pieces were not cooked.  Not just undercooked, but they seemed completely uncooked.  This has never happened before, especially since once the cooker has reached pressure, it’s pretty much foolproof.  I guess the key phrase here is pretty much.

I wasn’t sure what to do, since I’d already added the butter, milk and seasonings.  Adding water and bringing them to a boil again sounded like I would end up with a mushy mess.

Then I remembered a recent America’s Test Kitchen where they tried a new way to cook mashed potatoes.  Instead of boiling the potatoes in water, they created a sautéed garlic, half and half, butter and bit of water mixture, add potatoes, bring it to a low boil, stir, cover and reduce heat and let simmer until all the milk mixture is absorbed.  What you get is a mashed potato that is creamy and infused with garlic flavor.

I figured since I was half way there, I would see if I could salvage the potatoes  using milk to finish the cooking.  I added just enough milk to keep them from scorching, stirred while they came to a boil, reduced the heat to simmer, covered and hoped for the best.  I stirred occasionally until it seemed all the milk was absorbed.  I gave them a good mash, they were still cooked unevenly, but salvageable.  They tasted good.  Much creamier than simply mashing with milk.

Disaster averted.