Potato Puree and Mashed Potatoes

Adapted from Simply French: Patricia Wells Presents the Cuisine of Joël Robuchon and The Complee Robuchon: French Home Cooking for the Way We Live Now by Jöel Robuchon. 

From this book I learned that potato puree is the star of the meal, not a side. It is what dinner guests talk about no matter what else is on the plate. They do not replace mashed potatoes, but when you want something that is extra special, these are the way to go. 

When I do make mashed potatoes, everything I do is the same except I don't take the final step of pushing the potatoes through a tamis or strainer.

Equipment You Need

A potato ricer (what I use) or a food mill
An electric hand mixer
A tamis (what I use) or another strainer

I got my tamis  at E. Dehilleran in Paris.

A tamis should fit comfortably over the bowl 

Potato Puree
Adapted from Simply French by Patricia Wells

I can't really give you amounts; it will depend on how many people you are serving.

Russet or Yukon Gold potatoes (I usually use Russet because I always have them on hand.)
Heavy cream, heated (Don't be shy; the potatoes can incorporate a lot of cream.)
Butter 
Sea salt to taste

Peel your potatoes and cut them into chunks. (Halve or quarter them depending on the size of the potato.)

Steam them (I use a basket steamer) until you can pierce them easily with a cake tester.

Remove the steamer from the pot. The potatoes will be flaky at this point, not waterlogged. Then remove the potatoes from the steamer and put them through a potato ricer directly into a bowl.

The instructions get tricky here because the amounts of cream and butter depend on the number of potatoes you are cooking. I just eyeball it at this point. 

Heat some heavy cream in the microwave in a Pyrex cup. Don't be stingy. Be more than generous; the potatoes can accept a lot of cream. Remove the Pyrex cup from the microwave and add butter, which will melt in the heated cream. Slowly add the heated cream and butter to the riced potatoes and beat the potatoes with a hand-held electric mixer for a long time until they are very smooth. 

Add a little fine sea salt to taste. I don't add much, and I don't add pepper - black or white. Beat the salt into the potatoes. For mashed potatoes, stop here. 

For potato puree, push the potatoes through a tamis or a sieve into a heat-proof bowl. I use a flexible dough scraper to push the potatoes through.

Before serving, Patricia Wells heats the potatoes over a double boiler for about 10 minutes until they are warm. I heat mine in a microwave and don't feel they suffer from this treatment. It also means I can make them in advance the day I want to serve them so I'm not fiddling around with them at the last moment. 

When finished, potatoes puree will sort of spread on the plate and have an elastic quality. 

With Barbecued Beef

With Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc Fried Chicken