Cowboy Mashed Potatoes

Cowboy Mashed Potatoes

Submitted by Bruticus on Allrecipes.com
"Quick, easy and delicious mashed potatoes with corn and carrots."

Original recipe yield: 10 servings
Prep time: 20 Min
Cook time: 20 Min
Ready in: 40 Min

Ingredients:
1 pound red potatoes
1 pound Yukon Gold (yellow) potatoes
1 fresh jalapeno pepper, sliced
12 ounces baby carrots
4 cloves garlic
1 (10 ounce) package frozen white corn, thawed
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Place red potatoes, yellow potatoes, jalapeno pepper, carrots, and garlic cloves in a large pot. Cover with water, and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook 15 to 20 minutes, or until potatoes are tender. Drain water from pot.
2. Stir in corn and butter. Mash the mixture with a potato masher until butter is melted and potatoes have reached desired consistency. Mix in cheese, salt, and pepper. Serve hot.

Personal Note: My default mashed potato guidelines come from Mark Bittman in How To Cook Everything, and when I read this online recently I balked at how little time it required--mashed potatoes, from my experience, are ridiculously easy, but they take a long time (all that peeling, boiling, plus the gradual incorporation of the 3 forms or whatever of creamy fat, etc). It also made me a little uneasy, as adding shredded cheddar cheese just seemed so...trashy to me. And where's the liquid component? Boiled garlic?? etc. Ha. Well, it's certainly not the fluffy pure potoato side dish to go with elegant French entrees or to impress guests. But all of the reviewers went on and on at how they were skeptical too, and yet the results were tasty. I think this recipe was featured at one point, even. So about a week ago I tried it as a spur of the moment thing to go with the steak (or was it the grilled chicken? I forget) I was making for Robert and I for dinner. I didn't even have any red potatoes, so I just used my Yukon Golds, aaand I didn't have carrots, so I ditched that part too. Actually, I'm not familiar with adding crap to mashed potatoes; my mom was a purist, so we never even had so much as bacon or chives in ours growing up. Well. These potatoes are definitely different from normal mashed potatoes, but they are indeed delicious and satisfying, albeit in a totally distinct way. Give 'em a try if you're short on time and ingredients. Personally, I always preferred somewhat clumpy, authentically mashed (as opposed to whipped/electric mixer mashed) potatoes anyway. They're pretty good, really.