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The best way to get the perfect mashed potatoes is a debate that has raged for as long as chefs have toiled in the kitchen. What seems like the most basic recipe can have wildly varying results depending on your technique, type of potato used, seasoning and temperature.
Chef David Chang has weighed in with a controversial mashed potato hack that could change the way you make mash at home forever.
Legendary chef Joel Robuchon is credited with the ultimate creamy mashed potato technique that involves passing it through a sieve and adding more butter than you might think is reasonable. However, Chang, a long-time exponent of the culinary benefits of the microwave, shows us another way that can be done in minutes with minimal effort.
In an Instagram post, Chang prepares a bowl of mashed potato with a microwave, using only one hand - the other is filming the process. He begins by microwaving a bowl of washed, whole potatoes for 12 minutes. However, it needn’t take that long, he says: "If I cut 'em up into smaller chunks beforehand probably would've taken me seven to eight minutes tops, and they're done”.
"They're perfectly cooked and I didn't bring up any water, didn't have to get a strainer, I didn't do anything,” he explains. “I didn't even add salt because, I mean, there was no point."
Chang finishes by adding butter, some leftover pouring cream and seasoning, and that’s about all there is to it.
"That's what I love most, that I can cook it in the vessel, serve it in the vessel," he says.
He adds that this is not the method he uses professionally, but at home, it’s a winner.
"This is not how I make it in restaurants, but the microwave is effectively, in one way, the best steam oven of all time, and it's an incredibly easy way to make things — and I use it every day, multiple times a day."
