(derekbaker)

If Derek's Making Mashed Potatoes, It Must Be Thanksgiving

Had a great Thanksgiving gathering with our friends at Jeff's and Renee's again this year and, as usual, we left asking ourselves, why don't we see all these people more often? But then, I think we ask ourselves that every time we get together with friends -- which is far less frequent these days than when most of us were in our 20s or early 30s.

Now we're all mostly in our late 30s to mid-40s, many of our friends are married (to other friends, so that's good), and several now have kids. Which made for a far more hectic Thanksgiving Day than we used to have seven or eight years ago, but very fun, just in a different way. I think I counted seven kids, but only the really young ones stayed still long enough to count without tying strings on them to mark as already counted.

For better or worse, I have brought the mashed potatoes to our communal meal the last several many years, so I'm usually always looking for the ultimate-but-basic mashed potato recipe. I've got a file of probably more than 30 variations -- garlic, ginger, blue cheese, chipotle, basil, you name it -- but since most people seem to want to stick to tradition on this day, I tend to avoid my natural inclination to add on. Which reduces the ingredients down to a minimum and therefore puts greater emphasis on the process and chemistry of the thing if it's going to be right.

This year, to give them just a little bit of zing beyond last year's cream and butter, I used buttermilk instead. Which can be a bit tricky, because buttermilk apparently curdles at 160 degrees (which just-boiled potatoes are way above), unless its molecules are well-coated in a fat like butter.

I learned all this from Cook's Illustrated. And my recipe was a combination of their Buttermilk Mashed Potato recipe and the Cook's Country recipe for Super-Creamy, Super-Easy Mashed Potatoes (both publications are from America's Test Kitchen, and if you enjoy cookbooks or cooking -- even if, like me, you have no actual talent for it -- they're the best).

In the trial run I did two nights before, I included the chopped chives and carmelized leeks from the buttermilk recipe, which were really good, but on the principle of archetypal cooking for Thanksgiving, I left 'em out of the big batch. So, herewith, my new leading recipe for mashed potatoes for approximately 20 people. (Here's my 2004/2005 recipe, if you want to compare.)

10 lbs Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled
5 bay leaves
Salt
1 lb butter, melted in 140° oven, then cooled to room temperature
3-1/3 cups buttermilk, brought to room temperature

Note: As I peeled the potatoes, I put them in cold water to keep from turning brown as I peeled the rest; you can also add a drop or two of vinegar to the water, which really slows down any browning, but I didn't, as I didn't intend for them to soak any longer than was necessary.

1. Cut potatoes into ¾-inch rounds. Rinse in a colander or wire basket under running water to wash off as much starch as possible.


2. Put in 5 gallon pot.
   Note: I have a wire basket that fits in this pot perfectly, and it holds almost exactly 10 lbs of potatos cut up, so I put the potatoes in the basket and the basket in the pot. It keeps any potatoes from being right on the bottom directly above the flame, and with the basket handle I can lift the potatoes out easily to drain them once they've cooked, and then just pour out the scalding water into the sink, rather than try to pour it and the potatoes into a colander.


3. Cover with enough cold water to cover potatoes by about an inch. Add 5 bay leaves and 2 to 3 Tbs salt.


4. Bring water to a boil then reduce heat to medium and cook for 18 minutes.
   Note: With a pot that big and that much water, it takes it forever to reach a boil, and even then it may not be much more than a simmer. So I brought it to an almost boil with the lid on (which sped it up) and then removed the lid and cooked for about 18 minutes, but with the heat still on high.


5. Near the end of the cooking time, combine the room-temperature buttermilk with the now-merely-warm melted butter. Mix thoroughly.


6. Drain potatoes, discard the bay leaves. Return potatoes to pot [in wire basket, if you're using one], set heat to low and stir gently for one to two minutes, to dry water from potatoes.


7. Turn off heat. Using an oven mitt [Ove-Gloves are perfect for this], take potatoes out, a few rounds at a time, and use potato ricer over a large bowl to make smooth.
   Note: A food mill works as well or better for this, but the potato ricer is more fun. Of course, you can also use a masher, they'll just be a little lumpier is all.


8. Gently stir in combined butter and buttermilk alternating with a wooden spoon (for mixing side to side and in circles) and a masher (for mixing up and down). Add salt to taste as you mix.
   Note: I only added a little bit of salt at this stage, and no pepper, on the grounds that people would salt and pepper their potatoes to their liking.

Serves 20.

Labels: food, personal

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Yet?

Long exhale. And now -- where to begin? At least now, I'll allow myself to get my hopes up.

One thing yesterday's election showed is that Democrats are a closer reflection of America than the Republicans. The Republicans value walking in lock-step, follow-the-fearless-leader style. Which showed even in their criticism of Democrats during the campaign: they kept saying that Democrats as a group had no coherent plan for Iraq.

Actually, the Democrats have several coherent plans for Iraq, some I tend to agree with more than others, but as a party, the Democrats aren't likely to impose a single plan for all party members to salute. They will discuss it publicly, disagree vehemently, come to consensus slowly.

And, you'll notice, that's not unlike the way America reaches decisions, as well.

More in the future, of course, but for now, I do think it feels as if America won finally.

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Tom and I were just discussing a very interesting, Machiavellian possibility. Everyone had talked about Joe Lieberman as a potential Bush replacement for Rumsfeld. Which didn't happen, thank goodness. (Because, although elected as an independent, he says he'll caucus with the Democrats. And if he leaves the Senate, re-elected Governor Jodi Rell (R-CT) would appoint a Republican.)

But even more interestingly, as Tom pointed out: Rumsfeld was, it seems, kept onboard this long because Cheney wanted him there. So who knows what dynamics are going on there. But if Cheney also decides to resign (unlike the Cabinet members, Bush can't fire him even if he wanted to, because Cheney was actually elected, too), what if Bush decided to nominate Joe Lieberman as vice president? How bizarre would that be?

For one thing, it would put the Senate back at a 50/50 split -- with someone who was actually elected as an "independent" in the tie-breaker role.

Now, I'm not saying I want this to happen -- I wouldn't have voted for him if I were a Connecticutian -- except for the history-making of it. Although, come to think of it, Lieberman would at least shift the balance of the vice presidency back toward "presidency" and away from "vice," in contrast to the current officeholder.

Lieberman ran for the job six years ago and won -- the popular vote, at any rate. By nominating him as VP, there'd actually be some kind of historical justice. (If Bush could somehow resign and leave Al Gore in his place, that would be actual justice, of course.)

Bush could ensure that he had a Senate that, along party lines at least, would support the prosecution of the Iraq war. And we would have the first woman (and Californian) as Speaker of the House, the first Jew as the vice president, and the first, well, chimp as president. The images from the podium during the State of the Union address would almost alone be worth it.

Our top three officeholders in the U.S. would themselves be almost as diverse as James Watt's Interior Department! (And if you don't remember that reference, I'm just too old to be blogging. Or else you're too young to have a valid opinion about politics. We'll call it a draw.)

Because, in this scenario, Lieberman would be the tie-breaker, so he'd still be working most days in the Senate. And -- unlike some of Bush's upcoming judge nominees, I'll warrant (another term Republicans no longer seem to like) -- Lieberman would likely be confirmed to the office easily. Because confirmation is the responsibility of his friends, on both sides of the aisle ... in the United States Senate.

Interesting, no?

Labels: politics

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The Only Poll That Matters...Blah Blah

know the survey polls still look pretty good for patriots, but I think we've reached a new phase in American politics, where scientific gerrymandering, talk radio, a 24-hour news cycle, and political polarization have, together, created a new dynamic. And (similar to my post about the "two kinds of people in the world"), I think that personal identity will have as much or more to do with how these midterms turn out than perhaps in the past. Perhaps not. So perhaps a rundown of the trends helps put it all into perspective:

• Republicans like to win, Democrats like to govern. And the people who vote Republican like to win themselves, or back winners. So rather than be demoralized, potential Republican voters will use the threat of losing one (or even one-half of one) of the three branches of the federal government to psyche themselves up into turning out to vote.


• Another generalization: reality, vs. an imagined past or future. I don't quite mean what Frank Rich was talking about on Sunday. I'm saying: Democrats want to address current problems: Iraq, deficits, corruption. Republicans find more resonance in things -- and especially their spin on things -- that happened a long time ago (hippies, Chappaquidick, Carter) or in imagined outcomes (the slippery slope of gun control; higher taxes leading to economic recession; the destruction of marriage as we know it). They use the historical caricatures to enflame the base and they use the imagined outcomes to scare the independents. It's only when the current situation gets really bad -- and voters are willing to admit as much -- that the "reality-based community" has any hope of breaking through the appeal to the natural human fetish for the past or future -- a fetish also sometimes known, it should be noted, as "denial."


• All politics is local. Nationwide polls show George Bush, the Republican-controlled Congress, and Republicans in particular to be held in extremely low regard. However, when it comes to adding up individual races, changing control of even one of the two houses of Congress will be a very tight proposition.


• Robocalls. People have said for awhile that the last minute stuff is going to happen, could have a big impact, and it won't come out until after the election. For example, here's what ABC's "The Note" said on Oct. 17: "The Old Media is totally unqualified to track robo-calls, direct mail, radio ads, and church fliers (and campaigns know this)." Apparently, the Republicans are now running recorded calls in several states and districts that starts off saying it has "important information about [insert Democratic candidate's name here]." So it's starting as a smear campaign, but here's the interesting twist: It doesn't identify itself as being from the Republican Party or one of the "527" organizations until the end. And if you hang up, it just puts you back into the system and calls you back later, so that eventually the poor independent wants to vote for anyone except for the Democrat they think keeps calling them.

According to what news reports are out there, much of this national robocall/push polling operation is being run by an organization called "Common Sense 2006" -- a "527" organization. They're HQ'd in Cincinnati, headed up by a man named Nathan Estruth.

It's interesting to note that Karl Rove was apparently in Cincinnati the weekend of October 14-15 for private meetings (nothing shown on his public calendar). To meet with Nathan Estruth?

It's also interesting that ABC's The Note had their blurb on the under-the-radar advantage of robocalls, etc., just after Rove's trip to Ohio.

Labels: politics

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