At some point between the middle of August and the beginning of September, the potatoes we receive at the restaurant — Yukon Golds, my favorites for mashing, frying and making gnocchi — undergo a transformation.
The potatoes in the middle of August are difficult to work with: They yield gummy mashed potatoes, grainy gnocchi and hash browns that are limp and greasy. Occasionally, we’ll get a case of potatoes that we have to throw away because they will boil for hours and hours without ever getting soft.
Then, toward the end of August, the potatoes get dramatically better and produce light, airy gnocchi, fluffy mashers and golden crispy hash browns.
What’s happened, of course, is that we’ve changed from winter-storage potatoes — last year’s crop, stored at near-freezing temperatures for up to eight months, much of the starch in the potato converting to sugar — to the first of the new crop.
The best way to celebrate the arrival of the new crop is one of the simplest: fork-mashed potatoes mixed with a little cream and olive oil. When I worked in France, we made two kinds of mashed potatoes. The first was traditional butter-and-cream potato puree, mashed in a food mill, then passed through a tamis to achieve that fiberless, baby-food smoothness that the French love (In “Simply French,” by Patricia Wells, French chef Joël Robuchon reminds us that their love for smooth-textured food arose from the sorry state of French dentistry). The second was a coarser, rustic puree, full of the bright, green flavor of extra-virgin olive oil.
To make olive oil mashed potatoes, peel the potatoes, cut them in chunks, boil them until tender, drain them and mash them with a couple of forks while they’re still hot, mixing in a little hot cream and lots of olive oil.
Serve these mashed potatoes with wild salmon, cod or any breaded, white-fleshed fish.
John Broening cooks at Duo and Olivea restaurants in Denver.
Olive Oil Mashed Potatoes
Makes 6-8 servings.
Ingredients
4 large Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks
Kosher salt
1/2 cup heavy cream, heated
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Directions
Place the potatoes in a pot and barely cover with water. Add a large pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Simmer until completely tender, about 30 minutes. Drain well and transfer to a mixing bowl or baking dish.
Mash the potatoes with two forks (a few lumps are OK), incorporating the cream and olive oil. Season with pepper and additional salt if necessary. Serve immediately.
