Roasted Garlic Smashed Potatoes

I was watching Good Morning America a while back, and Diane Sawyer was interviewing some hoity-toity chef from some hoity-toity restaurant n New York City about making mashed potatoes. He had figured out that pressing the boiled potatoes through a ricer would make these light-as-air mashed potatoes and that you should never have lumps in your mashed potatoes because no one likes that.

Excuse me? Obviously you have never been south of Newark, cracker, much less south of Ohio. If you had, you would know that in The South, we like our potatoes lumpy. But we call them smashed not mashed. I would much rather put something in my mouth that I can chew on and that has texture, because if you put food in your mouth and it disappears, you might want to call Mulder and Scully.

Ingredients
- 3-4 good-sized baking or boiling potatoes
- About 1/2 stick of butter
- 1 Bulb Garlic
- Milk
- Salt
- Olive Oil
- Aluminum Foil

Roasting the garlic Heat the oven to 300 degrees. Tear off a small square of foil and lay it on the counter shiny-side up. Drizzle a little olive oil in small circle in the center of the square. Take your bulb of garlic and the bottom off with a very sharp knife. You'll only be cutting about a quarter of an inch off, just enough to expose the flesh of all the cloves of garlic on that bulb. Place the garlic bulb exposed-side down on the oil on the foil. Wrap the foil upwards and pinch together. Place this in the oven for 1 hour. Remove from oven and cool for 5-10 mintues. Unwrap the garlic. The bulb should have soaked up the oil, and the heat should have made the garlic cloves very soft and squishy. Hold the bulb by the top and squeeze downwards to eject the garlic cloves into a small bowl. When all the garlic is out, mash the cloves together with some kosher salt.

The Potatoes Peel, cube, and boil your potatoes. Depending on the size of the cube, it could take 6-10 minutes to cook. Drain potatoes and return to the pot. Add the butter and mash well with a potato masher or a fork. Don't whip. Add some milk to help keep the mixture running through the masher. Finally add the garlic mixture and complete the dish.

There's really no set amounts to use on smashed potatoes. Each household does it differently, and it depends on personal taste. Personally, I like mine very lumpy but very buttery and soft. Mr. Hoity-Toity chef from NYC can kiss my ass because I don't think there's anything better than smashed potatoes with pan gravy poured over the top.