Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Bacon and Buttermilk Garlic Mashed Potatoes

RileyAdamsFoodBlogPostpic_thumb_thumb[3]I was at the very end of my fresh, delicious buttermilk (I made buttermilk banana bread last week) so I decided to make mashed potatoes with garlic, bacon, and buttermilk. Mmm!

Lynn in Texas commented on my post last week that there was wonderful powdered buttermilk on the market, too. Then, on Saturday, our very own Wendy Lyn Watson (also in Texas! Texas must be the Buttermilk State) used powered buttermilk to make her scrumptious buttermilk biscuits on Saturday. So now I’m inspired to cook even more with buttermilk. I’m planning to start stocking it for those in-between times when I haven’t been to the store to buy fresh.

So in the meantime, here’s my recipe for mashed potatoes with fresh buttermilk.

IMG_20110509_182618Bacon and Buttermilk Garlic Mashed Potatoes

2 lb. Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 2 inch pieces
1/2 cup buttermilk
½ stick of unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic
4 slices crumbled bacon
1 t salt
Cover potatoes with cold water, add garlic and salt, and bring to a boil. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the potatoes are soft enough to easily mash. Add butter and buttermilk and stir to combine. Add crumbled bacon.

IMG_20110509_182350Hope you’ll enjoy it! There are lots of different tastes in this recipe, but I think they all combine really well. :)

Riley/Elizabeth
Delicious and Suspicious (July 6 2010) Riley Adams
Pretty is as Pretty Dies –Elizabeth Spann Craig

10 comments:

  1. After discovering how very easy it is to make your own cultured buttermilk, we never run out now. Use the last cup or two as a starter culture. Use the ratio of three parts milk to one part (cultured) buttermilk in a clean, covered container (I use a mason jar) and let stand at room temperature for about 24 hours. You will know when it's done by how it sticks to the side of the glass. Keeps for a long time in the fridge!

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  2. I've started keeping buttermilk (not the powdered kind) stashed in my fridge--it never seems to go bad (or maybe I just can't tell?). It goes happily into a lot of different dishes.

    And is there a bacon trend here? I'll admit, almost anything can be improved by adding bacon. And I once had a long conversation with a local chef about how he makes bacon ice cream. Seriously.

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  3. You had me at garlic, Elizabeth. Love it and it seems we can't ever get enough. I hadn't ever heard of powdered buttermilk before hearing about it on this blog, but you can believe I'm going to grab some next time I'm out. Great idea!

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  4. Phil--This is brilliant! Okay, I'll definitely try this. In fact...I want to say that I remember seeing this done as a child at some elderly relative's house. But I'd totally forgotten until you mentioned it. Very cool!

    Sheila--It adds a nice tang to recipes, doesn't it? Just a slightly different taste.

    Bacon makes everything better!

    Julie--It's genius, isn't it? Wish I'd thought of it...

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  5. Lovely, easy and yummy. Add cheddar cheese and I'm set. {We're always tweaking, aren't we?} :)

    ~Avery

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  6. Elizabeth, you had me at *bacon*. (Good thing I just inherited a brand new treadmill when a friend moved this weekend, lol) Wish I'd had your recipe the other night when I had a craving for meatloaf! Will def. try it soon.

    Another note on buttermilk: in our families, drinking it and cooking with it was always more of a country thing, not as popular with the city folks. To this day, some of the older generation (in their 80's & 90's)still refer to regular whole milk as "sweet milk", as opposed to buttermilk or "sour milk". I find that rather quaint and endearing.

    BTW, I'm into all things strawberry lately, and recently found a berry buttermilk cake online I'm going to try. Here's the URL: http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2009/06/raspberry-buttermilk-cake

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  7. Avery--Cheddar would be a fantastic addition!

    Lynn--Bacon! No, not healthy, is it? I'm just not sold on turkey bacon, either. I've tried! But I'm not quite there yet.

    I think I remember my grandmother talking about it that way (she was born in 1912)...sounds very familiar, anyway!

    Berry buttermilk! That looks absolutely divine. Thanks for sharing, Lynn...it'll go on my TBC list!

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  8. Serious KEEPER for me and especially Marc who considers mashed potatoes and bacon irreplaceable food groups. :) I feel that way about buttermilk. These comments today are fantastic, too. I'm definitely going to try Phil's "buttermilk starter" idea. And Lynn's comment on the "sweet milk" is a wonderful memory.

    ~ Cleo Coffeehouse Mystery.com
    Cleo Coyle on Twitter

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  9. Oh yum! The hubby puts HUGE chunks of garlic in our mashed potatoes. BUT I so have to try buttermilk as a starter. We just had Tyler F.'s "Velvet Mashed Potatoes" the other day. It was a bit cream heavy and left a residue in our mouthes. Thanks for this!

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  10. Wow. Bacon and buttermilk? This is a must make recipe!

    Hey, Phil? I'm guessing that the milk has to be whole milk or at least 2% for this to work?

    ~ Krista

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