Venison Dinner Party-Part 5-Garlic Mashed Potatoes

If only you could smell this roasted garlic.

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes. Need I say more? Really. They're creamy, delicious and are not only the perfect accompaniment to venison but to any other game, red meat or poultry dish. They're also easy to make and almost impossible to screw up which is a bonus when you're entrée is a little on the complicated side. Following is my recipe.


Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Serves 10 - 12

Ingredients:

8 - 10 Yukon Gold Potatoes (any potatoes will do but I like these best).
About 1/2 stick butter
About 1 Cup of Milk or Half and Half
4 - 6 Roasted Garlic Cloves


How to:

For the Roasted Garlic:
1. Take a whole head of garlic and slice off the top of it.
2. Rub the whole head of garlic with olive oil
3. Wrap in tin foil and roast at 375 degrees for about 40 minutes. The consistency will be soft to the point where you could spread it on bread if you wanted to (oh, and I recommend doing that with your leftovers).
4. Remove the individual garlic gloves from the head of garlic. Wrap the unused garlic cloves in tin foil and put in the refrigerator. It'll keep for a few days. You can heat it up and use the garlic as a spread on bread. Really really tasty!

For the Mashed Potatoes:
1. Rinse your potatoes and put them in a large pot. I leave the skins on but you can peel them if you prefer. Cut the large potatoes in half so they can cook at the same rate as the smaller ones.
2. Cover the potatoes with water.
3. Once water comes to a boil, leave on stove for about 35 - 40 minutes. Potatoes are done when you can easily insert a fork.
4. Warm the milk on the stove. Melt the stick of butter in the same pot. Heating these keeps the potatoes from cooling down too quickly.
5. Put the potatoes in a large mixing bowl. Pour the milk and butter mixture over the potatoes. Add the roasted garlic cloves, salt and pepper to taste. Mash potatoes with a hand masher or use an electric mixer (my preference).
6. If the potatoes seem too dry, add more milk and/or butter.

Try to not eat too much of this before serving it. It's hard to stop yourself.


NOTE: If you would like all the recipes in the Venison Dinner Party menu in a text only format, you can download a pdf called "venisondinnerrecipes.pdf" here.