Joel Robuchon Potatoes

Ingredients:

Yukon Gold potatoes, cleaned but not peeled

1 stick of butter per lb of potatoes, chilled, cut into cubes.

1 cup of milk

Regular salt, Kosher Salt and White pepper

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What you'll need:

Potato ricer

Wooden spoon

Standing Mixer (Optional)

Some form of Sieve. I use a meat strainer. It needs to be incredibly fine and something that generally only allows liquid to pass through.

Large bowl to catch the sieved potatoes.

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How to do it:

Boil the potatoes with the skins on in salted water (1 tbsp per quart) so that they have 1" of water above the potatoes.

Once the potatoes are knife tender, remove them and peel off the skin. (Use your hands, not a peeler). This will be hot. Do not cool off the potatoes or allow them to cool, we need them hot.

Pass the pototoes through the potato ricer back into the pot (now drained) that they cooked in. Allow the latent moisture of the potatoes to evaporate. (Just a minute or two)

Now for the hard part. (Easy if you have a standing mixer.) We need to mix in the cold butter, one cube at a time and mix the potatoes. The Robuchon method specifically calls for using a wooden spoon due to fears that a mixer might "shear the starches". (I swear I'm not making this up)

I have made these potatoes several times now and done it both ways, and cannot tell a difference.

Method One: (Robuchon method) Slowly add the butter, one cube at a time into the potatoes which should be in a large metal bowl. Vigorously whip the potatoes using the wooden spoon until the butter is completely encorporated. Continue until all of the butter is used up. This will take between 5 and 10 minutes and if your arm doesn't feel like its going to fall off, you haven't been stirring "vigorously" enough.

Method Two: (Ben method) Put the potatoes in the bowl of a standing kitchenaid mixer. Affix the "flat beater" attachment on the kitchen aid and put on a speed of one. Slowly add the cubes of butter to the potatoes until encorporated. (I prefer this method)

Bring the milk to a boil. Once it is boiling hot, slowly mix it into the potatoes as you stir (or mix)

Once the milk has been completely encorporated we are done with the mixing process.

Place your ultra fine sieve over a large bowl and sieve the potatoes through it into the bowl. Robuchon uses what is called a Tamis. I used a meat strainer. This means putting about a heaping spoon full of potatoes on top of the meat strainer, and using something wide and flat, scrape across the strainer until the potatoes have completely passed through to the other side. (I used a large spatula)

Once all of your potatoes have been strained you'll likely need to scrape them off of the other side of the strainer. Pick up the strainer and using a spatula, scrape them into the bowl.

Once all of the potato puree is in the bowl, you can put it back in the pot to reheat it. (At this point it'll likely be room temperature)

Once reheated, the potatoes are ready to be served.