Quick… what do those 3 women have in common? Ding! Time’s up. They’re all fictional characters from across the pond, or more specifically, the “mother country”, namely, England.

And what does that have to do with my post today? Nothing, except that the recipe today is a traditional recipe from England, often enjoyed on a Sunday afternoon with roast beef (naturally). What makes English roast potatoes different from your regular run-of-the-mill kind of roast potato is that they are first boiled and then given a good shake in the pot. The end result is a crispy, crusty, buttery potato that melts in your mouth.

Are you hungry yet?

Potatoes from Across the Pond
1/2 cup butter
4 lbs of potatoes
salt and pepper to taste

First you start with the potatoes. Take about 4 lbs, peel them and chop them into 1″ cubes. Place in a large pot and cover with salted water.

Bring the water to a boil and then turn down the heat and let them simmer about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, place 1/2 cup of butter on a baking sheet or in a pan, and put it in a 400 oven to melt. It’s even better, I think, if it browns a bit.

Once the potatoes have finished simmering, drain them and return them to the pot. With the lid on, give them a good shake until they’re roughed up a bit.

Pour them into the prepared buttered pan, and use a spatula to evenly coat them with the melted butter.

Roast in the pre-heated oven, basting occasionally. After about 15-20 minutes, carefully turn over the potatoes so all the sides are evenly cooked. The goal is for the potatoes to look nice and crispy:

It may take up to an hour to get that nice crispy look, but it’s well worth it! Season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve while hot.

Not so QUICK, I guess, although it probably took me an hour total to prepare mine. I cut the potatoes into small bite-size chunks, which I think helps them cook a little faster. (It may not be the traditional size, but oh well. I’m not English!) Also, some recipes suggest simmering them for only 5-6 minutes, but simmering them a little longer gets a head start and reduces the roasting time just a bit.

Pretty EASY, though. Just remember to shake up the potatoes and then turn them over once or twice while roasting, and they’ll be delicious. The great thing about this recipe is that it’s very difficult to overcook them. You want them to be crispy, and the longer in the oven, the crispier they’ll get. So if you’re prone to overcooking, here’s the recipe for you!

Pretty CHEAP, as long as you buy that butter on sale! I try to pay $2 or less for a lb of butter (most warehouses sell butter for between $1.50 and $2.00/lb), so it ends up being roughly $0.50 for the amount used in this recipe. As I’ve mentioned before, I typically try to pay no more than $3 for 5lbs of potatoes, so that makes it around $3 for this recipe. I paired them with chicken that I bought on sale for $0.47 (oh yes! $0.47!!!) a lb, and served my Dilly Dilly Carrots and some leftover Couch Potato Crescent Rolls. I would estimate $7 or less for the whole dinner, and part of it is actually going to be dinner tomorrow for some friends who just had a baby.

Of course, it’s HEALTHY, too. Don’t worry about the butter. I have seen recipes for English roasted potatoes that call for shortening or vegetable oil instead: don’t do it! Butter’s a better choice than either of those. Potatoes are often maligned, being a starch, but the truth is, you DO need starches/carbs, and it’s better to get them from something real like a potato than from a Danish or white bread. Plus, potatoes are an excellent source of potassium, an essential nutrient.

I like what Kristin at Cuizoo says: “We’ve all been hoodwinked.” We’ve been hoodwinked by the successful marketing campaigns of food manufacturers who insist that we are not capable of, or do not have enough time to, cook real food.

Take mashed potatoes, for example. If you have ever bought one of those boxes of dehydrated potato flakes, or even worse, one of those frozen packages of mashed potatoes, you have been hoodwinked into thinking that making mashed potatoes is either too difficult or too time-consuming. And consequently, you have spent far too much money, and have fed your family food that is considerably lacking in the nutrients God intended it to have.

Ouch. I didn’t mean to say it so harshly, but there it is. And perhaps you will forgive me if I put it this way: you CAN make mashed potatoes. It’s not hard, and it doesn’t take that much time. You are an intelligent person who knows your way around the kitchen (whether or not you think you do), and you want to feed your family the food that is best for them. And you can!

There. Was that better? And if you already DO make mashed potatoes from scratch, you know I am proud of you for making that extra little bit of effort to cook foods that are healthy for you and your family.

The thing about mashed potatoes is that they are so personal. There really is no wrong way to make them, because as far as I can tell, there are as many methods to making mashed potatoes as there are people who make them. And some people are very adamant that their way is the right way, but don’t listen to them, because somebody else says the same thing about their way. So add your own variety to the mix and share your own version of mashed potatoes with the world! Or at least with your family. They’ll love it, I promise.

Here’s my own version of mashed potatoes. Make it my way, or make it your own.

My Own Special Kind of Mashed Potatoes

First I start with about 6 medium or medium-large potatoes. I’m not super particular about the kind of potato I use, although many people swear by starchy potatoes. I just use whatever I have on hand (which usually happen to be starchy). I peel the potatoes, because my DH can’t have too much fiber in his diet and the potato skins have a lot of fiber, but leaving them unpeeled would save time and make them even healthier.

Next, I cut the potatoes into chunks and boil them until they can be easily pierced with a fork. I drain them, and then use a pastry blender to mash them up a little.

Now at this point, most people add milk. Not me! I have a special secret ingredient (can you guess what it is?):

Nope, not sour cream. Plain yogurt! It serves the same purpose, but it is healthier because of the live cultures. I use a couple heaping spoonfuls of plain yogurt, and then I pour in a couple tablespoons or so of milk and a couple tablespoons of butter. I also like to add salt, freshly ground black pepper, garlic, chives and parsley:

Leaving it all in the same pot, I use my hand-held mixer and beat them until they are fluffy and creamy.

That’s all there is to it. These have a lot of flavor, so you can serve them plain with a dab of butter. If I’m going to serve them with gravy, I’ll leave out some of the chives and garlic.

Now wasn’t that QUICK? The longest part is probably the boiling, but you can let them boil while you fix the rest of your dinner.

And admit it; it’s EASY! There’s no special trick to it. OK, so there’s a little labor involved in peeling and chopping the potatoes, but you’re not afraid of a little work, are you? Didn’t think so.

And it’s CHEAPer than the store-bought options. I am often able to buy 5 lbs of potatoes for $3 or less, and I use about half of them or less to make the mashed potatoes. Since I only use small amounts of butter and yogurt, the cost for those is minimal, and the cost for the other seasonings is negligible.

If it’s going to take a little more of your time and energy, it had better be HEALTH-ier, right? Well, it is! Even if you buy a box of potatoes that boasts it is made of 100% potato, making them at home is still healthier. That’s because, by virtue of the dehydration process, a box of potato flakes has more fat (the bad kind!) than a plain old potato. It also has more sugar and less fiber. Besides which, during the dehydration process, vitamins and nutrients are lost, so then they have to be added back in. And of course, the synthetic vitamins that are added back in are not as easily absorbed or used by your body. And let’s not even talk about the boxed mashed potatoes that have additional (and less desirable) ingredients, especially the flavored ones: trans fats, artificial flavorings, preservatives, artificial colors, BHT, the list goes on and on. Stick to the real thing and you don’t have to worry about what’s in it.