Nigella's Garlic & Parmesan Mash in the Instant Pot

💖Looking for today's AtoZChallenge post? Please scroll down to the previous entry.💖

Nigella's Garlic & Parmesan Mash in the Instant Pot

So I tried out Nigella's recipe for garlic and Parmesan mash last night and it is delicious, but since I use my Instant Pot for everything these days, I couldn't resist adapting the recipe for that. Hence, here you go. For those wondering, the recipe comes from her book "At My Table" which is an amazing book, so go check it out.

Makes enough for 6-8 people - but keeps up to a week in the fridge and can easily be reheated.

Ingredients

2 kg (4.4lb) potatoes
8 fat cloves of garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
75g (2/3 stick) butter
50g (1/3 cup/ 2oz) Parmesan (grated) or veggie equiv

Optional topping

50g (~5/8 cup) Dried breadcrumbs or panko (since I had no breadcrumbs, I took a crust of brown bread, crumbed it up and dried it out in the oven before using it)
50g (~1/2 stick) butter
35g (1/4cup /1.5oz) Parmesan (grated) or veggie equiv

Instructions

1. Peel and quarter all the potatoes.
2. Bruise the garlic cloves with the back of a knife, but do not remove the skins (they will prevent them sticking to the bottom of the pot).
3. Put 1 cup of water in the bottom of the Instant Pot.
4. Add the bruised garlic and a tsp of salt to the water.
5. Put the potatoes into a steamer basket and then into the Instant Pot.
6. Put on the lid, make sure the knob is to sealing and set for high pressure for between 8-16 min. It will depend on the potatoes - they need to be very tender.
7. Do a quick pressure release after 8 mins and check the potatoes, if they are not done, put the lid back on and do another few mins with QPR. It will come to pressure quickly because it is still hot.
8. Once the potatoes are done, remove the steamer rack and place on the side.
9. Tip the water from the bottom of the pot into a jug and make sure there are no garlic skins still in the pot.
10. Put the butter in the pot and allow to melt (it will be on keep warm, so is perfect for this).
11. Add the potatoes and the garlic cloves (without the skins - they should come away very easily) back in the instant pot. (If using a potato ricer, use it at this stage).
12. Sieve the cooking water over the potatoes in the pot to make sure all garlic skin is removed.
13. Mash the potatoes using your mashing method of choice, unless you have already used something like a ricer. I have one, but can never be bothered to get it out, so I use a regular hand masher. Keep going until it is smooth or at your preferred consistency. After all you are the master of your mash (I have been watching too much Chef John from Foodwishes.com 😂).
14. Add the Parmesan and stir in - now check for seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed.
15. Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan (390F/350F fan)
16. Butter a 30x25cm (12x10'') baking dish (I used a Pyrex one).
17. Spread the mash into the baking dish using a spatula.
18. Rub together the breadcrumbs, butter and Parmesan (if using the topping) to form a crumble mixture.
19. Sprinkle the crumble over the top of the mash.
20. Pop in the oven for 20-30 mins until piping hot and the topping is toasty.

And what is even better, is the left overs can be made into waffles, which is the next recipe in Nigella's book, BTW. I made them this morning and my husband and I had them with a fried egg each and they were delicious. You'll have to check out her book for that though. 😉

Banner BG Photo by Varun Gaba on Unsplash