Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Remember I just made some beef stew? Apart from the rosemary buttered rolls I made, this roasted garlic mashed potatoes also make a perfect side dish to go along with it. Also, I made some onion rings to go with it. See my next post for the recipe ;)

Mr G said since we have some leftover beef stew, shall we get more bread? As I'm not too fond of eating the same thing or combination again and again, I said, why not mashed potatoes? You should have seen the light in his eyes. It immediately lit up! Haha men and meat and potatoes! Now I know why those are similar combo to PW as well. You don't have to have a cowboy in order to understand one ;)

This recipe from Pioneer Woman serves 8 so do remember to portion yours accordingly. See my modifications in blue.

Ingredients:

• 5 pounds Russet Or Yukon Gold Potatoes, Peeled And Rinsed
• 3 heads To 5 Heads Roasted Garlic
• 1-1/2 stick Regular Salted Butter (3/4 Cup)
• 8 ounces, weight Softened Cream Cheese
• 1/2 cup Or So Half-and-half (Or Heavy Cream, If You're Feeling Naughty) I used low fat milk
• Salt To Taste
• Black Pepper To Taste

Method:

1. Cut the peeled potatoes into pieces and cook in boiling water until fork-tender. Drain water and return to pot, and mash potatoes over low heat until lots of the steam has escaped.
2. Next, mash in softened butter, cream cheese, half-and-half, and salt to taste. Dump in three to five heads of roasted garlic cloves; stir together, then check seasoning. Be sure to salt adequately.
3. Add some fresh ground black pepper, and serve with one or two roasted garlic cloves on top. 

If you are curious on how to cook those garlic to make them nicely roasted, here's how.

Ingredients:

• a few heads of garlic
• some olive oil or canola oil
• some kosher salt or fine salt
• some black pepper

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Cut the tops off your garlic heads to expose the top of the garlic heads.
3. Using a round cake tin or pan, coat it with some oil.
4. Place the garlic heads with the exposed top facing upwards.
5. Drizzle the top of the garlic heads with some oil so they won't burn easily.
6. Sprinkle some salt and pepper over the top of the garlic heads too for extra flavour.
7. Cover your tin or pan with aluminium foil.
8. Roast the garlic heads for about 40 to 45 minutes. 
9. When you remove the aluminium foil, you will notice that all the garlic heads would have turned delicious and nutty with all that roasted garlic beneath the garlic skins.
10. To remove the garlic, grab the bottom of the head and gently squeeze until all the garlic cloves fall out from the skin. They should be quite mushy.

This is my first time eating mashed potatoes with roasted garlic. As a person who would rather shun away from garlic for fear of inviting vampires (haha) or the garlic breath, this is definitely a must try!! Especially for garlic lovers. Mr G who simply loves garlic has never eaten this before either. He gave an immediate thumbs up! Woohoo!! With soft, creamy and fluffy mashed potatoes and creamy roasted garlic, what better side dish can you ask for? ;)

I am submitting this post to the monthly event, Cook like a Star hosted by Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out, Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Mich of Piece of Cake. To join us, simply cook or bake any recipe from any Ree Drummond websites or cookbooks for the whole month of September 2013. You can link your posts at any one of the hosts' websites.

Your post must be a current post for September 2013 - please do not link older posts. Please mention Cook like a Star in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Mich of Piece of Cake and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.