How to make a good sauce with the mashed potatoes

I believe what he means is that when you serve mashed or smashed potatoes you should serve a gravy. When I lived up North,mashed were often served without gravy or sauce but here more South that seems to be a mortal sin.. Gravy on everything is the norm, starting with red eye in the morning, or sausage gravy. I have even seen it on waffles.:crazy:

If I'm having mashed potatoes without a sauce i put plenty of milk or single cream and butter in to make them really creamy, alternatively i serve them with a basic white sauce (cornflour & milk) with just some finely chopped fresh herbs added to compliment the dish eg. parsley for white fish, mint for lamb or a little grated horseradish for beef. Quick and tasty - enjoy :lips:

A nice Espagnole Sauce (Brown Sauce) makes an excellent "gravy" for mashed potatoes. Guarantee your sailor husband will love it. When I make it I make it the Escoffier shows in his cookbook.

Nowadays, you could just reduce a nice brown stock until it takes on the consistency of a thicker gravy. I'd start with some butter in the pan and some chopped shallots, then add the stock and reduce slowly to the desired consistency. Season with some Salt and Pepper.

doc

Use the pan you cooked the meat in(all the nice browned bits make a good gravy), add some stock and stir. After it has reduced a bit add a cornstarch slurry or roux to the pan. Stir constantly while adding to prevent lumps. Simmer a bit to thicken and serve. Alternative liquids besides stock are wine, water, milk, cream... etc.

I think mashed potatoes are tasty on their own if creamy and buttery. No gravy necessary.

Here's how to make a simple, American style gravy

Ingredients:
1-1/2 cups stock, can be beef, chicken, or combined when siding pork or veal
1/2 cup dry red wine for beef stock or white wine for chicken
2 tbs butter
1 tbs + 1 tsp flour

Optional
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil, corn oil, or other cooking oil
2 tbs (additional) butter
1 cup sliced mushrooms; and/or
1/2 cup thin sliced onions

In a sauce pan, combine the stock and wine. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the wininess cooks off, and the mix reduces to about 1-1/2 cups total. Set the stock aside.

If you'll be using the mushrooms or onions: Preheat a skillet to medium hot. Add the oil, when the oil is hot add the butter. As soon as the butter melts (which it will do very quickly) add the mushrooms and/or the onions. Allow to cook without shaking, turning or moving for at least three minutes, and turn (by tossing if you know how). Cook until fully softened. Set aside.

Make a roux with the butter and flour as follows: Add the butter to the sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat. When the butter has melted, add the flour. Cook the raw off the flour (about three minutes). If you like, you can continue cooking until the flour just starts to brown (about eight minutes).

Return the stock/wine mixture to the pan along with the roux. Turn the heat up, and bring to a boil. Immediately reduce to a simmer and hold at the simmer for at least five minutes in order to get full incoroporation of the roux and maximum thickening. Pass the sauce through a sieve, add the mushrooms and/or onions if you're using them, and hold over very low heat until required.

Hope this helps,
BDL