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Red and Green Recipe: Red and Green Mash

Posted by Kerry Saretsky, December 22, 2008 at 5:45 PM

Put some holiday color on your plate, too, with Red and Green Recipes.

In my opinion, everything goes well with mashed potatoes, especially in the winter when all I want is something warming and heavy and comforting. Serve these two vibrant mashes together alongside any meal and you have instant holiday on a plate.

The Red Mash is stained with bright beet and flavored with goat cheese. The Green Mash is colored with Fines Herbes, a fresh herb blend of chervil, parsley, chives, and tarragon, along with crème fraîche. These mashes are very flavorful, and very potato-y, in that I do not add much by way of milk to loosen them up, which is how I prefer them. But by all means, as I indicate in the procedure, add more warm milk to achieve your desired consistency.

I think this is what Mrs. Claus serves Santa when he gets home on Christmas day.

About the author: Kerry Saretsky is a Serious Eats intern and the creator of French Revolution Food, where she reinvents her family's classic French recipes in a fresh, chic, modern way.

Red and Green Mash

- serves 4 -

Ingredients

Red Mash
6 small-medium boiler potatoes, peeled
1 small beet, peeled, trimmed, and thinly sliced
1/2 milk, plus 1/2 cup, plus more if desired to thin out potatoes
1 1/2 tablespoons goat cheese
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper

Green Mash
6 small-medium boiler potatoes, peeled
1/2 cup chopped fresh chervil
1/2 cup chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon
1/2 cup crème fraîche
1/4 cup milk, plus more if desired to thin out potatoes
1 tablespoon butter
Salt and pepper

Procedure for the Red and the Green Mash

1. Put all 12 potatoes in a stock pot, just cover with cold water, and cover the pot with a lid. Bring the water to a boil, season with salt, and cook until the potatoes are tender—about 25 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, simmer the beet slices in 1/2 cup of milk until the beet is just tender—about 15 minutes. You’ll want to heat the milk on medium until it simmers, and then lower the heat to low for the rest of the cooking process.

3. Heat all the remaining milk in a sauce pot. You will need 1/2 cup for the Red Mash, and 1/4 cup for the Green Mash, but I recommend heating at least another cup so that you'll be able to play with your potatoes consistency until you are satisfied.

4. Next, begin work on the Green Mash. Place the chervil, parsley, chives, and tarragon with salt and pepper and crème fraîche in a small food processor and blend until completely smooth and green.

5. When the beet has finished cooking, add the beet and the milk that it cooked in, along with another 1/2 cup of warm milk, into a small food processor, and blend until smooth.

6. Using a ricer, mash 6 potatoes into one large bowl, and 6 potatoes into another large bowl.

7. For the Green mash, add 1/4 cup of hot milk, 1 tablespoon of butter, and the herbed crème fraîche to one bowl of potatoes. Mix until thoroughly combined.

8. For the Red Mash, add the beet mixture, the goat cheese, and the butter, and mix until thoroughly combined.

9. At this point, season both mashes separately, and assess the consistency of the potatoes. For a thinner mash, add more milk, a little a time, until you are satisfied. The original recipe makes very potato-y mash.

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Tags: holiday entertaining, holidays, mashed potatoes, potatoes, Red and Green Recipes, sides, vegetarian