How to make the perfect mashed potatoes is a paid post in collaboration with the Tots100 and The Co-Op. I am passionate about making sure that my children grow up with cooking skills to last them a lifetime. I try to ensure that at least once a week I cook with each of them and now they are getting older they do the cooking and I am on hand if they need reassurance or help with anything.
One of our simple family favourite meals is bangers and mash, but sometimes timings and mashed potatoes can be a challenge, especially draining all the boiling water and keeping an eye on them. So this is my tween/teen friendly cooking with kids method to make the perfect mashed potatoes. All of us prefer our mash cooked like this now. I think it is to do with the potatoes not being submerged in water!
Perfect Mashed Potatoes
Co-op Irresistible Mashing Potatoes are British potatoes and grown by a small number of carefully selected growers. They are exclusive to the Co-op and are the Lilly Variety which has a yellow skin and makes light and fluffy mash potatoes. They are also great for roasting and chips too.
Ingredients
- Co-op Irresistible Mashing Potatoes
- Salted Butter
- Potatoe Ricer
How to make the perfect Mashed Potatoes
Prick your potatoes with a sharp knife and place on to a microwavable plate.
Cook as per your microwave’s instructions for jacket potatoes. We have an 800-watt microwave and the bag of potatoes was 1.5kg and we cooked them on high for 25 minutes and let them stand for 10 minutes.
Using a ricer is a great way to ensure your mash has no lumps and is perfect for kids. A big plus is that as long as you cut the potatoes in half and have the none skin end down that all that is left in the ricer is the skin! Once you have riced your potatoes add a dollop of butter to taste.
Maxi always makes his mash in a glass bowl and covers the top with a plate to keep warm, but if it does get cold it can be warmed up in the microwave.
Bangers and Mash
I think that one of the hardest parts of cooking is getting all the parts of a meal timed to perfection and if you are making bangers and mash it can be a challenge, especially if you have sausages on the stove top, vegetables and have to drain your potatoes and mash them. I want cooking to be simple and successful for the boys. I want them to do it well so that they keep doing it as the more they cook, the less I have to.
This is why we I showed Maxi how to cook sausages in the oven in a pyrex dish. We preheat the oven to 200 degrees and place the sausages in a non stick oven proof dish. Cook for 30 minutes making sure that the sausages are turned.
Whilst the sausages and potatoes are cooking he can then prepare the peas – for this meal it was MadDads favourite marrowfat peas, which simply meant opening the can and popping in a pan, however, we often have frozen garden peas (which are Maxi’s favourite).
Just before the time comes to dish up, Maxi will then make gravy and I have no shame in saying it is from granules. He just follows the instructions on the pack.
There you have it. Simple Bangers and Mash as made by my 12 year old and all I had to do was watch as he used the oven gloves!
Co-op Irresistible Mashing Potatoes are available from @coopukfood – Do try them, they are delicious and as you can see making mash with them is child’s play!
