Mashed Potatoes (Microwave)

Easier than instant, almost as fast, and much, much better.

Peel about 4 cups of baking potatoes, slice them into a large pyrex measuring cup, and add about a cup of water.

Potatoes cooked in a microwave oven, ready to be mashed

Cover and microwave for 10 minutes, then test for doneness.  Potatoes should be very soft.  This batch needed a few more minutes than 10 in a full-size microwave oven.

Mash them up, water and all, with a hand potato masher. Add your choice of cream, milk, butter, salt, and mash some more.

I dressed them up with dried parsley flakes.

Be sure to use mealy baking potatoes.  Firm, waxy potatoes, like red potatoes, are not a good choice for this preparation.

Feeds several, or there will be leftovers!

To see a full set of photographs showing how this dish was made, go to this set on flickr.   (It will open in a new tab or window; to return to this page, just close it.) The small pictures are thumbnails; click on each one to see it full-size, and to read the comments under it.  If you prefer to use the slideshow feature, you won't see the captions unless you click on "show info" (top right).