This Will Replace Mashed Potatoes Forever

Have you ever heard of a potato casserole? Well, before I went to America, I hadn't either. And it's not your typical casserole. This is lashings of mashed potato with a delicious crumb topping, bacon and cheese. We start with our potatoes, use an all purpose potato. These charismas are fantastic. I've peeled them, cut them in half and I've boiled them. Now, when you're making mash, my tip is not to start with hot water. Start your potatoes in cold water. Bring it up to the boil and cook them until they're tender. Once you've drained them, we can start mashing. So I've got about three to four potatoes here. Lots of butter. So good quality butter in there. And I'm going to place this on a really low heat because we want to take the moisture out of the potatoes. The less moisture in the potatoes, the fluffier they are going to be. And these potatoes are fantastic because they just mash so easy because they're lovely and fluffy. So we're just going to mash that, allow that butter to melt. And I always like to start with the butter, then add some milk. Not cream, but milk for this. And then grab a wooden spoon and we'll mix that in. Now, I'm giving my potato casserole a little bit of an Irish twist here with the addition of some spring onions, lots of spring onions and a good pinch of white pepper. And potatoes just love their salt, so a good pinch of salt. And we're just going to whip this up until it's light and fluffy. All right, this is delicious as is, but let's put that lovely bacon and cheese crumb on top. So just in a gratin dish like this, lashings of mash out. And then for our topping, some fresh breadcrumbs. You could also use panko. Two rashes of bacon that are finely chopped along with some cheddar, a good handful of cheddar and with a fork. I'm just going to combine that so it's evenly distributed. Great. Sprinkle that over the top. And just to ensure that topping goes super golden brown, a very thin layer of extra virgin olive oil. And then this goes into the oven. I've preheated my oven with the grill element. Everything's pretty much cooked. We just want that to go golden. So give that about five to ten minutes or until it's crispy on the top. And let's have a look at this. Fluffy on the inside, like clouds. Crispy on the top. I don't know why it's called a potato casserole. I also don't care. All I know is this is super delicious. I love mashed potato.