photo by: John Young

Spicy Mustard Mashed Potatoes

March is a very special month in Lawrence, and I’m not just talking about basketball. The venerable Free State Brewing Co. also hosts its annual March Mustard Madness event wherein hundreds of different kinds of mustard are trucked in and trotted out to your table to sample in myriad ways. It is the most wonderful time of the year.

In honor of this month of madness, I bought myself an expensive jar of horseradish mustard, and have been doling it out at every opportunity. For me, all mustard is really good, but hot mustard is a thing of beauty.

My kids love mashed potatoes as much or more than they love me, so I make them often, since at this point I am happy if they eat anything at all, no matter if it is all carbs all the time.

In order to make the mashed potatoes more exciting and even a little more healthy I experimented with doing them in the slow-cooker, and found excellent results. I was able to forgo the usual butter/sour cream/mayo routine that usually makes my mashers so amazing and use some chicken stock and the horseradish mustard (and, OK, a little butter), and it resulted in creamy, flavor-packed potatoes. For the kids portions, I skipped the spicy mustard, but for me, it was all about that kick.

Spicy Mustard Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
6 good-sized Yukon Gold potatoes (it’s important to use Yukons for this)
2 cups chicken broth
Water to cover
4 garlic cloves
Salt and pepper
Bacon crumbles
3 green onions
1/2 cup horseradish mustard
4 tablespoons butter

Directions
Dice the potatoes (no need to peel unless you just prefer it, but Yukon peels are very good and not tough like russets) and put them in the slow-cooker, and pour the chicken broth and water over. Drop in the garlic cloves and salt and pepper the liquid amply.

Cook 6 to 8 hours on high.

Then remove the potatoes and retain about a cup of the broth. If you have a stick blender this is a good application for it, but I just used my hand masher right in the slow cooker crock.

Put the potatoes in the crock, add the butter, mustard and more salt and pepper. A dash of garlic powder is good here too. Mash everything, adding cooking liquid back in as needed to get your desired consistency.

Mix in bacon bits and chopped green onions. You’ll never want normal mashed potatoes again.