My folly is your find with these Herb Garlic Mashed Potatoes! When I was trying to cook up some steak fries yesterday, I accidentally over-cooked my potatoes, to the point where all I could do was mash 'em up!

Here's the condensed recipe for the Herb Garlic Mashers

four ounces of butter
one bulb of garlic
one teaspoon dried parsley
one teaspoon dried basil
one teaspoon salt, divided
a third cup of milk

Step 1: Prep the Poatoes

I don't know why I do it this way, but I always let the potatoes soak in a cold water bath for about 15 min before I do anything with them. It helps to get the dirt off, I think. After they soaked, I quartered each potato, and set them into a large pot to boil.

Step 2: Chop the Garlic.

I LOVE garlic. Like a lot. I grew up really close to the Gilroy area, a place known as the Garlic Capital of the World. I find that the best way to prepare garlic is by starting by smashing it with a knife, and then de-husking it.

After they were cleaned, I chopped them up pretty finely, but not necessarily minced.

Step 3: Perfect Garlic Butter.

I put the garlic in a small sauce pan with 4 oz. of butter, and simmered at a low heat for a long time. You want the garlic to get really tender, it takes about 45 minutes to do this. Keep the heat low enough so that your butter never bubbles or pops.

Once the butter melts, add a pinch of salt.

About 25 minutes in, add the parsley and basil to your mixture and gently stir it in.

Once your garlic is tender, you can remove your mixture from the heat.

Step 4: Cook Your Potatoes.

I placed my potatoes in a large stock pot, and added enough water until they were just barely covered. I don't add any salt to them, because I want them to separate from their peels. Remember, I was originally trying to make steak fries, you could probably salt your water for mashers.

Cook them over medium heat, for about 20 minutes, or until they are very tender. Check them with a fork every few minutes. This was my flaw, I think I let them cook at too high of a heat, for steak fries, I should of used cooler water.

When they are completely cooked, drain out your water. I saved a little bit of water for me to try making bread with, but you can also add it to veggie stock.

Step 5:

Put your taters back in your stock pot, and over very low heat, begin to stir them/mash them with a wooden spoon. Some people prefer using mashers, but because they are hard to clean, I don't like using them.

I added my butter/garlic mixture, as well as my milk and heavy cream, to the potatoes. KEEP STIRRING, and salt to taste. Your potatoes will eventually get to be a great consistency, if you find them to be a bit too lumpy, add more whole milk.

Step 6: Serve!

These potatoes pair well with Chicken and Pork, but may be too heavy to pair with Beef or Turkey. They have a really great garlic and herb flavor, I would love to see what they taste like with a little bit of Herbs de Provence.

They lasted about 5 seconds here at the Instructables office at Pier 9, so scale your recipe depending on how hungry you and your friends are :D