Garlic Mashed Potatoes and Hamburger Gravy.

Warning, this is almost the equivalent of a diabetic coma!

Tonight for dinner, Hubby asked for mashed potatoes and hamburger gravy in the style of his mom. I asked if he minded me making my nearly signature garlic mashed potatoes, and he replied, "mmm, sounds good!" Now, mind you, his mom's recipe for hamburger gravy includes Lipton Onion Soup Mix. As the ingredients for it include a whole slew of nasty stuff (Onions (deyhydrated), salt, cornstarch, onion powder, sugar, corn syrup, hydrolyzed soy protein, caramel color, partially hydrogenated soybean oil, monosodium glutamate, yeast extract, natural flavors, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate. according to this link ), I needed to improvise.

Dear Grandma, THANK YOU so much for teaching me to make gravy!!!!! Of all of the wonderful things you taught me growing up, this is probably my favorite. It's such a shame I can't eat gravy every day, sigh! Moving on...

I started by taking about 2 lbs of ground beef out of the freezer, and tossing it into a large pan (called a chicken fryer by my mom). I sprinkled it liberally with Redmond's Real Sea Salt, and some Simply Organic All Season Salt. Then, I told hubby to cook it, and add a bit more seasoning as it cooked, since I realized I had absolutely no flour! I needed to make a run to the store.

Just then, Phoenix comes in to report that a neighborhood kid hurt him, and he had a nasty looking cut under his left eye. James took off to deal with that, and I cut up 2 3lb bags of organic potatoes. I planned to make a LOT after all, lol. To the potatoes, I added a very liberal amount of salt, and some water... enough to cover the potatoes, and then some.

Hubby came back, and it turns out that a neighborhood boy had been playing with a nerf gun, scared Phoenix, who then fell off his bike, and hit his cheek on the nasty part of the handlebar, ouch! I told hubby to cut up an onion or two or three, depending on size and how much he wanted. The onion, and the bulb of garlic I had him peel went into the pot with the potatoes. By the way, I prefer my mashed potatoes WITH the skin on, and usually use red russets. Today I used brown russets, and still left the peels on.

I went to the store, bought Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour, and some Dried Minced Onion. Coming back, I was happy that the hamburger was done, and the potatoes almost done. Anyone who has never made gravy from scratch, it's easy. All you need is some form of fat/grease with flavoring/seasoning, a little bit of flour, and some sort of starch, plus water.

So, I drained the grease from the hamburger into a bowl, and set the meat aside. The ONLY reason I did this was to make it easier to blend the flour with a minimum of lumps. I sprinkled a good portion of the dried minced onion onto the grease, some onion powder, a touch of garlic powder, a dash or two of powdered ginger, a dash of cumin (what the hell why not, it was in my spice cupboard) and a dash or two of ground black pepper. I let all of this sit for a bit while the potatoes finished cooking, and used the time to mix about 1 cup of flour with about 1 cup of water, and set this aside.

Next, I had hubby CAREFULLY pour water from the potatoes into the pan with the mix. I turned up the heat on the mix+starch water until it started to boil, and then I added the flour/water, and stirred until it had thickened a bit. Once it was gravy, I turned the temperature to warm, and turned my attention to the potatoes. Hubby had strained them for me, so I tossed them into a huge bowl, and added 2 sticks butter. Remember, I had a LOT of potatoes, lol! I had about 1 cup of cream left over that was on the verge of going bad, so I added that, and a bit of milk... maybe a cup. It depends on the desired texture, just add and mix until it's right.

My mixer mashed the potatoes, onions, and garlic together with the butter, cream, and milk in no time, love my mixer! I remembered to add the hamburger meat back to the gravy, stirred, and then dished every one up. This stuff was sooooo gooood that I cackled wildly, bragged about it on my facebook, and then came straight here to blog about it.

If you make this, let me know what you think, and enjoy!

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