Irish and potatoes - they just go together. Champ is an Irish mash of spuds and spring onions. I serve it on St. Patrick's day - the perfect starchy side dish with corned beef or lamb stew.
When I bought my second electric pressure cooker, my wife asked "What, did the other one break?" I mumbled an excuse about reviewing it for the blog. I bought it because I liked the look of the stainless steel insert, and I felt guilty about the extravagance. But, now that I have two cookers, I can't imagine having only one - I use the second cooker for side dishes all the time.
Like, say, champ. (You knew that was coming, didn't you?)
Most champ recipes work like traditional mashed potatoes - use the pressure cooker to boil the potatoes, drain, then mash with the milk, butter, and green onions.
But I saw online hints about a one-pot mashed potato recipe - potatoes with a small amount of milk. No draining, no separate heating of the milk, butter, and onions. But I couldn't find details, and I wasn't sure if a no-boiling method would work. It was time for recipe testing.
I made two batches of champ, side by side. One was the traditional way - boil, drain, mash. The other followed the vegetable technique from Modernist Cuisine at Home - melt the butter, toss the vegetables to coat, add a little liquid (in this case, the milk), and pressure cook everything at once.
When I was done, the traditional way looked great - fluffy mashed potatoes, with flecks of green onion. And it tasted good, too - like mashed potatoes with green onions mixed in.
When I opened the pot, The Modernist approach looked like a train wreck. The milk had curdled under pressure. I was sure I was doomed.
I forged ahead and mashed the potatoes, curds and all. The curds melted into the potatoes, and the end result looked fine. How did it taste? Better than the traditional approach. There was a stronger potato flavor to the mash. Even better, the one pot potatoes cooked quicker, took less steps, and there was only the one pot to clean up. We have a new mashed potato champion!
No pressure cooker? No worries. See the Notes section for stovetop instructions.
Recipe: Pressure Cooker Champ (Irish Mashed Potatoes with Green Onions)
Inspired by: Modernist Cuisine at Home, Nathan Myhrvold and Maxime Bilet
Equipment:
- Pressure Cooker (I love my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker)
Pressure Cooker Champ (Irish Mashed Potatoes with Green Onions)
- Total Time: 22 minutes
- Yield: 2 pounds 1x
Description
Irish potatoes - the perfect side dish for St. Patrick's Day - finished in a flash in the pressure cooker.
Ingredients
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 pounds Yukon gold or russet potatoes, peeled and sliced ½ inch thick
- 4 green onions, trimmed and sliced thin
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- ¾ cup milk
Instructions
- Prep the potatoes: Melt the butter over medium heat in the pressure cooker pot. As soon as the butter stops foaming, add the potato slices and green onions. Sprinkle with the salt and toss to coat with the butter. Pour the milk into the pot and stir.
- Pressure cook the potatoes: Lock the lid on the pressure cooker and cook at high pressure for 7 minutes in an electric pressure cooker, 6 minutes in a stovetop PC. Quick release the pressure, then open the lid away from you. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher, adding a little more milk if they're too thick. Taste and add more salt if necessary.
Notes
- For regular mashed potatoes, skip the green onions. The rest of the recipe works the same.
- No pressure cooker? Put the potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with water, add 1 tablespoon of salt, and bring to a boil. Boil until the potatoes can be pierced by the tip of a paring knife, about 10 minutes, then drain. While the potatoes are boiling, put the butter, milk, and green onions in a small saucepan, and simmer over medium heat until the butter melts. Put the drained potatoes back in the large saucepan, pour the milk, butter, and green onions in, and mash. Add more milk if the potatoes are too thick, and taste for salt.
- A toast for St. Patrick's day: May your home always be too small to hold all your friends.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 7 minutes
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Pressure Cooker
- Cuisine: Irish
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What do you think? Questions? Other ideas? Leave them in the comments section below.
Related Posts:
Pressure Cooker Roasted Sweet Potato Puree
Pressure Cooker Corned Beef and Cabbage
Easy Instant Pot Cabbage Recipe
Instant Pot Irish Beef Stew
Instant Pot Colcannon (Irish Mashed Potatoes and Kale)
Instant Pot Irish Lamb Shanks
Click here for my other pressure cooker recipes.
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Gina Barnett says
I, too, had issues with a double batch browning a bit on the bottom.
That being said, after the potatoes were mashed, I added in about 4 more sliced scallions. I brought this to a Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. People were going back for seconds, thirds and even fourths! One person had about 3 helpings of my Champ and only one serving of his wife’s Rae Drummond mashed potatoes with cream cheese.
Shauneen says
Add flour to any left over mash, mix well, roll out to about a 6mm round, cut into quarters and cook on a hot griddle on both sides for potato bread.