Galley PiratesLayered Mashed Potatoes with Mushroom Duxelles

Now….what do you do with all the leftover Thanksgiving mashed potatoes? This is a nice layered mashed potato dish, akin to Shepard’s Pie, but with a unique mushroom and paté filling. My co-pirate and I presented this dish with the Cherry Rum Glazed Pork Tenderloin a few weeks ago in the Tred Avon River. It can be made with left over mashed potatoes, or as demonstrated here, straight from fresh potatoes.

For the potatoes:

4 lbs potatoes (about 12 medium), peeled and quartered
2 tablespoons bacon grease
4 tablespoons butter
6 cloves garlic, roasted
1 1/2 tablespoons finely minced rosemary
2 teaspoons Sea Salt
1 cup Half & Half
1 egg, beaten

See below for Mushroom Duxelles

12″ Springform pan
Spray oil
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese
2 tablespoons butter cut into pieces

Peel the potatoes, quarter them and boil them in a big pot of water. While they’re boiling mince the rosemary.

Preheat your galley oven to at least 350 degrees. Peel 6 garlic cloves, throw them on a baking sheet (doesn’t have to be a big one) and roast the garlic in the oven until it browns. This will smell divine!

Chop and mash the garlic. Keep your oven on, at 350 degrees. You will need it for the final potato dish.

Once the potatoes are cooked enough to pierce with a fork, drain them and mix in 2 tablespoons bacon grease, the roasted garlic, 4 tablespoons butter, Sea Salt and the rosemary.

Mash with a fork if you don’t have a potato masher on board (which I don’t.) Add the cup of Half and Half and beaten egg. (you can omit the egg and it won’t ruin the meal. It just helps bind the ingredients to pop nicely out of a Springform pan.)

Spray a 12″ springform pan with cooking spray and sprinkle with bread crumbs. While your mashed potatoes are cooling, start the mushroom duxelles.

For the mushrooms duxelles:

4 tablespoons butter
2 boxes fresh mushrooms, chopped
4 shallots, minced
1 clove garlic, pressed
1/2 cup sherry
1/3 cup of country paté

Mince the shallots, chop the mushrooms and press one clove of garlic. Sauté them together in the butter (you might want to add a tablespoon of oil if it gets dry) in a large fry pan. Once the mushrooms are soft and well cooked through add 1/2 cup sherry and the paté. You can use most any kind of paté as long as it is soft enough to be spreadable. Foie gras would be wonderful but most French would probably think it’s a waste of a good goose liver to throw into mashed potatoes. On the other extreme, don’t use liver wurst…it will be too firm.

Taking half of the mashed potatoes, layer in the bottom of your prepared Springform pan. Smooth it out so it’s nice and even. Add the mushroom duxelles in the next layer. Make sure they get spread out all the way to the edges of the pan so you can see the layers when you take the form off. Galley Pirates like meals to be as pretty as they are tasty!

Then layer the last half of the mashed potatoes on top of the mushroom duxelles, shown below, in progress.

Once the rest of the potatoes have been layered on top, sprinkle with the 1/4 cup Parmesan and dot with butter.

Place in your oven for 40 minutes or until browned and crispy on top. Take out of the oven and let rest for at least ten minutes before “unforming” the springform pan. Removing from the pan slowly and carefully as not to break up the beautiful potato “cake.”