Boil Mashed Potatoes With Garlic and Aromatics
The ideal bowl of mashed potatoes should be creamy, fluffy, and well seasoned, but it’s not enough to add salt and seasoning after or even during the mash step. Filling the potatoes with aroma begins from the very beginning, at the cooking stage.
Potatoes, like pasta, should be boiled in salted water so that each piece is seasoned evenly. Unlike pasta, you have to go one step further and add flavorings and garlic to boiling water. (I think you could do it with pasta too if you really wanted to, but I think it would piss off the Italians.)
Adding herbs (usually thyme or rosemary) and crushed garlic cloves to boiling water enhances the flavor of the potato without overpowering it. Sprigs of herbs, especially lignified ones such as rosemary and thyme, should be removed, but the garlic may travel with the potatoes to their final destination. The cloves will soften and soften when boiled, giving your puree a sweet, subtle, not-so-strong taste. Just run it through a grinder or rice cooker along with the potatoes (or mash in a potato masher).
If you want to double the rich flavor, you can add even more herbs to the liquid milk component of your puree by adding a few sprigs to heavy cream or half and half and gently warm the dairy over low heat. The fat will extract slightly different flavors from the flavor compounds (because some compounds are fat-soluble and others are water-soluble), giving your plate of mashed potatoes layers of flavor.
Start by stirring the salt in the water and heating as needed to dissolve it. You want it to be visibly salty, like the ocean or the tears of your enemies. Add a couple sprigs of thyme, rosemary, or both, along with three or four cloves of garlic. Add the potatoes and cook as usual until they no longer resist being pierced with the tip of a knife. Remove the green sprigs, then mash the potatoes (and garlic) as usual.