Mashed Potatoes with Bell Pepper & Garlic – 2022 Red Carpet Menu for Oscar®!
It’s the 2022 Red Carpet Menu for Oscar®! For Belfast, it’s Bellmash!
We have the second side dish for our Mid-Century Dinner Party!
Kenneth Branagh is an incredible film maker. If you weren’t sure after seeing such films as Dunkirk, My Week with Marilyn, Tenet, etc., then Belfast will push you over into his camp. Maybe it’s the heart in the story. It’s semi-autobiographical and you can feel the intimate knowledge he must have to create such an incredible film.
Humanity always seems to be splitting groups into “them” and “us” with dire consequences if you are on the “wrong side”, depending on who you talk to. In this case, it’s the Protestants vs. the Catholics. This was a widely known and bloody situation in Ireland for many years.
We get the experiences and perspective of a 9-year old boy in a family caught in the middle of a tense area as the menace grows between the factions. You can feel it. And in it, you feel the warmth of the family, the fear in the “should we stay/should we go” decision looming, and the innocence lost in the 
children exposed to such hateful behavior, ironically over relatively similar religions that each have the same peace-loving “hippie” at their core.
And so I saw fighting in the streets… MASH ups. Ireland… potatoes. Yeah… I went with it. Mashed potatoes but with a bright, fresh perspective, which is what each side needed. I know, stereotypical but when it’s something this delicious, I think I’ll get a pass.
The combo of adding garlic and yellow bell pepper to these creamy Yukon Gold potatoes, gives them such a delightful flavor. The pepper adds such a bright note. And the Irish butter does a wonderful job of giving that silky, buttery flavor I expect in my mash!
Things being mashed is often not a good thing… unless it’s a potato. Embrace the mash and give it this scrumptious twist. Serve it to two warring factions and it just might be what brings them together! Ha!
Happy Oscars!
Annette
Mashed Potatoes with Bell Pepper & Garlic
Ingredients
- 10-12 Yukon Gold (or other small white) potato halved
- 4 tsp extra virgin olive oil divided
- 1 yellow bell pepper
- 1/2 head garlic top sliced off
- 1/4 cup butter room temperature (Irish if you can)
- salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place garlic on small piece of aluminum foil and drizzle with 2 tsp oil. Fold up the foil and set aside.
- Place pepper on small parchment-lined baking pan and drizzle with remaining oil. Put the garlic next to it on the pan. Roast at 475° for 20-30 minutes until pepper is charred and soft. Remove from oven and let cool.
- While those are roasting, add potatoes to a pot filled with cool, salted water. Bring to a boil over high heat then lower heat and simmer until tender, about 25 minutes. Drain and add back to the pot. Set aside.
- While the potatoes cook, and while still warm, peel skin from pepper. Squeeze garlic cloves from bulb. Place both in the pot with the potatoes.
- Season with salt & pepper, add the butter, and mash to your desired consistency using a masher or immersion blender. Serve immediately.
