Local German Butter Ball potatoes grown at the WSU Organic farm
( pictured here) have a very rough skin but a golden, buttery hue instead. This color is were I’m guessing the name comes from, as well as the texture, which is fairly creamy compare to a russet type baking potato.
Want to grow some butterballs this year? Find growing information here from Cornell University.
Because of this 
texture it makes a great mashed potato. However be careful as it can turn sticky and pasty quickly.
I purchased my potatoes at the Moscow Food Co-op. You can find locally grown produce most frequently at the co-op. Notice the great signs showcasing where and by whom it was grown.
After seeing these lovely potatoes and knowing how delicious the Co-op sausages are, I decided it was a fine night for Bangers and Mash. A wonderful combination of mashed potatoes and bangers ( a type of sausage).
While in the produce section, I spied this magnificent red kale. 
Typically I would grow my own kale, as it grows so incredibly well here, but as it was mid-February and I don’t have any row covers I had none of my own on hand.
Bangers and mash is pretty straight forward, so I didn’t use a recipe and I’m not going to include a specific recipe here just highlight what I did .
- Peel potatoes. The butter balls have a pretty thick skin. It is a late season potato so needs to have a pretty substantial protection against the elements.
- Next boil the taters, until tender.
- While boiling taters, saute sliced onion- one small yellow – in some olive oil.
- Add bangers to the onion saute.
- Add some moisture of some kind to the bangers after it cooks for about 5-8 minutes. This could be beer, water, broil, or V-8. This time I used spicy V-8 and Worchestershire.
- Cook sausages until reach temp of 160 F. All ground meat needs to be cooked to 160 F.
- Add chopped kale when sausages are almost up to temp. Put a lid on your saute pan to steam the kale. Add spices you like here. My favorite is Galena Street from Penzey’s spices. Cook kale until tender -but not slimy!!! Do us all a favor and don’t overcook greens. Kale is able to handle more cooking than spinach and swiss chard, which I value quite a bit as I hate slimy greens.
- Mash potatoes with a hand potato masher or mixer with beaters. Add in some milk and butter. Salt to taste. If you want a creamier mashed potato , add cream… yes of course, or use a hand immersion blender to get those taters super smooth. Again watch out for over beating this taters as they tend towards sticky, pasty consistency.
- Serve by putting a scoop of mashed potatoes into a boil. Stick the bangers sliced into 4 pieces in the potatoes, add your season cooked kale in the middle.
Voila! Bangers and Mash . It tastes great and looks like a sea creature! Awesome! Enjoy!
Shared by: Jessie Hunter