With St. Patrick’s Day looming, let’s whip up some champ, a rich and rustic Irish dish of mashed potatoes flecked with scallions and topped with butter. It couldn’t be simpler, but as always, the devil is in the details.
Let’s start with a champ primer. The dish is a relative of the better known colcannon, and both dishes — served as sides to a variety of meat dishes — date back at least several hundred years. But while colcannon adds kale — or sometimes cabbage — to the mashed potatoes, champ uses scallions or leeks.
The classic potato to use in this dish is the russet, also called the baking potato. Here in the U.S., the most famous russet is the Idaho. High-starch and thick-skinned, russets cook up fluffy and light. If, however, you’re looking for creamier texture and a more intense potato taste, you ought to go with Yukon Golds. A cross between a baking potato and a boiling potato, Yukon Golds happen to make tasty champ.
Whichever potatoes you choose, don’t peel and cut them before cooking. You want to boil them whole in their skins. Otherwise you end up with water-logged potatoes. And don’t worry about needing to peel a hot potato. You won’t burn yourself if you hold the potato with a clean kitchen towel and peel it with your other hand.