• For perfect mashed potatoes, use a potato ricer.p??ree image by Silvia Bogdanski from Fotolia.com
  
  Professional kitchens and home kitchens alike can benefit from a potato ricer. This manual device has a number of functions. Most commonly, cooks use potato ricers to mash root vegetables. Manufacturers make the apparatus, which looks like a giant garlic press, from stainless steel and sometimes plastic. For easy clean up, look for a dishwasher-safe potato ricer. Also, look for a sturdy model which has a mouth wide enough for large potatoes.
  
  

Mashed Potatoes

• Chefs use ricers for gourmet purees.Pumpkin Mash image by Brett Mulcahy from Fotolia.com
  
  The most obvious use for a potato ricer is mashed potatoes. Professional cooks and food writers swear that potato ricers make the fluffiest, most luxurious mashed potatoes. When using a potato ricer, first boil peeled potatoes. After draining the water and placing the drained potatoes back into a hot pan to help evaporate remaining water, spoon the potatoes into your ricer. Only a couple of potatoes will fit into the ricer at a time. Press down. The ricer incorporates air into the mashed potatoes, making them airy and fluffy.
  
  

Removing Water

• Vegetable lasagna can get watery if liquid is not removed from boiled greens.Lasagna in baking dish image by kuhar from Fotolia.com
  
  Potato ricers will remove water from cooked greens. Place boiled spinach, kale or collard greens into the potato ricer and squeeze to remove any excess water. Then use the leafy cooked greens as a filling a quiche, stuffed pasta, lasagna, enchiladas or crepes, according to Practically Edible. For golden brown hash browns, place raw grated potatoes into the ricer to remove the water, which can prevent the potatoes from browning perfectly.
  
  

Root Purée

• A potato ricer can mash a number of other root vegetables aside from potatoes. Try using the ricer for mashed summer squash, pumpkin, carrots, turnips, celery root, parsnip, yams and sweet potato. Substitute another root vegetable for potatoes for a gourmet mashed side dish or for baby food.
  
  

Savory Ideas

• Practically Edible suggests other uses for a potato ricer. Press hard-boiled eggs for egg salad sandwiches. Use the ricer for chopped liver, pressing through cooked chicken or beef liver. You can also use a ricer for roasted heads of garlic.
  
  

Gnocchi

• Chefs swear that one of the secrets to great potatoe gnocchi is to use a potato ricer for the potatoes. Use Yukon Gold potatoes for gnocchi. According to the BBC, it is important to pass the potatoes through the ricer when the potatoes are cool enough to handle but still warm. You can boil the potatoes unpeeled and peel them before pressing them through