Tony Conte: Hi my name is Tony Conte, I'm the Chef at the Oval Room restaurant in Washington DC and we are going to show you how to make Thanksgiving dinner and here we are going to show you how to make mashed sweet potatoes. We have five pound sweet potatoes that we have peeled and we are going to dice them large, I prefer to cut them in large dices, I think that they cook better and they don't pick up as much water as if they were cut into smaller pieces.

We are then going to cover them with cold water by two inches and we are going to add two tablespoons of salt, then cook these for approximately 30 minutes or until tender. It's important to know that the water should be at a simmer if the water is boiling rapidly potatoes as they cook, they are going to get softer, and they are going to break, and then become water logged and end up with a very nice mashed potato, so I tell you the water should be simmering at a low boil as it is in the video. When we come back the potatoes will be cooked and then we will mash them and season them.

Our potatoes are done we have drained them and now we are going to mill them. If you don't have a food mill you could use an old fashioned masher or if you have a kitchen aid you can use a paddle. So, we are going to keep mashing this until it goes through the food mill and then we are going to finish it by seasoning with salt, white pepper and some butter.

So, now we have mashed the whole thing, this is what it looks like through the food mill and again we are going to add some salt, white pepper and a little bit of butter to it and that will be our mashed potatoes. We will start with approximately a tablespoon of salt and one teaspoon of white pepper and to that we will add two tablespoons of butter, we will stir incorporate and we will check our seasoning that's it, that is our mashed sweet potatoes and next we are going to show you how to make cranberry sauce.