Everyone has a recipe for mashed potatoes but not all of them are great – there’s nothing worse than lumpy or gluey mash! Making mashed potatoes is simple but there are a few tricks to it and even though it seems a little laborious at first, you’ll soon get used to the routine and it will become second nature.  You don’t need a thermometer for the potatoes but for those of you that really struggle, I’ve included the temperature here as well.  One of the most important things to learn is that you need to buy the correct potatoes (waxy potatoes are not good for mashing) and a decent ricer or masher. Don’t buy any old ricer – look around

because there are some pretty dreadful ones available that are really expensive too.

Ingredients

• 1 kg  potatoes
• 300g cold butter, cut into cubes
• warm milk or thin cream
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

• Peel the potatoes and cut them into 3 cm slices and then run them under cold water to rinse off the surface starch.
• Heat a large pot of water until it simmers – it must have small bubbles or be about 80 C.
• Pop in the potatoes and simmer for 30 minutes or so, drain them and run them under cold water until they are quite cool.
• Now, rinse the pot again, refill with plenty of salted water, bring to the boil and then to a simmer – add the potatoes and cook until they are quite soft, drain them and put them back in the pot, shaking them over low heat so that you get rid of all the excess water.
• Immediately put the potatoes through the ricer into a bowl containing all the cold butter cubes and mix the butter into the potatoes, fluffing them up with a fork.
• Alternatively, use a good quality masher and mash the potatoes and the butter.
• Just before your serve them, mix in a little warm milk or cream to make them fluffy again and serve hot.