.Creamy mashed potatoes are the perfect accompaniment to slow-cooked beef and tomato stew, savoury mince or sausages.

They form the basis of fish cakes and are the topping for fish pies, cottage pies and shepherds pies.

Whilst you can get pre-made or frozen mashed potato in most supermarkets these days (and it CAN be handy having a bag in for times when you really can’t be bothered!) there’s nothing nicer than proper, homemade creamy mashed potato. It’s relatively quick, cheap and easy to make.

Ingredients

• 4-6 medium potatoes. I like maris piper or red potatoes best for mashed potato. 
• A good pinch of  sea salt. I like to use freshly ground sea salt but use whatever you have available.
• Ground white pepper
• A large knob of butter or margarine
• A little double cream, or whole milk if liked 

Method

Peel the potatoes and chop into 2 or 4 pieces (depending how big the potatoes are) ideally you need the pieces all to be roughly the same size if possible. A smaller potato may be ok left whole.  

Place in a big pan and cover with cold  water and a good pince of salt

Bring to the boil and boil until soft

Drain with a colander and tip back into the pan

Using a potato masher or fork, mash the potatoes until they’re free from lumps

Add butter, milk, salt and pepper to taste.

Serve

Top Tip: The reason we initially use cold water rather than boiling water is so that the outsides of the potatoes don’t cook at a faster rate than the insides of the potatoes.

If you are short for time you may be able to get away with using boiling water if you chop the potatoes into very small pieces first!

 Variations

Add grated red leicester cheese to make cheesy mash

Add root vegetables like carrots or swede to make a tasty topping for shepherds pie

Add a little horseradish sauce to make it a bit spicy

Add whole grain mustard and serve with toad in the hole or sausages

Using leftovers

You can freeze leftover mash potato. 

Or create fish cakes by combining with a drained tin of fish such as red salmon or tuna and then dip the cake into a little beaten egg and breadcrumbs and fry until cooked. They will stay in shape longer if you put them in the fridge for a couple of hours before cooking.