It’s not much of a ground-breaking discovery, but trust me, a bit of truffle oil gives a completely different profile to the usual mashed potatoes. Give it a try, and let me know what you think.

Serves: 4 side portions
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 20-30 minutes (depending on the size of your potatoes)

Ingredients:

• 6-8 medium sized potatoes, peeled
• salt and white pepper to taste
• 3-4 tablespoons of truffle infused olive oil (easy to find and relatively cheap)
• 50g of butter
• 1/3 cup of (ideally) warm milk.
• optional: truffle shavings or chopped chives

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Method:

1. Add the potatoes to a large pot of lightly salted water and bring to boil. Cook until tender enough to be cut with a spoon – approximately 25 minutes.
2. Drain well in a colander and transfer to a large bowl.
3. If you have a potato ricer, this can be used to transform the potatoes into a fine mash. Otherwise you can opt to whip into a mash using an electric whisk (NOT blender – this will turn your potatoes into gloopy, gluey goo!). If you have neither, just go ahead and mash it the old fashion way with a potato masher or fork.
4. Add the butter, truffle oil and warm milk while mashing then season with salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve immediately with shavings of truffle if available. Chopped chives also go nicely.

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Notes:

For a lactose free-option I strongly recommend sticking to dairy lactose-free equivalents. I would stay away from the likes of almond milk, coconut oil etc in mash as it completely warps the flavour profile.

If your potatoes widely range in size, I suggest that you cut the larger potatoes in half to achieve similar cooking times.

Try to avoid over seasoning the water in the pot or cutting your potatoes into small pieces to help them retain their integrity.

If you want to make use of the potato skins, wash well and pat dry. Shallow fry these in hot vegetable oil for about 1-2 minutes. Season with salt and use as a delicious crispy garnish.

For what it’s worth, if you’re not a massive fan of truffles or are looking for a different flavour combination, you could simply replace the truffle oil with two tablespoons of wholegrain mustard. This makes the more traditional version of mashed potatoes.

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