This evening I’m basking in the warm glow of a tummy filled with mashed potato! Here’s my lovely dinner (though obviously all that’s left now is the plate!) – Marinated Minty Lamb Steak with Mashed Potato and Green Veg. Yum!
Here’s how I make my Mashed Potato (no amounts because I do it all by taste/eye):
Take your potatoes (I usually use whatever general, all purpose potatoes they have in the shop – tonight it was Maris Piper), wash them and then cut/peel off any rooty or rough bits (but leave the rest of the peel still on for the tasty goodness). Chop them into smallish pieces and boil for 20 minutes. Drain, return to the pan and add a generous knob of butter.
Add a generous dusting of freshly grated nutmeg.
And a generous dollop of soured cream.
Season to taste with salt and pepper (though I tend to leave out the salt here so I can dish it up to baby DD tomorrow).
Mash away happily until it’s a consistency you like. I like to mash mine as smooth as they’ll go with a fairly open hand masher and the peely bits add texture and taste. If it’s really dry and stiff, you could add a bit of milk.
I like my mashed potatoes without lumps of potato (but not super-smooth either), and lovely and fluffy. My perfect mash hangs happily from a spoon like this:
Once it’s all mashed up, taste it and add more of anything above if you think it needs it and then add your yummy dinner. Tonight I marinated some lamb steaks before grilling them on the stove.
They were marinated in a mixture of mint sauce, my mum’s home-made plum jelly and balsamic vinegar. While making the kid’s supper earlier, I gently simmered these together for a couple of minutes to melt everything together and start to caramelise it a bit. I then covered the steaks with it and left them for a couple of hours. I threw them onto the very hot grill pan and grilled them for a couple of minutes on each side.
Add buttered green veg; tonight it’s spinach (I wilted mine rather than cook it properly by just plunging it into the boiling water from the mange tout and then draining it straight away) and lightly boiled mange tout. Make a super quick cheaty (but yummy) gravy by pouring a little bit of the vegetable cooking water into the grill pan, use a random utensil to scrape the yummy caramelised meaty marinade bits off the bottom of the pan and dissolve into the bubbling water. Add to your plate and…
Ta da!
(Though the eagle eyed people out there may notice that the pic was taken pre-gravy) …
A super easy, delicious and balanced dinner that takes all of 30 mins to prepare…
This kind of meal I can do! 
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