Crushed new potatoes

Do you have any eating idiosyncrasies? There are people who will never eat a Jaffa cake other than bite off the chocolate, slurp in the jelly and then reluctantly eat the biscuit. I know some who will leave meat on their plates because they’d run out of veg and spuds/rice/pasta to combine in precisely equal quantities for each morsel transferred into their mouth. Twix bars – a whole story. Bite the chocolate off, eat the gooey bit and then chomp the biscuit.

I have a way with new potatoes. Ever since I was a kid, I’d spear a little number on my fork, bite the skin (skin? skin!) carefully off, dip the naked spuddie in the butter if there was any (should always be) and eat it up.  Ecstatic. But there comes a caveat: no pre-washed supermarket baby new miniature potatoes – they have no skin! You must buy dirty, soily, scrubby ones, take the time and sacrifice your manicure for the sake of the most delicious treat.

Just boil them until tender, serve with plenty of butter and some dill – a must, marriage made in heaven. Tarragon or mint as an alternative. But this way is excellent – slightly crush them to release the flavour, add something sour, something spicy, something borrowed, something blue – oops, I got carried away. A bit of vinegar or lemon juice then. Delishhh.