Destiny mashed potatoes

This weekend will henceforth be known as the Weekend of Food. I will be posting about the things we ate bit by bit, as it is just too much to do at once. It was too much to eat. It was wonderful. My flatmate and I had a university friend over for the weekend, and we planned our activities purely around meals…

On Friday night, we went to Mosob, an incredible Eritrean restaurant just up the road (review here). The next morning, we had brunch at the Lucky 7 Diner (review here), a relaxed affair, before we did lots of shopping and came home to make REAL Southern fried chicken, destiny mashed potatoes, deep fried okra, green beans boiled to death with half a pig, and lemon meringue pie.

And that was just dinner.

These mashed potatoes were made by my flatmate, and they are inspired by Paula Deen (if you’ve never heard of her, I strongly recommend you watch this). They are soft, silky, utterly unhealthy but incredibly delicious!

Serves 3-4 people as a side dish

• 5 large potatoes
• Dash of milk
• 300ml sour cream / creme fraiche
• 150g butter
• Creole salt, garlic powder and salt to taste

Peel the potatoes and cut them into large chunks. Bring a large pot of water to the boil and add the potatoes. let them boil/simmer on medium heat until they are very soft (test with a fork). Drain the water and mash the potatoes (use a potato masher or sturdy spatula), adding the dash of milk as you do. Then add the sour cream and mash further. Add the butter in smaller portions (we did 50g + 50g + 25g) until the mash is soft, smooth and creamy. Season with the creole salt, garlic powder and salt until you are happy with the taste.

Then, the ultimate Paula Deen finishing touch. Put little pats of butter on top of the mashed potatoes, so that ‘when people come by, they can reach in there and get as much butter as they want… because it just floats… on top of those mashed potatoes’.