With the weather getting colder, we'll all be looking for ways to warm up and get cosy in the evening, and for some, this may include tucking into some tasty comfort food for dinner.
Mashed potato is one of those hearty side dishes that is enjoyed as a winter warmer and recipes to make it are usually pretty straightforward and easy to follow.
However, if you are looking to have the creamiest, fluffiest mash for dinner, then we have a top tip for you to try.
A top chef has shared the cooking hack he learned while he was working in a Michelin-starred restaurant that produces wonderfully creamy mashed potatoes.
Oliver Marlowe, the chef director and owner of Ganymede in Belgravia, London, claims the key thing to remember is not to boil your spuds before mashing.
Instead, he claims you should first bake your potato in the oven as if you were making a jacket potato.
Speaking to The Mirror, the expert explained: "Little hack for mashed potato, the best thing to do is rather than boil them in the water which adds loads of moisture into your potato, grab a really decent red potato and bake it like you would a jacket potato.
"Bake it in the skin, ideally on a small bed of rock salt, as what that will do is pull out all the moisture from the potato.
"When it's cooked, take it out of the oven, and scrape out all the potato, which at that stage will be nice and dry.
"Then you can add as much of the good stuff like butter, cream, or milk into that and it will absorb more and more."
Oliver went on to share other potato tips including how to make restaurant-quality chips at home. For this, the chef says you'll need to get yourself a cheap fryer so you can have a go at triple-cooked chips.
"The best way to do it is either invest in an air fryer or a small deep fat fryer for home cooking, those are absolutely cheap as chips, about £15 from somewhere like Argos.
"Cut the chips to whatever size you fancy and boil them in salted water like you would when making roast potatoes until they're just starting to crumble at the corners and aren't fully cooked.
"Then give them a good old mix in a strainer to start to slowly break them down, then fry them at 90C for about five minutes to seal it all in. At this point, you can either keep going or put them in the fridge and leave them for a couple of days, as they'll be absolutely fine."
The final step is to cook them again in the fryer at 180C until they're ready to go and this way you'll get "the crispiest chips on the outside, with the fluffiest middle".
Do you have a cooking tip or trick to share? We want to hear all about it. Email courtney.pochin@mirror.co.uk
