If you crush a cooked potato with the back of a spoon or fork, its broken edges are receptive to any dressing you wish to drizzle over it. Cream and garlic is a rather sumptuous treatment for a virginal new potato, but it works very well.

　　

Ingredients

enough for 4 as a side dish

　　new potatoes – 1 pound (500g)

　　new garlic – 3 juicy cloves

　　heavy cream – 1 cup (250ml)

　　thyme – about 8 sprigs

　　

Step 1

Scrub the potatoes but do not peel them. Boil them in a pan of deep, lightly salted water for fifteen to twenty minutes or so, until tender.

　　

Step 2

While the potatoes are boiling, peel and lightly crush the garlic cloves. Pour the cream into a small saucepan, and add the leaves from the sprigs of thyme, the garlic, a little salt, and some black pepper. Let the mixture simmer over medium heat until it has reduced by about a third.

　　

Step 3

Once the potatoes are drained, put them in a shallow dish and crush each one lightly with a fork—you want to break the skin and flatten the potato just enough for its flesh to soak up some of the hot cream. Pour the cream and thyme over the crushed potatoes and eat while hot.

　　Tender