Better with butter

  Yesterday you heard about a flour free sauce for fish pie. By using blended cooked veg, a creaminess was created. And that's fine if you're doing some kind of low carb or gluten free option but what about adding an unrestricted creamy richness to something?

  Fat is the answer. If you go to a fancy restaurant where a side order of mash is called pommes purée and costs the same sort of money as the average gourmet burger, you'll find that most of the heavenly white stuff they bring you is just butter. It's not the robust, slightly stodgy mash you'd recognise from your school dinner that you can stand your sausages up in, this has no structural integrity and could almost be mistaken for a very thick soup but one forkful of this and you'd swear the kitchen had sent you a delicious portion of hot, savoury ice cream to accompany your Chateaubriand. 

  Actually, that's a bit of an unappetising analogy but it's better than the first one I thought of which was angel's diarrhoea. (Maybe you should have kept that one to yourself. -Ed.). The point is that when you add a shed load of butter and cream to mashed potato it gets transformed into the most unctuous, comforting, silky indulgence imaginable. If I've managed to whet your appetite and arouse some of your curiosity then next time you make mash, add half the weight of butter to the cooked potatoes for a super indulgent treat. I'm not exaggerating here, it's honestly that much.

Includes fat granules for creaminess. 

(No, really. Check the ingredients.)

  Whether it's cream, butter or olive oil you add to bring richness to your dish doesn't really matter, though it is important to mention that I don't recommend using other vegetable oil and you if even dream of using margarine instead of butter then you deserve to be locked in a small room with Katie Hopkins and Piers Morgan for the rest of eternity you sad degenerate.

  It is definitely worth mentioning that while fat adds richness it also has another useful property, it kills flavour. I know that sounds bonkers so let me explain. If I remember, it's because fat coats your tongue that makes it harder for you to taste but this means that if you put too much salt into something, then adding fat, like a large knob of butter, will reduce the saltiness. The best thing is for you go off and experiment with this and a good place to start is chocolate. Put a piece of room temperature dark chocolate in your mouth and eat it slowly. Now eat another piece of chocolate with a lump of butter and see what you notice.

  FYI, years ago in France I was introduced to chocolate sandwich. Fresh baguette split open, buttered and filled with chocolate. Outstanding!

Kirk out

RevoltingFood.com