Whipped potatoes with chanterelles

Serves 4 as a starter

Spoon the whipped potato in a thin layer on each warm plate and scatter the chanterelles over the top (Jason Lowe)

Two simple earthy ingredients – potatoes and wild mushrooms – come together to make the perfect dinner party starter. The secret here is to be generous with the amount of butter you use in the whipped potatoes so that they turn into a kind of very rich sauce. Chanterelles look particularly attractive, but you can use ceps, hedgehog fungus or girolles – whatever you can lay your hands on.

300–400g waxy potatoes, such as Charlotte or Anya
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
250g butter, cut into small pieces
100ml double cream
150–200g chanterelles, cleaned
1tbsp chopped parsley

Peel the potatoes and cook in boiling salted water until tender. Drain and mash finely – ideally using a potato ricer. If you use a masher, then push them through a sieve afterwards. Put the potato into a pan with 200g of the butter, season with salt and pepper and stir over a low heat until the butter has melted. Add the cream, re-season if necessary and keep warm.

Melt the remaining butter in a large heavy-based frying pan and heat until foaming. You may need to cook the chanterelles in two batches. Drop them into the pan with the parsley, season and cook over a high heat for a minute or so, turning every so often.

To serve, spoon the whipped potato in a thin layer on each warm plate and scatter the chanterelles over the top. Serve at once.