When I was growing up, one of the foods I could pretty much guarantee to be on the dinner table every night was mashed potatoes and due to the repetitiveness of them I really started to not enjoy them. I have since rekindled my love for mashed potatoes mainly due to generous additions of cream and butter!

Nowadays I like to mix up the different way I serve up this staple Scottish vegetable just so I do not get bored again. I will probably write an article on some of the quick and easy things you can do with potatoes but here is a recipe to try when you have about half an hour on your hands and want to try something different.

Ingredients

• 1 red onion
• 1kg potatoes (I use Maris Piper)
• pinch of nutmeg
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 300ml single cream
• Parmesan cheese
• 2 bay leaves
• fresh of dried thyme

1. Preheat your oven to 220°C and boil a kettle of water.
2. Prepare your vegetables. Peel and halve the red onion and make sure your potatoes are clean (do not peel the potatoes). Using either a food processor or a mandoline thinly slice the potatoes and onion. Tip the vegetables into a large deep frying pan. (I use a chefs pans, if you do not have one you could use a metal roasting tray. You are going to be putting the pan/tray on to the cooker hob so choose carefully.)
3. Sprinkle the nutmeg over the vegetables along with 2 crushed garlic cloves and the single cream. Now grate about a handful of parmesan cheese into the vegetables, the two bay leaves a sprinkle of thyme, some salt and pepper and a drizzle of oil to stop it all catching.
4. Now with either your clean hands or some spoons give your vegetables and good mixture making sure that everything is coated with the cream. Now put your pan.tray over a medium heat and pour in 100ml of boiling water. Cover with some tin foil and gently simmer for about 15 minutes.
5. Bearing in mind that your pan or try is probably quite hot now, give the mixture a little shake to make sure that nothing is catching on the sides or bottom and then remove the tin foil.
6. Grate some more Parmesan over the top of the potatoes, sprinkle some more thyme and drizzle a little bit more oil to help it crisp up in the oven.
7. Now transfer to the oven and cook for 15 minutes until the top starts to brown.
8. Please remember that the frying pan is hot, I seem to always think that frying pans do not get hot in the oven and have burnt my hands many a time.
9. Enjoy with whatever main you are having!