Getting comfy with buttermilk mashed potatoes

It's totally up my sleeve to make a dish that bears at once the signature of a chef but is in fact simple. It's totally up my alley to resort to just that when I come home after some strenous activity. In walks Peter Goossens, the 3-Michelin star studded chef and his series of 4 books with recipes and food items, arranged per month and particular to each of the four seasons. As we don't have the weather for March yet, I gleaned over at February which is the month of sinuous young cod or skrei. And here is a recipe for mashed potatoes that is pure transportation into the comfort food zone.

Skrei with buttermilk mashed potatoes

By Peter Goossens

Serves 4

500 g potatoes (preferably firm, e.g. ratte or bintje)
50 g butter
180 g (yes, he writes gram) buttermilk (=approximately 150 ml)
200 g young cod (skrei), preferably the belly (no skrei, after all we're March, so I used another type of white fish)
2 spring onions, cut in diagonal strips

Melt the butter until it is nutty in color and smell ("beurre noisette")

Cook potatoes until 3/4 done - just make sure they're not overdone. Mash them, add the buttermilk and the butter, and stew softly over low heat for a bit longer.

Preheat the oven to 70 °C, and cook the fish in it for 6-9 minutes.

Divide the mashed potatoes over deep plates, garnish with shreds of fish, and decorate with spring onion.

Note: I used a bit less butter, but these are the finest mashed potatoes I have eaten in a long time. The recipe does not even bring up salt, pepper or nutmeg.

Dare I serve thee, comfort food, as an elegant first course to a party of four? Totally.