Buttered New Potatoes with Mint

Ingredients

• 800 g new potatoes, scrubbed not peeled
• a big handful of mint, half whole and half chopped
• 60 g good salted butter
• sea salt flakes
• a squeeze of lemon

Method

1. Boil with mint in the water

   Put the potatoes into cold, well-salted water with the whole mint sprigs and bring to a simmer. Mint in the cooking water perfumes them from the inside, which sprinkling it on at the end cannot do.

2. Cook to just tender

   Simmer until a knife slides in with no resistance, about 15 minutes depending on size. New potatoes go from perfect to waterlogged quickly, so start testing early.

   15 min

3. Drain and steam dry

   Drain, discard the boiled mint, and leave them in the colander for two minutes. A dry surface takes butter; a wet one leaves it sliding off into a pool.

   2 min

4. Butter and finish

   Return to the warm pan with the butter, chopped mint, salt flakes and a squeeze of lemon, and roll them around until glossy. Crush a couple against the side of the pan — the broken ones soak up the most butter.