Finely chop the onion and garlic and sauté in a small pan with a little oil. Then add the paprika powder, stir briefly and remove from the heat.
Peel the potatoes and cook until soft. Drain the water and roughly mash the hot potatoes with a potato masher (I like it when it is a little bit chunky and not completely mushy). Add the butter and the crème fraîche or sour cream to the hot potato mixture. Don`t worry if the consistency is a little runny, the potatoes will soak up a lot of liquid after a few minutes. However, it shouldn`t be too fluid either, a bit of estimating is called for. Finally, pull the onion, paprika and garlic mixture well into the potatoes and season to taste with salt and pepper.