Tonight was baked potato night at the Madison House Chef kitchen table with each potato topped with favorite ingredients. Meatless for Miss Muffet and myself, and a big slab o’ beef for the boys.
When selecting a baking potato, choose a football shaped Russet with tight skin, no blemishes or bruises, and positively no sprouts or green discoloration.
PREPARATION AND COOKING
Wash, poke 4 or 5 holes into each potato with a fork and then bake it unadorned in a 425 degree oven for 1 hour. If you’re pressed for time, start the potato in the microwave (about 10 minutes for 4 medium potatoes) then transfer the tubers to the oven for an additional 30 minutes. The skin does not get as crispy, but the interior of the potato will be flaky and tender. Potato is done when a long bbq fork slides in and out of the potato easily.
Allow me to recognize that for some, using the microwave at all for potatoes is sacrilegious, but for times when you’re pressed to get dinner on the table, it’s a time saver. Likewise, some prefer to oil and salt the exterior of the spud. I don’t care to add additional fat or salt to my current eating patterns and thus I leave both off.
Another way to bake russets for a luscious, flaky potato is to do them on the bbq. When they’re cooked over an open flame I do oil the potato, and then I also wrap it in tin foil for the first 40 minutes of baking, then finish another 10 or so (depending upon the heat) without the foil.
This evening’s toppings:
My choice included sea salt, fresh ground pepper, butter (I confess, it was the spray since I was going for a low fat day), plain Greek yogurt (plenty of creamy mouth feel and a little wang without the fat and calories), a light sprinkling of shredded cheddar, broccoli and almonds, green onion, and bright red bacos (no real bacon this time though that would have been my first choice!). The combination was exactly what I had the taste for.
Ken’s choice was sea salt, mushrooms sautéed in butter, sour cream, green onion and thin slices of New York Strip steak.
Madeleine chose butter, salt and pepper, rosemary, parsley (though most of the parsley went on the plate to make it pretty), sunflower seeds and sour cream. As she was setting the table Madeleine asked if this was a ‘buffet’ for the potatoes. We laughed because ironically, buffet isn’t a term we readily use; frankly neither Ken nor I like going to buffet restaurants. Thus it caused us to giggle a little but then we agreed with her and said, Yes, I suppose the preparation for toppings would be a buffet for potatoes. She was eager to have me photograph her potato so I share it with you, too! The Triscuit cracker was to cover up the place she had already taken a bite, but later it became her temporary utensil. Can you tell this was a fun meal night.
Gregory topped his potato with salt and pepper, steak and rosemary.
Each one of the four of us utterly enjoyed the ‘buffet’ of flavors.
How would you top your potato?
Chili? Jalapenos? Avocado? Ham? Red pepper? Asparagus? Grilled onions? Sausage gravy? Ham gravy? Durkee fried onions? Foie gras? Tuna sashimi? The sky is the limit when making the humble potato the centerpiece of the meal.
