What a Hot Potato...

My family has a slightly obsessive affection for baked potatoes. For all of us I think they hold so many pleasant and varied memories that whenever the opportunity to have them arises we are eager to take it up. However we are very picky about our baked potatoes. Any one who has eaten a baked potato from a kebab van or chain restaurant is probably wondering why we are so enamoured with them. At this point I must explain that my family’s baked potato recipe is like no other and requires a fair amount of thought, time and affection. The first rule is that the potato must be cooked in the oven. A baked potato made in the microwave is NOT a baked potato, it is a poor shadow of it much more appealing relative. This is most evident in the skin. A baked potato must have a crisp skin which contrasts with the fluffy interior. The flaccid brown skin which arrives after the potato’s ride in the microwave is better off in the bin than anywhere near your mouth.
But I digress…Having baked the potato the next step is to empty the crisp shell of all its fluffy, white contents. You then smear the inside of the shells with mustard and return them to the oven. To the proto-mash you add a mass of grated, strong Cheddar cheese, a handful of finely chopped spring onion tops, as many pre-cooked fine bacon strips as you desire and a little pepper and then you re-fill your very crispy shells. Lastly you sprinkle then with more cheddar and put them back in the oven or under the grill to melt all the cheese both on top and inside. Now I know this may sound like the most complicated baked potato ever and there will be a great many people who argue that a baked potato is not a baked potato without baked beans but I promise you once you have tried these delicacies you will never want to eat a spongy, microwaved potato with soft skin again!