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Recipe: Not Your Momma’s Twice Baked Potatoes

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Ha- well, I can’t claim the creative rights to the title of this recipe.  I recently cooked up a meal for a friend of ours whose husband was out of town on business.  When she tasted the potato dish she looked at my wife and said, “These aren’t your Momma’s twice baked potatoes!”  We all laughed and the title for this post was in the bag.  It’s that kind of reaction to food that keeps me going day in and day out on this blog.  Sometimes it happens, and sometimes it doesn’t.  What I can tell you is that this twice baked potato recipe is really, really delicious.  The rest of the meal might as well have been chopped liver (sorry liver fans, I’m just not one) with these delicious taters singing their siren song.  Irresistible.

So what would drive a guy to make a twice baked potato?  I’m not quite sure.  I was at the grocery, saw a nice potato that looked good enough to eat.  Picked up four or five of his friends and started looking around for more things that would taste good.  In the cold case was some Amish bacon, so that went into the basket.  I found some chives and some Kerrygold cheddar, so they went in, too.  Passed the shallots and garlic on my way out, which ended up in this recipe as well.  When all the ingredients were sitting in my cart, the thought of layering them on top of the potato seemed like a crime.  Melding the flavors together sounded awesome to me.  Hence, the twice baked potato idea was born.

This is my first attempt at a twice baked potato.  What I can tell you about it is that scooping out the potato is a delicate task, best handled before you have three or four beers in the system.  Next time, I’ll remember that.  The first two had blowouts on the ends.  But, what the heck- it’s just a potato.  Let’s literally dive into this dish.

Makes enough for 4 twice baked potatoes.

Ingredients:

4 large baking potatoes, scrubbed
2 tablespoons butter (I used Kerrygold)
1 teaspoon kosher salt
6 strips thick cut bacon, cooked and chopped fine
1 large shallot, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2-3 tablespoons finely chopped chives
3/4 cup loosely packed cheddar cheese (I used white cheddar)
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup milk
3 mounded tablespoons of sour cream
Salt & Fresh Cracked Pepper

Okay. So although I said that the bacon should be cooked, I’m going to tell you how I cook my bacon most of the time. It’s easy and almost foolproof. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil and lay the bacon on the baking sheet without the edges touching. When the oven is hot, pop the bacon on the middle rack for about 20 minutes or until the desired crispness is achieved. Remove from the oven and transfer the bacon to a paper towel lined plate to drain. Then, enjoy however you would like.

We are going to cook the spuds in the same 400 degree oven, so keep it cranking. After you have scrubbed the taters, wipe them down so they are dry. Take the 2 tablespoons butter and melt in the microwave or on the rangetop. While the butter is melting, take a fork and pierce the potatoes all the way around a couple times. I pierce almost to the center of the potato, about three times per side. Set the pierced potato on a baking sheet. Using a brush, smother the pierced potatoes with butter. Take some of the kosher salt and sprinkle liberally on the outside of the potato. Flip the spud and repeat. Toss in the oven for about an hour and ten minutes.

That's a loaded oven- bacon on top and taters underneath. Fantastic. Check out the salt on the taters. Photo by Scott Groth

While the potato is cooking, I shredded the cheddar and got the rest of the loose ingredients ready. Then take out a small sauté pan and add about a tablespoon of oil. Heat over medium heat. When it is hot, add in the shallots and cook for about 3-4 minutes. When they turn translucent, add in the garlic and remove from the heat. Stir to avoid the garlic burning. Allow to cool in the pan. Now, we just wait until the potatoes are cooked.

Once the spuds are done (you’ll know by pressing them- they should give easily) take them out of the oven, but leave the oven on. I used a silicon pot holder for this next trick: grab the 400 degree spud and carefully slice off the top 1/3. Using a small spoon, start to scoop out the potato flesh into a large bowl being careful not to pierce or break the potato skin. When you have a nicely hollowed out potato, repeat until all your spuds are done. Be sure to scoop out the potato from the top 1/3 you cut off as well.

Okay, so now we toss in all the remaining ingredients into the bowl with the potato flesh. The consistency should be rather thick. After it is all mixed together, scoop it back out of the bowl into the hollowed out potatoes. Mound it up a little on each potato. Once they are all filled, toss them back in the oven for 20 minutes. If you have extra cheese, sprinkle some on top when the taters are almost cooked to get it nice and brown. I opted for more chives on top rather than cheese, but it is a personal preference. The only thing left to do is serve and enjoy!

Well, we served the taters with broccoli and burgers- what a great meal. Photo by Scott Groth


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