A Hymn to Baked Potatoes
Among my favourite toppings is tuna. Just open the tin, drain, season with salt and pepper and some lemon juice (feel free to add mayonnaise if you like it but we don’t). Other hassle-free accompaniments are baked beans, grated cheese, left-over juices from last night’s stew. Any of this makes a tasty, nutritious meal without any fuss and best of all, one that most kids will eat…an tremendous plus point for mothers everywhere.
A microwave hastens the process but leaves you with huffy potatoes that might do as an accompaniment to something else but lose the crisp appeal of truth oven baked article. Whenever you’re in a hurry, cook pasta instead and save your jacket or baked potatoes for a day when you remember to switch the oven on eventually.
A variation to try with smaller potatoes: after washing, drying and scoring the potatoes, rub the skins with a little butter, and then season with salt and pepper before baking to give you extra crispy, tasty skins that everybody will eat.
Another thing to try if you prefer to get fancy: once the potatoes are cooked, halve them, scoop out the insides, mix with a beaten egg, grated cheese, salt and pepper, heap the mixture back into the skins and return to the oven for another quarter-hour until the tops are golden brown. A meal in itself!
Cheap, filling, nutritious with the right toppings and needing the minimal investment of labour, the baked potato is every busy mother’s ideal supper!
Tags: baked potatoes, jacket potatoes, nutritious meals, supper, winter meals
