In Honor of St. Patrick: The Twice Baked Potato
By David & Martha Cox 03/17/2010Happy Saint Patrick’s Day, everybody! Today people all over the world are pausing to remember how awesome Saint Patrick was.
This week, in honor of Saint Patrick and his ministry in Ireland, we’re looking at a couple of tried and true Irish recipes. On Monday, we told you about Irish Soda Bread. Today, we’re bringing you a dish that’s as much a part of traditional Irish cooking as a glass of stout: The potato.
A little history: Potatoes are cheap, grow well in cold climates, and are an excellent source of starch. They can also be cooked a number of different ways. I believe all of this contributed to the potato’s popularity in Ireland. Even today–when food of every imaginable sort is readily available on street corners and in supermarkets–many of my Irish friends will take potatoes over just about any other meal. There’s a reason: Well-cooked potatoes are awesome!
We could–and one day we will–get into every way a potato can be cooked (boiled, baked, fried, deep fried, stir-fried, mashed, grilled, etc…). Today, however, in honor of one of Ireland’s most incredible residents, we’re bringing you one of the potato’s most incredible incarnations: The twice baked potato.
What is a twice baked potato? A twice baked potato is more than a reheated baked potato. It’s more like a baked potato prepared like a deviled egg. You’re essentially going to bake a potato, scrape out its innards, mix the innards with other tasty ingredients, place the new mixture back in the potato’s shell, and bake it a little more. Here’s how.
Ingredients:
- 4 potatoes (or 1 per person)
- Olive or vegetable oil (if using a conventional oven instead of a microwave)
- 1/2 Cup of sour cream
- 1/2 Cup of milk
- 2 Tablespoons softened butter
- 1 Tablespoon heavy whipping cream
You can also include a cup or so of grated cheese, bacon, or some chopped onions, if you like.
The Process:
- Wash, scrub, and poke holes in your potatoes just like we taught you in our baked potato recipe.
- If you’re baking your potatoes in the microwave, nuke them for a few minutes (5 minutes for 1 potato, 10 minutes for 2 potatoes, or 15 minutes for 4 potatoes). If you’re baking them in the oven, preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, rub a light coating of oil on each potato, and cook them on the center rack in the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
- When your potatoes are cooked through (that is, when you can easily push a fork to the potato’s center with little resistance), set them on a cutting board, let them cool for a few minutes, and then cut them from end to end, removing the top third or so from each potato and revealing a creamy white interior.
- Now’s the part where we treat them like deviled eggs. Scoop out the center of each newly-cut potato, and drop the spoonfuls of white potato into a large bowl. Be sure to leave enough outer-wall on each potato that the spud doesn’t lose too much of it’s shape and form.
- Alright, just to recap: You now have a bunch of semi-hollow potato halves and a bowl containing mushed-up potato innards. Good.
- Now mix your milk, sour cream, heavy whipping cream, butter, and other desired ingredients with your potato innards.
- Beat the mixture until you get the consistency you desire. If you want, you can even use an electric mixer to beat it into mashed potatoes. It’s up to you.
- Finally, spoon your mashed potato mixture back into the hollow potato shells. You now have something like mashed potatoes sitting inside a baked potato.
- Add any sprinklings of cheese or bacon that you want on top of your potato.
- Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Place the “deviled potatoes” on a cookie sheet, and cook them in the oven for 15-20 minutes (until the potatoes have been warmed back up).
If you’re like me, you probably want some pictures to go with that recipe before you try it. I suggest checking out SimplyRecipes.com’s Twice Baked Potatoes Recipe. They have some appetizing shots of potatoes that will get you pumped for some serious spud baking.
Twice baked potatoes take a little while to prepare–especially if you’re using a conventional oven instead of a microwave–but the effort and patience you pour into them will pay off in a great tasting meal. Plus the low price of potatoes makes this recipe very cost effective for anyone looking to eat well on a shoestring budget.
I love to add in some cooked bacon, crumbled up. And we add a packet of dry ranch dressing mix. YUM!
Jill, that sounds really tasty. Dry ranch dressing mix is relatively inexpensive, too. I might have to try adding some next time we make twice baked potatoes.
[...] principle is pretty similar to the twice-baked potatoes we featured over the week of Saint Patrick’s Day. Essentially, we’re going to bake [...]