Believe it or not, this is a dish I've never made. Usually I'm happy with plain old baked potatoes smothered with sour cream, or mashed potatoes. But the concept of mixing the two together? Fabulous! I'm a big potato fan, which is possibly one thing that influenced me in the move to Northern Ireland. Not the only factor of course, I mean, Guinness played a part too, but certainly a bonus.
I decided to use the recipe from The Pioneer Woman, but with a few modifications. I have a healthy respect for butter, but I also don't want giant thighs so used less than the recipe states, and to make it more of a meal I swapped the bacon for a can of tuna and added paprika to spice it up. And I served it with corn on the cob, from frozen, boiled for 6 minutes and then buttered and placed under the grill to brown it up. And I possibly should have added some greens, but I was feeling lazy, so didn't bother. So here goes:
Ingredients
- 8 potatoes
- 150 grams butter
- 1 cup sour cream
- 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
- 2 spring onions
- 1 tin tuna in spring water
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Paprika
Cook the potatoes for 1 1/4 hours at 200 degrees. Cut up butter and place in a large bowl. Add sour cream, most of the cheese, sliced spring onions and tuna. Once the potatoes are cooked, slice them in half (careful, they are hot!) and scoop the soft inside into the bowl, trying to keep the shell intact. This is rather time consuming and shouldn't be rushed but don't worry, its worth it! Mash the stuff in the bowl, and add salt and pepper to taste - I found it didn't need much salt as the cheese made it almost salty enough, but lots of pepper was good. Spoon the mixture back into the potato shells. Sprinkle some paprika and the rest of the cheese on top. Lower the oven temperature to around 170 degrees and put the potatoes back in for 30 minutes or so to warm up the insides. Take out and serve.
This dish is so good! You know you've done well with potatoes when your Irish flatmates are moaning orgasmicly while eating them. I found The Pioneer Woman's recipe easy to follow, but it would have been a bit simpler if all the steps had been written out at the bottom, rather than interspersed with photos. The potatoes weren't as hot as I'd like, so I think next time I'd leave them in the oven for a while longer, maybe 40 minutes. I'd also swap out the paprika and add a sprinkle of cayenne pepper next time, but only cause I like my food spicy. They take a long time to cook, but aren't too time consuming, and are so good that I will certainly make them again.
Ooh, I've never made these either! I should remedy that.
Posted by: RA | July 17, 2008 at 02:32 PM