Categories
When my kids were little, I didn’t like making baked potatoes because they would only eat them if I scooped out the flesh from the potato ‘jackets’ for them. It was a fantastic day when they finally had enough dexterity to cut and eat the crispy skins, making baked spuds a lot more popular, to me at least. These days, they’re one of our favourite starches-on-the-side whenever we’ve fired up the barbeque for dinner. A chef friend recently let me in on a few secrets about making the best baked potatoes ever, and she said I could share them.
The method below is straightforward and yields perfect baked potatoes that have dry, fluffy insides plus crispy, faintly salty and totally delicious outsides. By the way, if you’re not in the habit of pricking your potatoes before baking, be forewarned. You might get away with it for a while but one day, one of those potatoes is going to explode in the oven, and will it ever make a huge mess. If that happens, never fear – here are easy tips for safely cleaning your oven.
In the meantime, pass the butter, please. I’ve got some baked potatoes to devour.
Ingredients:
4 medium-sized russet potatoes, unpeeled, each lightly pricked with fork in 6 places
2 tbsp salt
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp olive or canola oil
Salt, pepper and other toppings (butter, sour cream, chives, herbed cream cheese) as desired
Directions: