Steve Osborn’s Patata Asada

A MEAN JACKET POTATO WITH ALL THE TRIMMINGS

Rinse the potato: Rinse a large baking potato thoroughly under a cold running tap, removing any major blemishes with the point of a sharp knife. Don’t worry about minor blemishes or mild discolouration: it makes for an interesting finished product.

Dry and prepare the potato: Pat the potato dry with a piece of kitchen roll. With the sharp knife slit the potato, along its length and three or four times across its width, to half the depth of the potato. Rub a teaspoonful of cooking oil into the skin of the potato with your hands and sprinkle a little rough salt onto the top of it

Preheat the oven: Set the oven to 180ºC (350ºF/ gas mark 4), to preheat while the potato is being microwaved.

Microwave the potato: Place the potato in the microwave under a plastic lid or piece of kitchen roll and cook for 12 minutes on the HIGH setting. If you don’t use a microwave, proceed to the next step but bake for approximately one hour.

Bake the potato: Place the potato (without lid or kitchen roll!)  in the centre of the oven on a wire rack (with a dish beneath to catch drips) and bake for approximately 20 minutes while you prepare the remainder of the meal, checking the potato from time to time until it is crispy on the outside and fluffy in the middle. 

Prepare the salad: Wash two or three lettuce leaves and tear, not cut, to arrange them on a dinner plate. Choose other salad vegetables from cucumber, celery, watercress, spring onions, tomatoes, radishes and so on and rinse them thoroughly under cold running water. Cut them into pieces no greater than 1cm in length, and place in a small bowl with sufficient mayonnaise to mix them thoroughly.  Be sparing with quantities as it is easy to make more salad than you can eat! Turn the salad onto the bed of lettuce on the plate.

Add the third element: I usually make this on Monday, when there is a little cold meat left from Sunday. Alternatively you can have a small tin of fish, such as tuna, pilchard or mackerel. If you are vegetarian, the third element can be cheese, eggs or quorn. If I choose fish I usually have a hard-boiled egg with it.

Add the potato and serve: Remove the potato from the oven, and check if it is cooked using a meat skewer. – you shouldn’t meet any resistance . If so, add to the plate. If you have your quantities right, all three elements should occupy about the same space on the plate. Add a knob of butter to the potato and any other sauces or pickles you fancy. Examples that I like are grated cheese inside the potato, beetroot or pickled onions with cold meats, and horseradish sauce with smoked mackerel.

Pudding: After this delicious and sometimes huge dish I find a small, cold supermarket yoghurt is just right!

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