1000 ways to screw up a potato.

What a phenomena Sir Walter Raleigh created when he brought back the humble potato from South America.  I wonder, if at the time he gauged the brevity of his action?  The humble starchy sphere is now, perhaps unfairly, credited for augmenting the girth of millions of fat Westerners in the guise of "french fries" and "potato chips".

Baking a potato, in the oven, is, in my opinion the best way to cook them.  A crunchy outer skin (where most of the flavour is) combined with a fluffy interior, drenched in butter is difficult to beat.  Of course, though, we do try to beat this simplistic utopia with the addition of a multitude of toppings ranging from chile con carne to tuna and sweetcorn.


My experimentation last week with the time honoured "scooping technique" lead me to expand and experiment with this method.  In my fridge I had some smoked mackerel, some soured cream and some really fresh watercress.

Sour Cream and Mackerel Scoops

Here's how you make them:

•   Heat your oven (fan assisted) to 180C.
•   Scrub two large potatoes suitable for baking (floury type).
•   Place the spuds into a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil and season generously with black pepper and sea salt.
•   Place the potatoes in the oven, then immediately turn down to 140C.
•   Leave the potatoes to cook for 1 hour, or until the flesh inside is soft and yielding to a knife.  
•   During this time, remove the skin from 3 smoked mackerel fillet.  Pull the fillets apart into chunks and place in a bowl.
•   Add 1 small tub, 150g of soured cream.
•   Remove the potatoes from the oven.  Cut in half and using a spoon, remove 75% of the flesh from the potato.  Add to the fish and cream.
•   Mix the fish, cream and potato together.  Add some more pepper but no salt (the mackerel is salty enough).
•   Replace the mix into the empty potato skins.
•   Cook on 140C for a further 20-30 minutes, or until the tops are lightly golden in colour.

The watercress works exceptionally well with this dish.  The peppery flavour combines with the fish and in my opinion is definitely the best salad leaf to serve with baked spuds.


I dressed the watercress using a vinaigrette enhanced with Dijon mustard - I thought that if I used English mustard it might be somewhat overpowering.  It was the right choice.