Meal Twenty Three - Nathan's Fully Loaded Skins

I can only apologise to those who have been following my blog. There has been  a bit of inactivity of late as work commitments have taken preference.

I'm still going to cover the 90 dishes, but I'll just have to play a bit of catch up every now and again.

Today I've gone for some loaded potato skins. Tasty and filling. Two vital parts of a meal.

Sam bought me some baking potatoes from our local greengrocers - Covent Garden and I've been meaning to use them for a while.
After a visit from my Mum today, whilst in the middle of doing this dish, I had to show her the size of these potatoes. They were huge! About the size of one of my shoes, and I'm sure my friend Eddie can vouch for me, that my shoes are large and cumbersome! (He's been "safeguarding" a pair of clown shoes for me at his house for ages now.)

My Mum's comment was, "Back in my day, they'd be thrown for cow potatoes!"

She's right though, some of larger potatoes would have gone for stock feed, but we've had such a poor couple of years, weather-wise, that we're eating absolutely everything at the moment. Some of the regular sized potatoes have doubled in price. So all in in all, beggars can't be choosers.

Ingredients:

3 large potatoes

4-5 rashers of smoked bacon, cubed

4-5 spring onions, roughly chopped

2 knobs of butter

1/2 pot of creamed cheese

handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped

handful of grated mozzarella

handful of grated Parmesan cheese

Method:

1. Pop the potatoes in a pre-heated oven (approx. 180 deg. Celsius) and depending on size, bake for a couple of hours. (or until you think they're ready.)

2. Dry fry the bacon until golden, then add the spring onions along with the butter and continue to fry for a couple of minutes or until the onions begin to take on colour.

3. Once the potatoes are ready, cut on half and scoop out the flesh into a large bowl without damaging the skins. Return the skins to the oven for another 10 minutes to allow the skins to crisp up.

4. Mash the flesh of the potatoes to remove any lumps, then add the cooked bacon, spring onions, melted butter/fat, creamed cheese and parsley. Mix together until the creamed cheese has dispersed throughout.

5. Take the skins out of the oven, and add the filling. Pop the skins onto an oven proof baking tray, and then sprinkle liberally with the mozzarella and Parmesan cheese.

6. Return to the oven for another 20-25 minutes or until golden.

7. Serve with salad of choice.