Dan Smith
For several years, my family celebrated the coming of fall by gathering our friends for a baked potato party in October. The idea was simple: we’d bake a bunch of potatoes, make huge salad and a few desserts and guests would bring potato toppings of their choice. It made for some creative eating.
The potatoes were always the same: baked in the oven at about 350 degrees for an hour or so. Now it happens that I have come upon a better baked potato, one the English invented hundreds of years ago. It’s simple, slow and results in a cracker-like exterior and a soft, almost mashed interior. It is, to coin a phrase, to die for. Especially when you get a little creative with the topping and come up with an all-red Brit/Mex concoction.
Here’s what you need:
- Whole baking potatoes (you pick the number)
- Butter
- Sour cream
- Large can of crushed tomatoes
- Red bell pepper
- Red onion
- Black pepper
- Package of Mrs. Wages Create Salsa mix (Kroger has it)
- Bunch of cilantro
Set your oven at 400 degrees and cross-cut a ¼ inch slice into the top of each potato. Bake the potatoes for two hours and remove. The slice makes the cooking more even. At the end of the two hours, cxtend the cuts across the and length and width on the potatoes and put them back into the hot oven for another 10 minutes. Remove and squeeze to soften the insides.
Mix the tomatoes, diced pepper and onion (to your own taste) and sprinkle two tablespoons of the salsa mix into them. You can buy the salsa mix in hot or mild tastes. Stir briskly.
Top the potatoes with butter and pepper (no need for salt; the salsa mix contains it), then add a scoop of salsa and sour cream. Top with chopped cilantro.
This is an entree, not a side dish. Treat it that way and serve with a light salad and you’ll have a fine meal.
About the Writer:
Dan Smith is an award-winning Roanoke-based writer/author/photographer and a member of the Virginia Communications Hall of Fame (Class of 2010). His blog, fromtheeditr.com, is widely read and he has authored seven books, including the novel CLOG! He is founding editor of a Roanoke-based business magazine and a former Virginia Small Business Journalist of the Year (2005).