Fancy Jacket Potatoes With Cheese

A very easy, but fancier and tastier than usual, baked potatoes recipe.

This one is relatively healthy if you go easy on the cheese, and makes a simple but good-looking dish for a quick dinner on a budget. It also makes great finger food for babies or cutlery training food for toddlers.

I used:

• 1 large baking potato per person
• lots and lots of cheese (mine was a medium Cheddar)
• ground black pepper
• mixed herbs (marjoram, basil, oregano and thyme)
• garlic granules

What to do:

1. Bake the potatoes (Google this part if you don’t know how… hot oven, an hour or more of baking time, etc.)
2. Slice into the potatoes with a sharp knife, without cutting through them entirely, so that you end up with a sort of letter rack shape.
3. Stick slices of cheese into the sliced potatoes (like the letters in the rack). If you’re trying to lose weight and eat healthily, then you could use thinner slices of cheese to keep the fat levels down, and cut thicker slices through the potato.

4. Sprinkle mixed herbs and black pepper and garlic granules over the top of each potato-and-cheese rack.

5. Put skewers through each potato to hold it together. Don’t forget the lining (greaseproof paper or foil) underneath the wire grille – that’ll catch all the melting cheese when it goes everywhere.

6. Grate even more cheese over the top of everything. Yes, we like our cheese.

7. Bake (or grill) the whole lot again for about ten minutes until the cheese melts and it goes golden brown on top.  Then take it out of the oven and let it cool for at least a minute.

Voila! Now pull the skewers out, while trying not to let the potato slices fall apart too much, and arrange it all nicely on a plate, rather than leaving it on the rack like we have here. I served ours up with small ramekins of hot baked beans.

Other related stuff we posted:

1. Winter Gingerbread Porridge Recipe (for Toddlers and Grown-Ups)
2. 5 Fun Ways to Spruce Up Your Popcorn
3. Giant Lazy Fairy Cake in 7 Easy Steps