Baked Potato Adelaide

This recipe for baked potato was given me by an old drover’s cook who learned his trade in the days when cattle drives were a much bigger feature of the Australian landscape than they are now. The dish isn’t from Adelaide, but he was.

The only thing that’s changed is that he adapted it for the microwave, but if you have a camp (Dutch) oven and you know how to use it, feel free.

Assemble:

4 medium sized, washed, potatoes
2 tbsp chopped bacon
1 tbsp cream cheese
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1 tsp made mustard
1 egg yolk
Fresh parsley or coriander (cilantro), chopped
About 15 g butter, melted – or you could use olive oil

When a potato explodes in the microwave it’s pretty spectacular and can be expensive, so avoid it by cutting a cross in the top of each potato with a sharp knife.

Set the microwave to high and cook the potatoes for 12 minutes. Cut the tops off at the cross end and scoop out most of the centres, but leave enough round the sides so that the potatoes still hold their shape.

Mash the potato flesh with the cream cheese, mustard, mayo and egg yolk and spoon it back into the potato cases. These should now stand upright on the turntable, with a little bit of fiddling. Sprinkle the chopped bacon on each one and cook for a further 3 minutes on high.

To finish them off, and create a great effect, paint the skins with the melted butter or oil and dip into the chopped herbs so that a green ‘skirt’ is formed around the bottom of each one. Mind your fingers, they will be hot.

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