Baked potato extravaganza (or comfort food with a twist)

Recipes: Baked potatoes with toppings - cheeses and green onion, sauteed mushrooms and peas, shrimp and sauce, smoked salmon and sour cream 

We harvested our first new potatoes from the garden yesterday, and they reminded me how wonderful potatoes are for dinner. When time and patience is short, a baked potato with butter and sour cream may be all you need. When you have a little more time to plan, the simple baked potato can become something more - a wildly colorful dinner filled with great taste and goodness.

This idea comes straight from Jamie's Dinners, a cookbook by Jamie Oliver that I've mentioned before as one of my favorites. Plus, I've added a few twists of my own and so can you. Once you try a few new toppings and see what you like, the sky's the limit!

Baking the Potatoes

Russets are usually the best potatoes for baking, but they are by no means the only kind you can use. Red-skinned baked potatoes are delicious too, and so are Yukon Golds. The orange variety of sweet potatoes are fabulous baked - I like to get the kind called Garnet, which are sometimes labelled yams although they are really sweet potatoes.

Select medium-sized potatoes, especially if you plan to serve several of the toppings. The really big russets are more than enough for one person, so if you want to try several toppings you should choose smaller potatoes. Or, you can partition your huge russet and try a different topping on each section. Whatever floats your boat. How many to buy? Obviously large potatoes are one per person. Medium potatoes can be two or three per person, depending on their size and your appetite. Small new potatoes, which you can use if you want lots of little potatoes to put lots of different toppings on, would be about six per person.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Scrub the potatoes well with a brush, then prick them in several places with the tip of a paring knife. This keeps them from blowing up in the oven, which is a real mess. Exciting, but you don't want to go there! Put them right on the oven rack, which should be positioned in the middle of the oven, unless you're using sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes have to go in a baking dish or they'll drip sweet stuff all over the bottom of your oven. New potatoes might be too small to stay on the rack, so you can also put them in a baking dish.

Most potatoes take about an hour to bake. The huge russets will take about an hour and 20 minutes. Small new potatoes will take about 45 minutes. While they are baking you can put together one, two, three, or more of the toppings. The amounts given assume enough of each topping for two medium potatoes (one per person) and that you will choose two or three of the toppings for a total of four or six potatoes for the meal. Whew! That sounds more complicated than it is.

Cheeses and Green Onions Topping

Grate 1/2 cup each of sharp Cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses. Crumble some good blue cheese, like Maytag Blue. Slice a scallion (green onion) thinly, both the white and some of the green part. When the potatoes are finished split them open and add a tablespoon or so of butter to the middle of each of them. Then put the cheeses in a couple of them while they're hot, the cheddar and jack first with the blue cheese crumbled over the rest. Sprinkle with the sliced green onion


 The cheeses will melt, making a lovely gooey cheesy potato.

Sauteed Mushrooms and Peas Topping

Use 1/2 pound of any combination of fresh mushrooms - white, cremini, baby bellas, maitake, shiitake. Wipe any dirt off with a paper towel and slice them. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a saute pan large enough to hold all the mushrooms. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and, when it is heated, add the mushrooms to the pan with a good pinch of salt. Saute, stirring, until the mushrooms give off their liquid and it cooks off.
Meanwhile, bring an inch of water to a boil in a small saucepan. Add 1/2 cup frozen green peas and a pinch of sea salt. Cook the peas for two minutes. Drain them and then combine the peas with the cooked mushrooms in the saute pan. Warm it all for a minute or two over low heat.
When the potatoes are finished split them open and add a tablespoon or so of butter to the middle of each of them. Spoon the mushroom and peas topping over a couple of the potatoes.

Shrimp and Sauce Topping

Buy the equivalent of two handsful of cooked shrimp, small or medium size. To make the sauce, combine a heaping tablespoon of mayonnaise, two teaspoons of ketchup, and a pinch of cayenne pepper. Add a tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice, and season with a bit of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Add the cooked shrimp to the sauce and gently combine. Spoon this mixture over a couple of your buttered baked potatoes and top with a little chopped flat-leaf parsley.

Smoked Salmon and Sour Cream Topping

Dress a few small leaves of lettuce (romaine works well, or butter lettuce) with the following sauce: a teaspoon of chopped parsley, two teaspoons sour cream, one tablespoon extra virgin olive oil, the juice of 1/2 lemon, and a pinch of sea salt. Wrap a small handful of dressed lettuce in a slice of smoked salmon and insert it carefully into a baked potato that has been split open, buttered, and seasoned with salt. Wrap the remainder of the lettuce in another slice of smoked salmon and insert it into a second buttered and seasoned potato. Grind black pepper over it all and serve with fresh lemon wedges.

Serving suggestion: Put all of the topped potatoes on one large serving platter in the center of your dinner table and let each person choose their own. It will be a beautiful display, and fun to see and eat.