Roasted Potatoes with Cheese

Jorge Castillo: This is a great way to spice up a baked potato.

Glenn Lindgren: Use a potato with a thick skin, like a Russet potato.

Jorge Castillo: These potatoes are so good you'll want to eat them skin and all.

Raúl Musibay: That's a healthy way to eat potatoes as they say that all of the vitamins in a potato are just under the skin.

Ingredients

4 large baking potatoes

Olive oil for sautéing

1/2 cup chopped green pepper

3 cloves garlic, mashed with 8 black peppercorns

1/2 cup chopped green onion

1/4 cup hot milk

4 tablespoons butter

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cup of grated white cheese, a milder Swiss works great.

1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Make sure your potatoes are very clean and well scrubbed. The skins are the best part of this recipe. Pierce the potato skins several times with a fork to allow the steam to escape.

Lightly oil the skins with vegetable oil and bake in the oven for approximately one hour, or until the potatoes can be pierced easily with a fork. Let the potatoes cool.

While the potatoes are baking, sauté the green pepper in a little olive oil until it starts to go limp. Toss in the garlic/pepper mixture and the sauté green onion and for just a minute more, stirring constantly.

Remove from heat and use a paper towel to blot up any excess oil.

Take the cooled potatoes and create a shell by slicing off the top 1/5 of the skin diagonally. Carefully scoop out as much of the cooked potato without breaking the skin. Leaving a little potato in the shell is no crime -- we promise not to tell Martha Stewart if you won't.

Heat the milk with the butter in a small sauce pan and whisk together slightly. Place the potatoes in a large bowl and use an electric mixer to puree the potatoes, gradually blending in the hot milk, butter, and half of the cheese.

Fold in the pepper/garlic/onion mixture. Use a pastry bag if you want to be fancy, or a spoon if you don't, and fill each potato skin with the potato puree.

Place the potatoes in a lightly greased baking pan and pop them back in the oven. Bake for an additional 15 minutes until the filling starts to sizzle.

Remove from oven, top each potato with grated cheese, and return to the oven for an additional five minutes or so -- until the cheese melts.

Serve potatoes very hot and sprinkled with finely chopped cilantro.

Serves 4

Recipe and editorial content from: "Three Guys From Miami"

Copyright 2000

All Rights Reserved. No copying or commercial duplication without written permission and proper attribution.