Loaded potato skins

These came about as me and a girlfriend wandered around Tesco last night, trying to decide what to have for dinner, bellies rumbling and we very nearly gave in to a pack of their loaded potato skins, which according to the pack took 16 minutes to cook....comparing how they looked to ours I am glad we made ours instead, their fillings looked a bit on the mean side!


Awful picture but greed was of the essence!



I am not one for convenience food and reckoned they would not take us much time to make from scratch, afterall I had some potatoes in the fridge left from weekend and with the aid of the trusty microwave we could make something far tastier in about the same time. My friend looked dubious at the time but they were well worth the effort and very delicious!


As we were rushing, ingredients are not exact as nothing got measured..but approximately:


Take 3 white potatoes, of similar size (ours were Maris Piper, via Waitrose locally grown scheme), place on a plate, prick and microwave for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, take a small frying pan, add a splash of olive oil, fry a small pack of button mushrooms, add a finely chopped clove of garlic until golden.
Now grate 100g mature cheddar, we had picked up a trial pack of mature cheddar, think was called Parkham Farm.
Then take a small pack of extra creamy danish blue cheese, cut in half and cut that half into little cubes, reserve the other half for snacking! Place grill on medium hot to pre-heat.


The potatoes should beep about now, remove and wearing suitable handwear (I have coolskin gloves from Lakeland) cut the potato in half lenghtways, carefully scoop out the insides into a bowl. Place the skins on a grill pan/ baking tray (foil or similar advisable) and put under grill. Return to the potato mush, add a good knob of butter and a good splash of milk, beat together, season with black pepper, add 3/4 of both cheeses and mix well. Take the tray carefully back out of oven, your skins should look a little crispier now, use a fork and spoon to stuff the mash back into the potatoes (don't worry if they tear a little), press on the remaining cheese and pop back under the grill for about 4-5 minutes or until golden and bubbling.


Seriously heavenly potatoes: done :)


You could eat these on their own but I had previously picked up some good sausagemeat from the butchers, which we rolled into little burgers and had on the side! It was supposed to be for sausage rolls but time was of the essence, we wanted to eat and sit down to watch The Notebook, complete with tissue box!