Category: cooking

Fast potato

This is where the baked potato meets the potato skin.

What you need:

  • Nice russet potato
  • Oil to rub potato
  • Butter
  • Dry chives
  • Bacon bits (phony preferred)
  • Cheese of choice

Wash the potato. Cut it in half the long way. Coat both halves in oil, put them flat-side down on parchment paper, salt the backs, and bake at 450 F (230-235 C). Basically, do what Sonja says.

Test to see if the potato is done by poking it with a fork.

Step 1 is over.

Score both halves a few times.

Open up the slits a bit by squeezing from both ends. Add butter and chives (and bacon bits if you have them). Add cheese; I used cheddar jack but would have preferred sharp cheddar. Add more chives (and bacon bits, which I sadly didn’t have).

Put the dressed potato halves back into the oven until they look like the ones below (but with a nicer cheese). I suppose you could broil for a more dramatic effect.

Step 3 is over.

Awesome clams

Awesome clams as prepared on January 7, 2021.

Ingredients

  • 12-18 littleneck clams, cleaned of sand
  • 1/2 stick pepperoni or spicy chouriço
  • Medium onion
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic
  • Olive oil
  • Dry white wine or vermouth

Dice the sausage. Chop the onions finely. Slice the garlic. Heat the pan, and add oil.

Fry the sausage until it’s crispy. Add and sweat the onions. Add the garlic at some point. Experiment with before/after the onion sweating.

Deglaze with a splash of wine. Add more wine, and get it simmering.

Add the clams. Tuck them into the onion/sausage so that those aren’t on the bottom the whole time.

Cover the pan, and let it roll until all clams are opened.

Finished product, good with Portuguese rolls or crusty bread.