A little bit of trivia for you: My favorite TV chef of all time is Jacques Pepin*. He's had various cooking shows on PBS over the years. Probably the most famous one was the show he did with Julia Child. I bought the companion book for that show--Julia and Jacques Cooking at Home, in case you need the title--out of the bargain bin at Barnes and Noble maaaany years ago now. And this tip comes from that book.
It's a way to bake potatoes without having to keep them in the oven for hours.
Okay, so it doesn't take hours to bake potatoes, but it always takes a LOT longer than I think it will. I could never get the timing right on baked potatoes. Half the time they weren't quite done when the rest of dinner was. Or I would forget to put them in over an hour before dinnertime and give up on the idea of baked potatoes entirely. It was annoying.
But with this tip, you can put them in the oven only half an hour before you want to eat, and they will be ready.
Jacques Pepin said that he learned this from his wife. And what she does is stick the potatoes in the microwave for a few minutes before putting them in the oven.
This is brilliant because, of course, potatoes cooked entirely in the microwave have a bit of a gummy, dense texture. It's just not right. But if you just do some partial cooking in the microwave, and then finish them in the oven, they have the right texture and the crisp skin a baked potato should have, but in waaaay less time.
You need a microwave to do this, obviously. If you don't have one, I am sorry. If you DO have one, just scrub your potatoes, stab them a few times with a knife to prevent potato explosions, and pre-cook them in the microwave on high.
If you're cooking only one or two potatoes, they would only need about about a minute and a half in the microwave. For four or five potatoes, you need more like three and a half minutes.
Then you just put the potatoes in the oven and finish baking them in there at 350 degrees or so, 20-30 minutes depending on how big your potatoes are.
Ta da!
I don't have any photos of potatoes to put here, but you know what baked potatoes look like, right? Right.
So here. Have a sunrise instead.
* He wrote a memoir several years ago that I recommend to everyone. It's The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen. He had an interesting life, and it's a very entertaining book.
Great tip! I have trouble remembering to start baking the potatoes before I start dinner, too.
ReplyDeleteLinda
Two additional baked potato tips: I often crank up the heat, baking the potatoes at 450 for an extra crispy skin. And obviously, they cook faster that way. Potatoes deal well with high heat (but remember to prick the skin). Also, if one has either a bright new large nail (i.e. ten penny) or a metal skewer, one can drive it through the raw potato, leaving an inch or so of metal for post-baking gripping. The metal conducts heat into the center of the potato and therefore it cooks faster. I learned the latter method from an elderly relative who was a retired engineering physics professor. Who says academics aren't practical?
ReplyDeleteYes! I discovered this trick this year. I stick it in the microwave while I’m prepping the other food and then I put everything in at the same time for 30 minutes to finish it up.
ReplyDeleteYes! This works for cubed potatoes and chunks of carrots too. Cube, rinse, cover, nuke around a minute per pound, toss in olive oil and S&P, finish for crispy outsides in the oven. It easily halves the time.
ReplyDeleteI love sunset photos, so thanks for that, too.
Your sunset picture is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI like to run the outside of mine with butter, then coat with garlic salt. I will overcook mine because I like the skin more than the inside of the potato. I will scoop out about 1/3 of the inside and add it to dh's and eat all my skins.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit it, I'm afraid to cook anything other than microwave popcorn in mind. Warming a can of soup is the other use.