The Potato Trifecta Perfecta

The Potato Trifecta Perfecta
18 May 2014

I am ridiculously fond of three things in particular – potatoes, cheese and bacon.  In no particular order (Bacon is my favourite.  No, it’s cheese.  Clearly it’s potatoes.).  I can wax lyrical about all three of these.  Individually. 

Finding a magical recipe combining all three of these elements together, is like discovering the bucket filled with gold, at the end of a rainbow.  The unicorn too.  Along with the Easter Bunny, Father Christmas and the Tooth Fairy as well.

Now, I know, it’s hardly inconceivable that there wouldn’t be a recipe, calling for all three of these ingredients.  In fact, there are quite a few.  Most of them perfectly lovely.  Very much so.

However, few can surpass THE POTATO TRIFECTA PERFECTA.  Yes, I made the name up myself.  How did you guess???

In fact this recipe is so brilliant, it deserves a public holiday.  A monument in its honour.  And at the very least a Nobel Peace Prize.  With a Pulitzer thrown in for good measure.  As well as an Oscar and a Grammy too.  A Laureus, Olympic Gold Medal and Top Academic at my son’s High School.  Forgive me – I get a bit carried away.  To finish off, let me put it this way – THE POTATO TRIFECTA PERFECTA could stand for president of the universe.  And win by a landslide.  Uncontested I’m sure.

The added bonus of this recipe, is that it is so easy to make.  I had done it a few times in the past.  And loved it.  However I had left out the bacon, and mixing the cheese in the mash.  Which somehow made a really huge difference.

And so I thought, lest I be selfish, best I share the marvels of THE POTATO TRIFECTA PERFECTA.  Prepare to be dazzled.

I took a few biggish potatoes.  And here’s my first cheat.  Supposedly, you’re meant to bake them in the oven until they’re done.  But I didn’t feel like taking that whole long and lengthy approach.  So instead, I popped them into the microwave and nuked them until they were soft on the inside.

Then I cut them in half – length wise.  I hollowed out the insides, taking care not to do too much damage to the skins, in an effort to keep them fairly intact.  I scooped all of the hollowed out potatoes into a big bowl and continued to make creamy mash, using lots of butter, salt for taste, and milk for the creamy texture too.  Once it was deemed delish and it passed the taste test, I put it to the side.

Next I quickly fried up some bacon bits.  It is fair to say, that though I used a 250g packet of bacon, not all of it made it to the actual recipe in the end.  There’s a lot of tasting when I’m making bacon.  I find it very hard to resist.

Then I quickly stirred the bacon, including the tasty drippings in with the creamy mash.  At this point, I added quite a bit of grated cheddar cheese, into the mash and bacon mush. 

I scooped this mixture back into the potato skins, which I had placed in an oven dish.  For the finale, I grated a little bit of cheddar cheese on top of each potato – just to ensure some extra cheesy tanginess.

I quickly chucked these into the oven and grilled them for a few minutes, until the cheese was all melted, and starting to bubble.

Took them out of the oven.  Admired them at length.  Took lots of photo’s.  And dished them up to my eager family.  A family who now regards me as a gastronomic genius.

And we scoffed them.  With delight and lots of groaning yummy noises for accompaniment.

Try it – I dare you.  You will never look back.

THE POTATO TRIFECTA PERFECTA is Très Magnifique!

PS – Doing this blog, it became blatantly obvious, that a food photographer, I’m not.  My pics look particularly awful.  Though, I decided to include them.  To give you a bit of an idea. 

Enjoy!

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Take a few potatoes and nuke them in the microwave

 

Cut them length wise and hollow out the insides

 

Yum!!! Fried bacon bits!

 

Plain creamy mash potatoes (slightly lumpy, I must confess)

Bacon bits added to mash

 

Grated cheddar added to mash and bacon mush

 

Scooped the mixture into the hollowed out potato shells, and sprinkled a bit of grated cheddar cheese on the top

 

Grill for a few minutes. If heaven had a taste, this would be it.