twice-baked potatoes

Student food can mean an endless diet of jacket potatoes. If this is the case you can ring the changes with my puffed-up potatoes and incorporate whatever you have in the fridge to round out your dinner. The whisked egg whites lift the stodge of dense potato and gives a soufflé-like finish. It takes a little longer to make than a regular “jack pot” but I think the finish is worth it.

(In the pictures they’re accompanied by sweet and sour peppers but this is optional – there’s plenty of sustenance in the potato!).

Approximate cost  for main ingredients, excludes storecupboard ingredients (prices from Tesco.com 7th Oct 2012): 62p

Soufflé potatoes (serves 1):

1 baking potato

1 slice of smoked ham, sliced

Big handful of grated cheddar cheese

1 spring onion, sliced

1 egg, separated

1 teaspoon mustard

1. Bake the potatoes as you would for jackets, smothering with a little oil, salt and pepper and baking in a 180°C oven for about an hour.
2. Just before you take the potatoes out of the oven, whisk the egg whites to soft peaks. Mix the mustard into the yolks.
3. Take the potatoes out of the oven and leave to cool for a moment (this helps loosen the flesh from the skin and makes them easier to handle).
4. Using a teatowel to hold the spuds, cut the potatoes in half lengthways and scoop the flesh out into a bowl. Put the hollowed-out skins back on the tray.
5. Mash the flesh with the cheese, mustard, ham, spring onion egg yolk and mustard.
6. Fold in the egg whites and scoop into the empty skins. Put back in the oven and turn up to 220°C.
7. Take out of the oven in about 15 minutes, or when the tops have started to brown.