Superlative and Unparalleled Potato Skins

Where do I even start? These are pretty much the showstopping appetizer. When you need to impress...you can pull them out of your arsenal. How good are these things? Let's just give a couple examples: North Korea and the US are at a summit meeting to basically have one last ditch effort to avoid war. The US pops these babies in the oven and Kim Jong hands over the missiles for the recipe. Example two: You are visiting your friend in the hospital who has leprosy (hung around armadillo's too much). You give him these to raise his spirits and he totally forgets that he is slowly losing body parts left and right. Example three: You have a first date...you're trying to impress. You have her over for dinner and make these bad boys; yes, you're going to score tonight. Doesn't matter if you are hideous and she is Anne Hathaway...these skins are that potent. Not to sound sexist, turn it around. Your a woman and you invite a guy over for dinner. You could be unattractive and he could be..let's say Jason Momoa. Yeah, you'll be going to zoomba class the next morning telling all your friends that you spent the night with Aquaman! And it's all due to this recipe...thanks Mr Shelton! So, you get the point, these things are not just good. They are mind-blowing. I feel like one of those guys in the late 1800's selling their wares saying that they have the magic tonic that will cure anything. Well, these will definitely cure your hunger and leave you wanting to make them pretty much every week. For those who know me, I'm generally pretty modest. If I make something and someone tells me, "Hey, this is really good"...I generally with shyly say, thanks and play it off like they aren't that great. After you have my potato skins and tell me, "Wow, these things are amazing!" I'll say outright...F#&% yeah they are! So, yeah, they're that good

So how do I make these? Something this good must take a while and take enormous amounts of culinary skill. Yeah, not really that much time and if you can bake a potato and shred some cheese, you're made in the shade.

Recipe serves 5-10 (depends on how ravenous your guests are)

Ingredients:

10 medium-medium/large Russet Potatoes

1 lb quality thick sliced Bacon

2 bunches of Green Onions (scallions)

12 oz shredded Mozzarella

8 oz shredded Monterey Jack

1 lb quality shredded Sharp Cheddar

2 Tbs Olive Oil

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F. While oven is heating, scrub any dirt off the potatoes. When clean, dry them off with a towel or paper towel. After cleaned, pour the 2 Tbs of olive oil into a small bowl or ramekin. Find a kitchen brush and brush a thin layer of oil on each potato and coat all around.

2. Place each potato directly on the middle oven rack. No, I don't poke the potatoes with a fork before I put them in. I've cooked potatoes 100's of times and I've never had one blow up. You can put a layer of foil down on the bottom rack to keep the potato juice from dripping in the oven though. While the potatoes are cooking you may hear a hissing or squealing sounds. Don't worry, that's just the potato giving it's last breath of life. It's ok though, he is giving his life for your stomach's happiness. Potatoes live for this stuff. Set the timer for about 45 minutes.

3. This gives you plenty of time to start making the other ingredients. Take your bacon and chop it into once inch pieces. Fry in a fry pan until desired crispness. I like mine that nice deep red/brown color when it's done. So, not to much so it is like bacon jerky, but just before it starts to burn. When done, drain and reserve the bacon fat for whatever other yummy things that you might make in the future. Place the bacon on a paper towel to cool.

4. Take out your green onions and chop them into 1-2 inch pieces. Use both the white and green parts. Take out your food processor...if you don't have one...get one! Chopping by hand is just plain boring, time consuming and dangerous. Yes, I am a cheater...but I also like to save time. This could be an extra 5 minutes I could add to my mid afternoon nap! Anyway, place the green onions in the processor and grind them up. Not to the point where they are mush, but ground up pretty good. Put aside in a bowl.

5. When your bacon is cooled, do the same thing with the bacon. Process until it's the crumbled consistency. Place aside in a bowl.

6. By now your potatoes should be pretty close to done. Get a sharp knife and poke one of the largest ones to see if they are done. If the potato is done it should easily slide in with little resistance. If you have to force it in, it's not done yet. The goal is to get all the potatoes the same relative size, because when one is done, they should all be done. When they are done, get some tongs and place them on a cutting board and immediately slice them in half vertically. A sharp serrated knife works best for this. Once they are cut in half, let them cool until they are able to be held without giving you third degree burns. These things are incredible, but not to the point where you need to get a skin graft at the local ER. You can wait the 15-20 minutes.

7. While the potatoes are cooling it's a great time to shred your cheeses. I like to get good quality cheese for these. For the mozzarella, I like to get the Trader Joe's pre-shredded. I usually get the jack in brick form from TJ's as well. For my cheddar I love Cabot (which TJ's carries). The sharper the better IMO. Sometimes I will try some of the aged sharp English cheddar's which work well also. So, shred up all your cheeses and mix them all together in a large mixing bowl and set aside.

8. When you potatoes are cool, it's time to start taking the potato guts out. The best tool for this job would be a grapefruit spoon if you have one. They are serrated around the edges, so it's kind of like a mini spoon-saw. You want to remove all the potato except leave about 1/3-1/2 inch around the skin. Save all this potato filling. It works good for potato salad. Russets aren't ideal for potato salad as they are more starchy than white or red potatoes, but they will work in a pinch once you add in all the onions, pickles, mayo, mustard, eggs, etc. So, save those potato guts...you can also make home fries/hash brown out of them for breakfast.

9. You should now have 20 mostly empty potato shells. It's now time to fill them with the cheesy goodness. Grab a small handful of cheese and fill each one up to the level of the edge of the top of the potato. If you still have cheese left, you can add a little more if you like (the cheese will melt down about 1/3 of the way after baking) or you can just keep the rest for future use.

10. Now you're ready to put the bacon on. Take pinches of bacon and put some on top of each potato. Spread evenly over all the potatoes until it's gone. These aren't TGIF skins where you get a couple little crumbles on each skin. We wan't some good amount of bacon on these.

11. Almost done. Do the same with the green onions. You'll likely have green onions left over, put about a TBS on each potato, or even a little less. Depends how much you or your guests like onions.

12. So, you're ready to go. Next question. Are you serving them now or later that day or even the next day? If now, place them in a oven safe pan or dish, heat oven to 350 F and cook for about 15 minutes. If you are making them later on, place in oven safe dish and put in the fridge until you are ready to cook them. If cold, you will need to cook them about 20-25 minutes at 350 F. One disclaimer. If you make them in advance, you will lose the crispness of the outer shell of the potato. That's the only drawback to not having them fresh right after preparing them. So, you will miss out a bit on the texture. Otherwise, same incredible flavor, just will be a little softer when eating. These freeze great. If you don't have one already, I HIGHLY suggest investing in a Foodsaver©. We use ours for virtually everything that we know is going to be in the freezer for more than a couple weeks. If you are planning to freeze them, make sure not to cook them first. Once you finish assembling them, that would be the time to food-save them.

13. Typical dipping material? I love me some ranch dressing and others like sour cream. Both work just fine. I've even dipped mine in salsa or even hummus. Whatever your thing is. Next up...I also do a Mexican style potato skin as well as a sweet potato variety...both about as equally incredible.

What am I going to drink with these? Dude, crack open a cold one. Potato skins and beer are a natural. Pretty much any kind works, but I'd head towards either a American Porter, Irish Dry Stout, American IPA or even a newer style to the craft world, American IPL (India Pale Lager). As for the Porter; think Deschutes Black Butte, or Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald. Stouts; Deschutes Obsidian ( I LOVE this beer) or Bell's Kalamazoo. IPA's; Bear Republic Racer 5 or Ballast Point Sculpin. IPL's; these are fairly rare, but these work great with lager malt and the hops...think Green Stripe from Fieldwork Brewing. As for wine...I'd go for a nice dark fruit forward Zinfandel.