FLOWER POT KITCHEN: TWICE STUFFED BAKED POTATO WITH STILTON SPINACH BLACK BEANS AND CHIA SEEDS

12 Oct 2016

TWICE STUFFED BAKED POTATO WITH STILTON SPINACH BLACK BEANS AND CHIA SEEDS

VEGETARIAN EATING

I first discovered this style of twice baked potato in Spain many (20 yrs ago) years ago and I still have fond memories of that little Canteen where at 3am (and it was packed) we would stop off to pick up our dinner plus an extra one for breakfast on our way home, I reminisces that one potato never made out the Canteen, the anticipation of waiting for the made to order stuffed twice baked potato would have us salivating so we always just sat down on a wall and enjoyed it there and then!

The secret to all good food, apart from the most honest ingredients is in the method...here it is the scooping out of all the potato from it's skin into a bowl, adding all your choice of ingredients to the potato, mixing mashing them roughly all together so that they all have their own pockets of flavour while also just starting to blend into the other flavours in the potato not becoming one mass of mixed flavour, seasoned well and popped back into their skins and baked again giving you a light and fluffy twice baked delicious dinner and finished off with a glorious creamy slaw.

Prep Time 10 minutes / Potato Baking 1 hour / Second Baking 20 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 2)

2 large baking potatoes

1 tsp sea salt

30ml olive oil

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 tbsp butter diced

20g Parmesan grated

Chunk of stilton crumbled

4 tbsp cooked black beans

2 tbsp mixed chia flax sunflower pumpkin seeds

(or any filling of your choice)

Garden Coleslaw

(any green leaves are great)

2 nero kale leaves finely sliced

6 rhubarb chard leaves

12 large spinach leaves torn

1 handful land cress

1 onion finely sliced

2 carrots julienned

tossed in 4 tbsp mayonnaise

Home Made Mayo

(only takes 2 minutes to make)

1 egg yolk

300ml olive oil

1/4 tsp sea salt

Pinch white pepper

1 tsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp mustard

To Make The Mayo place the egg yolks and white wine vinegar in a bowl and start to whisk, drizzle in a few drops of the olive oil at a time until half the oil is incorporated, then you can whisk in the oil at a much faster rate once all the oil is used add the mustard, salt and pepper and stir in, that's it.

To bake the potatoes I like to roll the potato in olive oil and sea salt, place in a hot oven 200 degrees for around one hour turning the potatoes over half way through the cooking time.

Cut the baked potato in half and scoop out all the soft potato in to a large bowl and add the rest of your choice of ingredients mash and mix in but do not make the mix as one flavour, you want all the ingredients to mix and marry but also to almost stand alone in company. Place the potato back in to the potato skins finish with a extra grating of Parmesan and pop back in the oven to bake for a further 20 minutes then serve your fabulous twice baked potatoes either topped or on a side of your garden mayo slaw.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.