I must admit, I don’t get into Thanksgiving quite as much as I do Halloween. Not really at all, actually. Aside from the turkey and the cranberry sauce, what do you have? Stuffing, squash, corn, candied yams, pumpkin pie … starch, starch and more starch. No wonder you always feel fat when the meal is done.

One popular Thanksgiving Day starch that I will always support, however, is the potato.

You should always have a sack of potatoes in your kitchen. Not only are they a reliable, staple side dish, but they also last for ages (although, not quite for 3.5+ months as a certain significant other of mine had to learn the hard way). There’s also about a million and a half wonderful ways that you can prepare a potato, so they’ll never get boring. And while I would love to test and share every single one of them, for the sake of this blog and this month’s theme, I’ll start by covering some potato side dish basics that have been a regular part of my meal rotation since I first found myself in my own kitchen two years ago.

And so I begin with how to make the perfect baked potato:

[Prep: 5-10min / Cook: 45min-1hr]

– olive oil
– salt
– butter/margarine
– works best with:
ordinary brown/Russet potatoes, the bigger the better!

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/175C
2. Wash the potatoes with a brush or the scrubbing side of a sponge, being careful not to scrape away the skin. Then, use a teaspoon to dig out any big eyes or knots.
3. Stab each potato numerous times with a fork or knife and lightly dry them with a paper towel.
4. Pour the olive oil into a small bowl and dip each potato into the oil and roll it around a bit. Then, sprinkle salt all over the potato.*I find the most effective way to do this is not to be afraid of getting messy. After dipping the potato in oil, I pick it up, smear the oil around with my hand and then hold the potato over the sink while I sprinkle salt on it. I then put each one straight in the oven as I go…this can actually be pretty efficient if you manage to do the dipping and oiling with one hand and salting & oven door operating with the other.
   
   
5. Place the potatoes directly on the oven rack with an aluminium foil-wrapped cookie sheet or drip pan underneath.
6. Bake for about an hour, depending on the size of the potatoes. The best way to know that the potatoes are done is that the skin will get crispy and puffed and sticking a fork in them should be as easy as butter.
7. Slice each potato open either with a knife or by stabbing a line across the middle with a fork and pressing the sides. Be careful because the potatoes will be hot- I usually handle them with a paper towel until they’re ready to eat.
8. While the potato is still hot, use a fork to gently break up the insides and plop your desired mound of butter on top. This way, you mix a great and subtle buttery taste right in with the potato.
9. Top with any exciting array of your favorite toppings.
10. Ready to eat!

• Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a time-consuming task.  So long as you don’t mind sitting back and relaxing while the potatoes cook, baking potatoes is a pretty simple task.
• If you have it, sea salt makes for the ideal salt coating.

 photos: FotoosVanRobin; roland