Jacket potatoes are my favorite weekend meal. I love to be a couch potato on Friday nights with my favorite comfort foods by my side. Jacket potato is one of them. I was introduced to jacket potatoes in Cardiff. One of my friends used to have it as a quick meal. Just bake the potato, slit it into half and add corn and cheese and bake for some more time and done! Sounds good but not exciting and being a south Indian I wanted to add spice to this. Since then I have added numerous fillings to this dish but the most favorite of my fillings is the sweetcorn and capsicum filling.

Russet potatoes are perfect for this dish. They already have a mushy texture and this time I added grated paneer to the filling and it just added to the texture.

I like to top this dish with cheddar cheese but you can experiment with mozzarella or other similar cheese. I experiment a lot with jacket potatoes. Sometimes I lace the potatoes with chilli sauce before adding the fillings. Sometimes I top the potatoes with sour cream. You can even add different herbs to flavor the potatoes.

These jacket potatoes can be enjoyed with tomato sauce or any cream-based dips. I like them with the yogurt and mint dip.

Ingredients

Makes 8 jacket potatoes

• 4 large russet potatoes, half boiled with salt
• ¼ cup sweet corn, boiled
• ¼ red bell pepper, ¼ green bell pepper, ¼ yellow bell pepper finely chopped
• 2tbsp grated cottage cheese (paneer)
• ¼ tsp oregano
• ¼ tsp chilli flakes
• ¼ tsp white pepper powder
• 2 pods garlic
• 1/4^th onion finely chopped
• 4-5 fresh basil leaves chopped or ¼tsp dried basil
• 1tbsp olive oil
• Salt to taste

Recipe

Halve each half boiled potato vertically. Slice off a thin round from bottom, so each piece will stand firm. Scoop the potatoes leaving thin wall on sides. Chop the scooped potato and keep aside.

Heat oil in a pan. Add garlic, oregano, and chilli flakes. Add onions and sauté for a minute or till the onions are translucent. Add capsicum and sauté for 1-2 mins. Add corn and saute for one minute. Add paneer, salt, pepper powder, basil leaves, and salt. Saute for 2-3 minutes. Add the scooped potatoes and mix well till the potatoes are mashed.

Cool the mixture a little. Fill the mixture in the potatoes and top them with grated cheese.

Preheat the oven and bake the potatoes at 200 degrees for 15 minutes or till the cheese on top is slightly browned.