Steemit Iron Chef 2017 #10 : Potatoes in foil, baked in the oven

Potatoes, garlic and sour cream are three huge things to Latvians. We love them potatoes, we use sour cream almost everywhere and we rely on garlic to keep us healthy. But do you know what we love more? All those things together! While I was growing up, each food that contained potatoes would have sour cream on the side. Of course, there was also ketchup and mayo, but my mom always had a jar of sour cream in the fridge.

There were so many things I could have made, but I chose something very simple and close to my heart. Potatoes wrapped in foil have been my favorites ever since I discovered bonfire baked potatoes in foil. Now, obviously, I do not make a bonfire every time I want a potato in a foil, I have to use the second best thing, an oven.

I still remember when I ate a bonfire potato for the first time, it was midsummer(23rd of June). Latvians have a huge celebration during 23rd and 24th of June. All our extended family was visiting and everyone was in the spirit of looking for a blooming fern(pun intended, because ferns do not bloom, it is just an excuse for adults to get frisky in the forest or to get the kids off their backs), drinking beer and eating shashlik(meat on a stick) with... You guessed it, potatoes!

It takes a while for the potatoes to get ready, so be ready to leave them in the oven for a longer time (up to an hour).
You can make the potatoes with anything you want, but I am going to show you a recipe of my own liking. Today I made 15 potatoes for a big family. But you can choose how many potatoes to make, and calculate accordingly.

Ingredients

15 potatoes (as similar in size as possible)
6 cloves of garlic
4 tablespoons of melted butter
salt and pepper
greens of your choice (I used thyme, garlic bows and some dried greens)
sour cream!!!

Optional

1 egg
20 g of cheese
onion

For salad (also optional)

1 Chinese cabbage
Mayonnaise
salt

Wash your potatoes till there is no sand left.

Cut out holes in your potatoes, where you are going to add the filling(like in the photo below).

Clean the garlic cloves and grind them into a small bowl.

Add the melted butter to the garlic.

Add the spices to the mixture(salt, pepper, greens) and mix it.

I must add, that I added an egg in three of my potatoes and cheese in three other, so there would be bigger variety.

Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius

Cut foil pieces that can wrap the potatoes completely.

Fill the potatoes with your garlic/butter mixture and wrap them in the foil(I added extra salt and pepper on the bottom of the foil, so all of the potato would be with the spices)

The potatoes I added cheese to were made with the following: cheese, butter, thyme, salt, pepper, onions and garlic bows.

The potatoes that were filled with egg were made with the egg plus the garlic mixture.

When you finish filling all of your potatoes, wrap them in the foil completely.

I left some space on the pan to add the potato cuttings on a little later.

Put the pan in the oven and leave for half an hour, then add the leftover potatoes you have.

I added some carrots, butter and spices as well, so the potatoes have taste.

When you put the potatoes on the pan, bake all of it for half an hour more(or longer).

To check if the potatoes are ready use a fork.

While the potatoes are baking, cut up the Chinese cabbage and mix it with mayo and salt, it will still have a sweet taste that will go perfectly with the oven baked potatoes!

When your potatoes are ready, serve with some sour cream and the salad. The potato goes perfectly with meat as well, but we wanted something a little lighter for dinner today.

Here, a potato for taste!

Have a great day, week and life,
Linda!