We have been called upon to make baked potatoes for some of our guests recently. I am not against baked potatoes and all the fixings. They can be tasty if not leaden in the belly. That is another subject all together. With the talk and execution of baked potatoes swirling about I began thinking of capturing the essence of the potato and the fixings bar. We began with a broth. We clarified the broth. It was golden, clear and when heated turned cloudy. S!@t!!! OK now what? The broth screams baked potato with flavors of butter, scallion, sour cream, cheddar cheese and bacon. It works. And so I thought of a cold preparation. We placed some smoked roe in a glass dish and poured the baked potato over the top. The broth stayed clear for a moment and then a Pastis effect took place. We topped the cod preparation with potato gnocchi poached in the liquid baked potato and topped with mustard greens and Fiore Sardo cheese. The diner eats the warm gnocchi and then removes the lid and eats the cold roe floating in potato broth. Pretty tasty, though I must go back and figure out how to get
the micro particles out of my baked potato. While we were working on this first dish, I began thinking about how light we could make a baked potato. Well, we were able to make it light, fluffy and intense. Now what the heck to do with it.?