We are still working hard on our book Cooking for the Sensitive Gut which is based on my other blog Cooking for the Sensitive Gut. The manuscript goes to our publishers Pavilion next week and so I am pressed for time - so bear with me. You would not believe the amount of testing, writing, rewriting and generally messing about trying to get things right it involves. I view each recipe for the book as a kind of mini project: each has to visualised, tested, written up and photographed. The ingredients also have to be considered really carefully as they have to suit those with a sensitive gut or IBS.
This is a very short simple post based on a recipe I just had to try out from Cook with Jamie. I have tweaked it a bit and rewritten the recipe. He based his version on an Italian idea where they stuff little finches inside a potato. I like mine better!
This is an easy seasonal recipe making use of wild garlic, new season sage and Wilja potatoes that are grown over the border in Lancashire.
Where I live in Yorkshire it is just the time to pick wild garlic. It is young, fresh and tender and has not come into flower yet.
The green spathe like leaves can be chopped raw in salads or included in cooking dishes like pasta , fish, stews and soups. It is also lovely as a replacement for basil in pesto. Just remember to wash the leaves before using because they grow close to the ground.
Potatoes are a great source of carbohydrate and fibre. But they need flavour.
These potatoes are hollowed out and stuffed with good quality dry cured bacon, anchovies, sage and wild garlic. They are delicious and would be lovely with a stew. I think they need some moisture to soak in a bit.
To make baked potatoes with bacon, anchovies and wild garlic
Serves 2
Ingredients
4 small potatoes (I used Lancashire grown Wilja potatoes), scrubbed
4 pieces of back bacon, rind removed
4 anchovies, drained of oil
4 blades of young wild garlic
a few young sage leaves
flaked sea salt
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas 6. Gouge a hole in the middle of each potato with a potato peeler or apple corer. Lay a strip of bacon on a chopping board, place an anchovy on top and strip of garlic on top of that.
Pack the bacon, anchovy and wild garlic into the hole in the centre of the potato. Tuck in the sage leaves and make a 'plug' made from the potato debris to stopper the holes to keep the filling in as best as you can. Scatter flaked sea salt over the potatoes. Dampen the skin of the potatoes slightly to ensure the salt sticks.
Place the potatoes on a roasting tray and cook for up to an hour. At 45 minutes check to see if the skins are crisp and the centre of the potato is soft. Return to the oven for more time if they need it.
To serve the potatoes as a main meal you might like to cook a little more bacon to scatter over and serve with a lovely home made beetroot, onion and rocket salad or a home made coleslaw.