Jacket Potatoes
(Serves 4)
4 large Potatoes
Olive Oil
Flaky Sea Salt
Tuna Mayo
3 cans Tuna (160 g x 3)
1/2 White Onion
3-4 Cornishons / 2 Pickled Gherkins
4 tbsp Mayonaise
1 tbsp Mustard
1 tsp Chilli Flakes
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
Salt
Lemon Juice
Method
1. Preheat oven to 210 C
2. Wash the potatoes very very well to get rid of any dirt and grime. Pat dry with some kitchen paper
3. Pierce the skin of the potato with a fork a few times. Then season well with the salt and about a tbsp of Olive Oil. Rub the oil and the salt well, into the skin of the potato
4. Bake the potato for about 1 hour until the skin is brown and the inside is soft
5. While the potatoes are baking, make the tuna mayo
6. Finely chop the onion and gherkins. Add it into a bowl and add in the mayo, mustard, salt, chilli flakes, black pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice and mix well to combine
7. Drain the brine from the cans of tuna. Add the tuna into the bowl and mix well. Taste and season. Chill in the fridge until the potatoes are cooked
8. Once the jacket potatoes are done baking, put a slit across the middle of each potato and split it open (not all the way through). Add a generous knob of butter(optional)
9. Season the potato with a bit of flaky salt and spoon on a generous amount of the cold tuna mayo
I recently made some scon which got me thinking about everything British and then I remembered it’s been absolute ages since I’ve had a good jacket potato with tuna mayo. I used to eat these at least once a week back in uni. So I decided to make it but with a bit of an arro twist to it. So let’s get straight into it. Wash your potatoes very very well to get rid of any grime. This is very important cuz we are keeping the skins on. Then pat the potatoes dry with some kitchen towel and stab it with a fork a few times just to pierce the skin so that the seasoning can really get into the potatoes. Then sprinkle a generous amount of coarse sea salt on the potato and drizzle over a fairly generous gug of olive oil. Massage the oil and the salt into the skin of your potatoes. Jacket potatoes are so easy to make and they make the best vessel for pretty much any filling. Now, you can do a classic tuna mayo like I’m doing or a chili conani or even go completely fusion with some nice curry on this. It’s hearty, it’s warming, and it’s just so yummy. So, when we’re baking these jacket potatoes, the plan is to place the potatoes in the middle rack of the oven, but keep a baking tray underneath to catch anything that drips. So, I’m covering a tray in some foil just to make clean up that much easier. Preheat your oven to somewhere between 200 to 210° C. Pop the foil line tray at the bottom of your oven and then put your potatoes on the grill tray in the center of the oven. And then let this bake for about an hour or so. At about the 30 minute mark, just check on your potatoes and then flip them over so that they can get a nice even bake. While your jacket potatoes are baking, let’s make the tuna mayo. Now, you can always just do a simple tuna mayo and mix tuna with mayonnaise and a little bit of seasoning, but I’m giving this a bit of an aroo glow up. Start off by finely dicing up about half an onion and a few gerkins. I love the combination of the pickle girkins and the tuna. The tang and the crunch that comes from those gerkins brings such a nice texture when you’re eating this. Yum. Just make sure to chop both the onion and the pickle girkins as small as possible. Pop the onion and the girkin into a large bowl. To this I’m adding in a few spoonfuls of mayonnaise and some mustard. And then I’m going in with a little bit of chili flakes just to bring in a little bit of heat to this. And then I’m seasoning with a bit of salt. Mix this together first and then go in with the canned tuna. Crack the can slightly open and then strain out all of the brine from your tuna can. Get rid of as much liquid as possible so that you don’t end up with a watery filling. And then put the tuna into the bowl. Now I’m doing three cans of tuna for the four jacket potatoes that I’m making. Mix everything together very well and then taste and adjust for seasoning. I’m going in with a little bit more salt, a bit of black pepper, and a squeeze of lemon. Perfect. Keep this chilling in the fridge until your potatoes are done. About an hour into baking, check on the potatoes by sticking it with a fork. If it goes in nice and soft and it’s easy to pierce the potato, then your potato is done. Take it out of the oven and let it cool down ever so slightly before cutting into the middle. Now, I’m adding a nice knob of butter just cuz it makes the jacket potato just so much better. But you can always skip this step. But the butter just melts into that potato, making it so buttery and delicious. Season it with a little bit of flaky sea salt. And then layer on a generous amount of that cold tuna mayo on top. The warm soft potato, the cold tuna mayo that’s packed full of flavor, and that roasted potato skin. It’s so good that it almost transports you straight to a nice pub in England. Follow along for more.