IHCC: Cooking Naked w/ Jamie Oliver

This week kicks off 6 months of cooking with Jamie Oliver.
Visit the I Heart Cooking Clubs site to find out more info and to see which recipes are featured this week.

I don't know much about Jamie Oliver.  And when I say "don't know much" I'm being pretty easy on myself.  I should know more about him since he digs gardening as do I.  (Bad pun intended...of course.)  


This week's IHCC theme is "Let's Get Naked."

Several recipes were bouncing around in the old noggin. 
Simple, clean, stripped-down recipes. 

But I kept coming back to Chef Oliver's Garlic, Thyme, & Anchovy Baked Potatoes.  While simple, this isn't as bare as other recipes I could have chosen.  But I was intrigued by the anchovies and couldn't let it go.

The Boy gobbled this up.  And he is usually underwhelmed by potatoes of any kind.  He liked the idea of eating the anchovy bones, which he originally thought were hairs in his food.  Hairs...gross.  Fish bones...all right!

(Just so you know what I'm dealing with over here: he also likes to eat capers because he thinks they look like boogers, garlic because it leaves him with "vampire killer" breath, and beans because...well, you know.  I thank you for your pity.)

Anchovy haters: It's hard to cut through starch, so the anchovy flavor in this is actually very mild.  I know.  I know.  People say that all the time.  I thought the dominant flavor was the thyme.

You have to be dressed before you can get naked.

Peek-a-boo...

I see you.
All naked and sexy.

Linked with Food on Friday: Anchovies & Sardines @ Carole's Chatter


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Garlic, Thyme, & Anchovy Baked Potatoes
from JamieOliver.com

2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
4 tablespoons butter, softened
freshly ground black pepper
sea salt
8 baking potatoes
8 anchovies, or 4 rashers of bacon (the best quality you can afford) if you’re not an anchovy fan
a handful of fresh thyme sprigs

Everyone loves a baked potato and this is one of the tastiest ways to make them. Slice, fill, then fit them back together.

Pound the garlic and butter in a pestle and mortar until smooth. Season the garlic butter well with lots of pepper but just a little salt as the anchovy or bacon will act as a seasoning too.

Cut each potato into 8 slices. Coat the slices of each potato with the butter mix then reassemble each potato on a piece of double-thick foil. Cut the anchovies or bacon into strips and put between the slices. Do the same with the thyme sprigs and carefully wrap up the potatoes.

Lay the wrapped spuds on the cooler coals at the sides of the barbie for 1–1½ hours, depending on their size, turning every now and then, until tender. If you’ve got a gas barbie, put the potatoes right at the back over a low heat and give them plenty of time to cook. You might even want to give them half an hour’s headstart in the oven first.

Notes: the second time I made this, I just made a compound butter with all of the ingredients rather than handling them individually.