I’ve got an insane request to make something appealing with:
-baked potatoes (baked in the oven, not microwave – I don’t even know how to do that)
-and crisp celery smothered in melted cheese
These two dishes are to be served seperately.
Can anyone supply simple recipes to help me here? My cooking skills are below simian.
(I wasn’t about to go through all this effort for nothing, so I made her agree to clean my room in return. She’s too happy to do it: I think I was smoothly conned into letting her snoop through all my stuff.)
116 views and 0 replies so far. I think everyone clicked on this thread expecting to shower you with sex advice. I imagine that was your intention though, with that subject choice.
To make baked potatoes in the oven… wrap in tinfoil, stab with a fork (after washing well of course and making sure no eyes are on them) then bake till soft… dunno how long that is or how hot the oven should be though…
This is how I like to oven bake potatoes. Other Dopers may have a better recipe, but this one is pretty darn good! Wash the potatoes well and punch holes in them with a fork.Rub them down with olive oil or butter and then sprinkle them all over with coarse salt. I usually heat the oven to about 425 degrees and bake the potatoes until they feel soft when you stick a fork in them. I think that usually takes about an hour, but it will vary depending on the size of the potatoes. I don’t wrap them in foil, because I like the skin to get nice and crispy.
I don’t have a recipe for the celery dish, but I hope someone does because it sounds delicious.
Um maybe **Zenster{/b] will grace you with a recipe. You might also try searching the iron chef threads on this board.
Spuds bake faster if you put a big old honking nail through them. Remove nail before eating though.
Stir fried celery with squid is quite nice. High temp on the wok, toss some crushed garlic into the heated oil, then toss in the squid and celery, stir fry for about 15 seconds, toss in a tbls each of shaoxing wine and soy saude, give it another 15 seconds, and scoop it out to serve.
Demanding girlie you got there, Scurv! First she makes you shave-erm-
anyway…
I dunno. If you dont even know how to bake a potato, Zenster’s
way may be a little more of a graduate level endeavor. I’ve never seen a recipe of his under a bazillion ingredients!
Anyway, Nightingale gave you a good potato baking system. Thats how I do mine, except that I do wrap them in foil.
Depends on how soft you want the outside.
Keep in mind that it will take damn near forever to bake them fully, at least an hour, so start early and don’t skimp on the time.
They are super-simple, though. You got off easy.
Celery and cheese, though? I’ve never heard of such a combo.
Ick.
Well, I guess the way to go would be to purchase fresh celery, put it in cold water and refrigerate to keep it crispy, and then find some sort of cheese sauce to go over it. Make sure you sppon the cheese over celery right as you’re serving it, to keep celery from getting hot or soggy. Also can’t be that hard.
Good luck!
I cannot emphasize how important it is to stick the potatoes before baking. If you don’t the potatoes will explode and not in the fun outdoorsy playing with explosives way but the now I’ve got to clean burnt potato off the inside of the oven pain in the ass way.
That being said rubbing the outsides with oil is great. My personal favorite, rub them with bacon grease. You get the bacon grease from cooking the bacon that will later be crumbled over the potato loaded with butter, sour cream and cheese. (Homer Simpson is my hero).
The only way I eat my vegetables is covered in a nice layer of cheese. Since celery pizza would just be a crime I submit the following:
First the cheese sauce. Melt about 2 tablespoons of butter in a saucepan. Then add 2 tablespoons of flour. Mix it together until smooth. Then add 1-cup milk and 1/2 cup dry white wine all at once and mix till just starting to thicken. Then add 1/2 cup graded Swiss cheese mix until thick. Add some pepper and salt to taste. Take off the heat
Then blanch (that’s lightly cook in boiling water no more than 45 seconds in the case) about 2 cups of chopped celery. Drain the celery and put it in the serving bowl. Pour on the cheese.
Hi Jack,
If you are ever in the Minneapolis area, go to Leaning Tower of Pizza and order a potter. It’s a pizza with a number of toppings, including celery. Now at first, I thought, no way, I’m going to order a potter w/out celery, but they won’t do it, and for a good reason. It is very tasty.
It’s not celery with melted cheese, but a whole lot yummier and a great deal more hoity-toity if yer lookin’ to impress:
Get fennel, which looks an aweful lot like Dumpy Albino Celery, and /good/ fresh parmiggiano (parmesan) cheese - I mean, go to your local Italian Deli, or perhaps one of the more yuppy-style whole-foods places and buy a block of it.
For /this/ recipie, lop off the fuzzy part of the fennel (which can be used as an herb and is an excellent flavor combo with pork) slice the fennel into fairly thin slices - slice it perpendicular to the stalk, like you might cut up a dumpy albino carrot.
spread the fennel out on a plate, cover with thin slices of the parmiggiano, and maybe a drizzle of olive oil.
Nice, strong, complimentary flavors.
Alternately, you could make a hot version of the above: This is off the top of my head, never tried, but should be yummy too:
Prepare everything as above, but sautee the fennel (in a little bit of olive oil, + a little salt and pepper), and at the last minute put the cheese on the top so that it melts a bit. For this, perhaps a more melty cheese, like asiago or fontina… Even swiss might work.
Hot cheese is going to make your celery get limp very quickly. Since I hate limp celery, I suggest putting something cold on the celery. I personally enjoy celery stuffed (that is, with the concave side filled) with pineapple cream cheese. It’s not very high-brow, but it’s tasty.
By the way, if you decide to try microwaving the potatoes after all, do not wrap them in foil and do not put nails in them!
Considering what the nails may have been coated with to keep them from rusting, I would not use nails at all. Small metal skewers might have the desired effect.
And only try fennel if you both like licorice.
If there is still time, try out the recipies you choose before the big day.
