Peas on the Plate

It is, as the kid’s say, colder than a witch’s tit outside. That means the only acceptable food is Cozy Mode food: stuff that makes you feel warm and toasty. There is only one answer when it’s 16 degrees out: baked potatoes in a 450 degree oven.

But hey, why not add some totally unnecessary shit to something that’s already a masterpiece and call it “elevating?” The beauty of potatoes is that they’re neutral enough that adding anything to them will generally be a win, but especially onions and cheese, which as we’ve previously established, are good with almost anything. Fortunately, I had an onion on hand and the cheese drawer in our fridge runneth over.

Ever curious, I wondered if there was some magic formula to make the perfect baked potato. In my experience, it’s been 350 degrees for an hour, but I never really gave much thought to potato baking technique, and a Sunday afternoon seemed like a good time as ever to explore further. Apparently, the key is twice-baking to a temperature between 205 – 217 degrees, but more on that later.

After some strenuous Googling, I found this how-to from Gimme Some Oven that gave some advice on how to get a crispy, tasty skin, and then coupled it with advice from this video from America’s Test Kitchen:

Then, I did what I do best: caramelized some onions, added some cheese, forgot about vegetables, remembered I wanted to make them, and then steamed a bag of green beans. The end result was an excellent balance of sweet and salty, crispy and soft, and more importantly: it was cozy and warm. I ate dinner in a blanket hoodie on my couch. No notes.

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Caramelized Onion & Gruyere Baked Potatoes

Yield: 2 potatoes

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 55 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour

A baked potato, but make it confusingly bougie.

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Ingredients

• 1 large yellow onion
• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 tsp sugar
• 2 Russet potatoes
• 1 tbsp olive oil (NOT extra virgin) or other neutral oil
• Kosher salt as needed
• 1/3 C Gruyere, grated

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Thoroughly wash the potatoes under running water, scrubbing all the dirt away.
3. Pierce about 10 times all over with a fork.
4. Place the potatoes on a foil-lined baking sheet or, even better, a wire rack on a baking sheet, and put them in the oven.
5. After 25 minutes, remove from the oven.
6. Brush the potatoes all over with oil and sprinkle with kosher salt.
7. Place back on the baking sheet, rotating so that they’re reverse-side up.
8. Bake for 25 more minutes.
9. Once the potatoes are in the oven the first time, rather than just relax for a little bit or pause to think about your life, begin to caramelize onions using these instructions from Bon Appetit, which require 2 tbsp of butter. I added the teaspoon of sugar during the caramelizing process to speed things along a little.
10. The onions and potatoes should be done around the same time.
11. Cut the potatoes open and fluff the inside and put a pat of butter in there.
12. Scoop as much caramelized onion into the potatoes as you’d like.
13. Divide the gruyere in half and sprinkle on each potato.
14. Put a crack of salt on top to really bring out the flavor.