Whole oven-baked potatoes

Today, without false modesty, I made perfect potatoes. Perfect oven-baked potatoes. I had equally good potatoes prepared this way (with paprika, that is) in China in 2000, while travelling by boat along the Yangtze to see the Three Gorges, which were flooded a few years later. The potatoes were fantastic; the snag was that, when giving me my change, the seller handed me 100 yuan printed on a printer. But never mind.

Those potatoes were good, but devilishly hot. Mine have paprika too, but sweet paprika. They’re perfect. Slightly sweet. I recommend them.

At a glance: 

Preparation time: 5 minutes

Baking time: 2 hours

Baking temperature: 180 degrees Celsius

Serves: 2 portions (multiply the ingredients and you’ll have more portions)

How many calories: these potatoes are definitely diet-friendly — you can bank on it, a bank dealing in Swiss francs (already at 3.5 PLN today; that’s a message for anyone with a Swiss-franc loan 🙁

Ingredients for diet-friendly oven-baked potatoes:

• 10 small potatoes
• 2 tablespoons of paprika powder
• a pinch of ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon of olive oil
• salt

Recipe for potatoes baked with sweet paprika:

I preheated the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

I peeled and washed the potatoes, then dried them with a paper towel. I put them in a tall container. I added pepper and sweet paprika powder (enough for every potato to be coated in paprika after mixing). I added olive oil and salted them generously.

I mixed everything thoroughly (by hand).

I shaped a „bag” out of aluminium foil and put the potatoes inside. I closed the foil and placed it in a roasting tin. I put the tin in the oven. I baked the potatoes for an hour, then opened the foil to brown their outer surface.

As with the roasted beetroot, I was baking beetroot and chicken drumsticks in the oven at the same time. The potatoes were on the „lower level”, where there is less airflow. That’s why, after opening the foil, I baked them for another hour.

They should be soft, but not falling apart. The dish is ready. Enjoy!