Serves 4

Forget all those bastardisations of potato skins that have been deep-fried and smeared in guacamole. These are far classier, and they make a nice canapé if you are using baby-size new potatoes,
or, with larger, medium-size potatoes, a good accompaniment for steaks or roasts. Baking potatoes on salt makes the skins crispy and imparts a flavour to the flesh inside. It may seem wasteful to use a box of rock salt, but this can be cooled and reused several times because it won’t deteriorate. Choose potatoes of the same size to ensure even cooking. I suggest that you fill these with crème fraîche and crumbled pancetta, but for a luxurious serving you could try mixing in some caviar and chives.

12 small to medium new potatoes, about 1kg total weight
250g box coarse sea salt or Maldon sea salt
100g pancetta or lean streaky bacon
About 100ml crème fraîche
About 1 tbsp chopped fresh chives
50g Emmenthal cheese, cut into thin shavings
Freshly ground black pepper

1 Heat the oven to 180C/Gas 4. Wash the potatoes if necessary and pat dry. Cover the base of a small roasting tin with the salt and nestle the potatoes in the flakes. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until tender when pierced with a thin skewer.
2 Meanwhile, grill the pancetta or bacon until crisp, then crush roughly into small pieces. Set aside.
3 When the potatoes are tender, remove each one and hold in a tea towel while you scoop out half of the centre in a neat round using a spoon or melon baller. You may find that you need to score the skins first with a thin, sharp knife.
4 Mix the scooped-out potato with the crème fraîche and chives, and season with pepper. Spoon the mixture into the centre of each potato, then top with the pancetta or bacon and the shavings of Emmenthal cheese, broken roughly to fit the potato tops. The cheese should melt in the residual heat. If this does not happen, pop the potatoes back into the oven for a few minutes. Serve hot.

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