Sour cream and onion potato, caviar

It’s a happy place between a baked potato, a sweet potato, sour cream and onion and a caviar bump. All of those things, in one. Oh my stars!

The holiday season is a time when the joy around food is heightened to a new level — alas, this sweet little thing enters the chat.

Japanese sweet potato (purple skin, light color inside) is a beautiful, wonderful thing. It has a wonderful, light and pillowy texture once cooked and just a touch of sweetness past a regular sweet potato. It makes an excellent mash due to it’s softness and sweetness — plus I find it has less tendency to get overworked like regular potato does.

What I propose you do is roast the potatoes whole, slice the top off and remove the insides, leaving behind the jacket as a cup.

Mash the inside with caramelised onion puree and sour cream, then put it back into the jacket cup. Roast again to get a crust.

Garnish with sour cream, caviar, potato chips and chives. Life’s gooood.

Ingredients:

1.5 kg japanese sweet potato

3 tbsp olive oil, separately used

550g brown onion, sliced thin

3 tbsp pure cream, or heavy cream

2 tbsp unsalted butter

250g sour cream for the mash

1 tbsp onion powder

pinch of salt

Garnish:

extra sour cream

sour cream and onion potato chips, crushed

chives, thinly sliced

chive blossoms

caviar

Method:

To caramelise the onions: add onions to a fry pan over low heat with 2 tbsp of olive oil. Add a pinch of salt and saute as they sweat down for about 30 minutes. Add a splash of water every now and then to prevent the sticky bits from burning. Remove from the heat once they are golden brown.

Let cool, then blend in a food processor to create a puree.

Preheat oven to 200C/390F fan forced. Scrub the potatoes clean and pat dry. Add to a baking tray and drizzle with 1 tbsp olive oil. Rub the oil around the potatoes individually with your hands so they are well greased. Prick holes around them using a fork. Roast for approximately 45 minutes or so, until they are soft and the skin easily comes off. Let cool slightly but leave the oven on.

Slice off 1/3 from the top of the potato. Scoop out the inside and add to a mixing bowl. Do this with all of them.

Mash the potato mixture with the caramelised onion puree and leave the skins/cups off to the side so we can fill them back up soon.

Add cream, sour cream, butter, onion powder, salt and mash until it’s smooth and whipped. I used an electric hand mixer to get it even more smooth.

Add the potato mash to a piping bag and pipe the mash into the jacket cups. If you don’t have a piping bag, just use a spoon to fill up the potato cups, then place these filled cups back into the oven for 15-20 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Turn off the heat and let them cool slightly to a bit higher than room temperature.

Add sour cream to a piping bag and pipe the sour cream onto the potato. If the potato is too hot, the sour cream will melt straight away.

Crush potato chips over top, sprinkle chives and chive blossoms then add a tsp of caviar.