Twice Baked Potatoes with Caviar

This year’s Valentine’s Day feast at Cooking by the Book featured duck breast:

Seared Duck Breast Glazed with Roasted Garlic, Pomegranate Molasses, Ginger and Armagnac

The richness of that duck demands that the side dishes rise above the norm. “Side dish” can almost be a pejorative term, which is tragic. A side dish needs to sparkle. It’s the chrome on the car of your main dish.

Here the chrome is crème fraiche and caviar.

Suzen and I love twice-baked potatoes because they give you the ability to layer in some much more flavor. Here, the first-baked potatoes have their insides scooped out and mashed with a healthy dose of butter, milk and egg white, then scented with shallot, lemon zest and nutmeg. The mixture, once passed through a food mill or ricer, is piped back into the potato shells for that second round of baking. Once out of the oven, the potatoes are topped with crème fraiche and caviar. The result is happy to the eye and to your mouth.

When you make this, and I hope you do, go easy on the lemon zest. Yes, you will taste it and it’s lovely but these are potatoes and not lemon pies!

Use large potatoes as we did. With the crème fraiche and caviar, a person only needs one half to be thoroughly satisfying. Especially when paired with that duck!

Yield: serves 12

Ingredients:

6 russet potatoes, scrubbed
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup milk
1large egg white, lightly beaten
1 small shallot, finely minced
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
Salt to taste
Pinch of grated nutmeg
1cup crème fraiche
4 ounces caviar

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 425°F for 20 minutes. Prick potatoes and bake until about 1 hour. Let potatoes cool, then halve lengthwise. Scoop out pulp in each half, taking care to leave about 1/8 inch worth of pulp with skin intact. Reduce the oven temperature to 400°F.

Meanwhile, press the pulp through a food mill or ricer set over a mixing bowl. Beat in the butter, milk, egg and egg white. Stir in the shallot and lemon zest; season with salt and nutmeg. Transfer the potato mixture to a pastry bag or tube fitted with a large star tip. Pipe into each potato half. Use the back of a teaspoon to press an indentation in the center of each swirl (large enough to hold sour cream garnished with caviar). Place the potato halves on a baking sheet and bake until golden (about 10 minutes). Transfer to serving plate and top each twice-baked potato with sour cream and garnish with caviar.

Twice Baked Potatoes with Caviar