Potato Bake

Potato Bake is one of those special indulgences in life. Go to any family or friends backyard BBQ & you are likely to get one served up. When I realised we had not had potato bake in the whole time we have been travelling I realised I had to fix that problem & whip one up. I stick with very traditional with how I make mine, just like my Mum taught me. The only thing I do a bit different is add a bit of chopped bacon mixed in with the cheese on top for an extra special topping. I have to admit we ate the whole tray of potato bake, it wasn't a huge tray, but so delicious we couldn't leave any. It goes great in the camp oven & served with something extra special like a rack of lamb it was a pretty special meal & made up our Australia Day feast. 

Potato Bake

Serves 2 but easy to adjust for more people 

 

Ingredients

-  2-4 peeled potatoes sliced into about 2mm thick slices

- 1 small onion sliced

- 3 gloves of garlic finely diced

- 4 rashers of bacon diced (reserve 1 rashers worth for the topping)

- 150ml of thickened cream

- 1 cup of grated cheese

- salt & pepper

Directions

- start your fire at least an hour before you want to cook to get enough coals

- slice up the potato & onion & chop the garlic

- dice up your bacon

- in a tray layer 1/4 of the potato, then 1/3 of the onion & garlic

- season with salt & pepper

- add 1/3 of the bacon pieces

- continue layering the potato, onion, garlic & bacon, finishing with a layer of potato

- pour over the cream on the top, it will work its way through the layers as it cooks

- finish by making the topping, by mixing the cheese & bacon together & sprinkling over the top

- warm your camp oven for 5 minutes over the fire

- place the potato bake in the oven

- place 1 1/2 shovels of coals below the camp oven & the same on top

- it should take about 40 minutes to cook

- if you are not cooking anything else with it as below, remove the potato bake & cover with foil & allow to rest for 10 minutes before serving

We served ours with a rack of lamb

- take your lamb out the fridge when you start cooking the potato bake to bring it to room temperature

- remove it from the plastic wrapping & pat dry with paper towels

- season with salt & pepper

- when the  potato bake has been cooking for 30 minutes, check how's it going & add in your rack of lamb to the camp oven

- add more coals to the bottom & top if needed

- after 10 minutes, remove the camp oven lid & take out the potato bake to rest (as above)

- the lamb will take another 10-15 minutes, put another shovel of coals on top to brown up the fat layer

- remove the lamb & rest for 5 minutes before carving

- serve with your choice of salad or veggies