I love Sriracha. I love playing with it because it does really interesting things when it’s cooked. It’s complex and simple at the same time. Unlike a lot of hot sauces, it doesn’t just taste like vinegar and heat – there’s sweetness, smoke and a great chili flavor underneath the (considerable) heat. When you cook it, the heat mellows and the other flavors come out.
It’s the first day back to work after the holidays (I work from home) and the fridge is a little empty and the cupboard a little bare, and everyone else is still off from school, so they’re out shopping and having fun while I’m here in my pajama pants cranking out code.
I decided it was a good day for baked potatoes – but those are boring – and that’s where today’s recipe came from: boredom, scarcity and pajama pants.
Ingredients
- Russet potatoes (these were pretty small, and I would have preferred Yukon Gold, but this is what I had)
- Sriracha
- Whatever you normally put on a baked potato. For me, that’s:
- Butter
- Sour cream
- Salt
- Pepper
- and today only, shredded cheddar cheese and some more Sriracha
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 375
- Wash the potatoes
- Poke holes in them with a fork
- Squirt a quarter-sized dollop of Sriracha on each potato and rub it all over the potato with your hands.
- Put the potatoes in the oven.
- Now wash your hands!! You don’t want to get any of that Sriracha in your eyes. It sucks.
- Check the potatoes after about 45 minutes. Stick ’em with a fork. If the fork goes in and comes out easily, they’re done.
- Take the taters out of the oven, split them in two and adorn them however you see fit. Maybe even with some more Sriracha.
Now eat them! You should notice the skin is better than usual, a little crisper, a little richer in flavor, like the potato that all other potatoes look up to as a surrogate father figure.
This was a lot of words for such a simple recipe.