Recipe: Turn Up the Heat With Meatsmith’s Charcoal-Fired Potatoes

Andrew McConnell and Troy Wheeler know their meats. The duo behind top Melbourne butcher Meatsmith have built a reputation for high-quality cuts and premade show stoppers that you can finish cooking at home (including that slow-roasted lamb shoulder).

Luckily, they pay just as much attention to the sides. In this recipe, from their cookbook Meatsmith, the duo give classic potatoes the smokehouse treatment. Instead of roasting them, they bury Yugon Gold taters straight into the coals of an open fire.

“The humble potato cooked in the coals of your open fire is about as comforting as it gets,” they write. “The result is crispy golden skin with a soft buttery interior.” While butter and salt will never let you down, McConnell and Wheeler dress their spuds up with creamy stracciatella and salty, crisp toasted saltbush.

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Meatsmith’s potatoes cooked in coal

Serves 6

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 40 minutes

Ingredients

6 large Yukon Gold potatoes

250g unsalted butter, softened

½ bunch saltbush

300g stracciatella

Salt, to season

Chives, finely chopped, to garnish (optional)

Method

Light a good amount of coals or charcoal in your fire or barbeque – you will need enough to bury the potatoes.

Using the point of a knife, prick the potatoes all over.

Rub them all over with butter, then wrap each of them in a double layer of aluminium foil.

Bury the potatoes in the hot coals and cook for 40 minutes.

Unwrap potatoes to check if they’re done – they should be crisp on the outside and soft in the centre. If not, continue to cook until done.

A few minutes before the potatoes are ready, cook the saltbush over the coals for a few minutes, or until crisp.

Just before serving, open the hot potatoes, cut in half and season with a pinch of sea salt. Arrange the potatoes on a platter cut side up and place a large spoonful of stracciatella on each potato half. Finish the baked potatoes with a few pieces of crisp salt bush leaves and a sprinkling of chives, if using.

This is an edited extract from Meatsmith by Andrew McConnell and Troy Wheeler published by Hardie Grant Books.