Hedge hog potatoes

When I first met Harry he had a full time cook. His name was Dominique. Of course Dominique and I became instant friends and spent hours together in the kitchen.

I quizzed him on his sauces, his duck dishes, and his vinaigrettes. Dominique was an amazing cook and I learned a lot from him. Although Harry used to say "I taught him everything he knows", he actually learned his craft in an extremely regimented kitchen back home in France.

Dominique ran a very tight schedule and before long I found myself dressed and sitting at the table at seven sharp anticipating yet another gastronomic extravaganza.

One Friday evening he served schnitzel with hedge hog potatoes and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. When I asked him how he did his potatoes, this is what he said………

Pre heat the oven to 180, peel the potatoes and cut in half. Boil in salted water until just tender and drain. Stand the potatoes for 30 minutes to dry.

Prepare a baking tray with baking paper and spray with olive oil. Place each potato cut side down on the tray and with a fork "scratch" the other side so it's a bit spiky like a hedge hog.

Spray the potatoes with olive oil and season well with Maldon salt. Bake until nice and golden. They should be soft and mushy on the inside and crunchy on the outside.

This Hedge Hog Potatoes recipe serves 4; you need: 500 grams Sebago potatoes, Maldon Salt, olive oil.

Since Dominique introduced me to these little spiky wonders, I've gained what some might say is a bit of a potato preoccupation, with a niggling desire to bump them up alongside every meal I cook. To keep things interesting for old man "not spuds again" Harry, I have a list of all the different ways I squeeze them in to our meals.

• Creamy garlic mash

• Roasted with rosemary and sea salt

• Baked with chicken stock, lemon and bay

• Gratin

• Chunky chips with chilli salt

• Baked whole in their jackets with olive oil and herbs from the garden

• Little chats boiled with parsley butter

• Zapped in the microwave, then cut in half with sour cream and chives

• Warm potato salad with seeded mustard, parsley and shallot

• Hedge hogs of course, then back to the beginning to creamy garlic mash again.

  If you feel the need to run out and buy your favourite variety of potato and get stuck in, spare a thought for those silly people on their silly carb free diets, or how about the starving people of Ireland between 1845 and 1849 who almost starved to death through the lack of the potato.

  Some facts about the humble potato

  The potato is a hero really; in fact the industrial revolution could not have happened without it, fuelling the workers that were funnelled into the cities of Europe.

  The potato is a fine vegetable, high in nutrients and surprisingly low in fat. In the French, Dutch and German languages it is known as "apple of the earth".

  It is the fourth most important food crop in the world (after rice, corn and wheat). It has an advantage over the top three crops, in that it can be grown more quickly in harsher conditions, on less land and still deliver more produce per hectare.

  Well got to go now….I’m heading up the road armed with a couple of my chunky beef pies, to where my potato growing neighbours live. Last week I bribed them with a lemon curd cheese cake for a sack of just harvested Sebago, washed in the river I might add.

  Call me crazy, but I’ve never tasted anything quite as amazing as that…it’s the simple things in life that are often the best.

  YOUR SAY: Got a great potato dish? Tell us below!