There is nothing better when you’re hungry than a hot, steaming, fluffy jacket potato. Even simply served with a knob of butter or a drizzle of olive oil, it is one of the most comforting things to eat.

Serves 4

Ingredients

• • 4 baking potatoes or sweet potatoes
• • olive oil
• • sea salt
• 
  
• Mackerel pâté
• • 200g smoked mackerel fillets
• • 2 spring onions
• • 1 lemon
• • 100g light Philadelphia cream cheese
• • 1 tablespoon creamed horseradish
• • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• • 1 punnet of cress

To bake your potatoes

• 
• 
• 

• Preheat the oven to 190şC/375şF/gas 5
• Wash the potatoes under cold running water, and scrub them with a brush to get rid of any dirt
• Prick them all over with a fork so they don’t explode in the oven

To bake your potatoes

• 
• 
• 

• Drizzle them with a little olive oil
• Sprinkle over a pinch of salt, then rub this into them
• Place in a baking tray and cook in the hot oven for 1 hour to 1 hour and 20 minutes, depending on how large your spuds are

To prepare your pâté

• 
• 
• 

• If you want to pull the skin off each piece of mackerel, do this now and discard it
• Trim and finely slice the spring onions
• Break the mackerel into chunks

To prepare your pâté

• 
• 
• 

• Finely grate over the zest of one of your lemons, then cut it in half
• Put the cream cheese into a large bowl
• Add the creamed horseradish

To prepare your pâté

• 
• 
• 

• Chop up the mackerel, spring onions and lemon zest on a chopping board, mixing everything together as you chop until you have a coarse paste
• Add this to the bowl with the cream cheese and horseradish
• Season to taste with salt and pepper, squeeze in the juice of your zested lemon, and mix again

To serve your potatoes

• 
• 
• 

• Split open your potatoes and divide the mackerel pâté between them
• Snip over a little cress or scatter with parsley leaves before serving