Cambozola Baked Potatoes

Indulgent and oozing with melting cambozola, these potatoes, these potatoes are so delicious you just have to try them. James Martin is the master of all things unctuous and this recipe of his, which I have adapted somewhat, is no exception.
These comforting potatoes would be particularly good on a bleak Autumn or Winter's night and are almost a meal in themselves and certainly would be if you added chunks of cooked chicken or ham. For a vegetarian version, leave out the bacon and add, for example, roast squash, parsnip and celery; Jerusalem artichoke would be a particularly good addition. Substitute Taleggio cheese or other mild and soft blue cheese for the cambozola if you wish.
Ingredients
Oven 180c or 160 fan. Serves 6
4 large jacket potatoes, hot or cold
75g butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 fat cloves of garlic
1 large leek, coarsely chopped
85ml dry vermouth/ white wine/
Chicken stock 300ml
Double cream 200g
Cambozola, sliced or chopped (Taleggio/Reblochon/Gruyere would be fine
8 slices of streaky bacon, diced and fried to pale golden
2 good handful panko breadcrumbs
Method



Quarter the cooked jacket potatoes length-ways and sit them skin side down in a single layer in an ovenproof dish.
Melt half the butter in a saucepan and gently fry the onions with a pinch of salt until soft
Grate in the garlic and add the chopped leek. Stir everything around and keep on the heat until the leek is just cooked.
Taste and season with salt and pepper
Now turn up the heat and add the vermouth. Bubble until the volume of the vermouth has reduced by about half
Add the double cream and bubble until it is thick and reduced, about 3 minutes. Check the seasoning again and pour the leek and onion sauce all over the potatoes
Distribute the cambozola evenly over the top Melt the remaining butter in a small pan and stir in the panko crumbs, making them lightly buttery. Stir in the cooked bacon pieces and sprinkle over the top of the cheesy potatoes Bake for approximately 30 minutes until golden, molten and bubbling.
This may be assembled and kept in the fridge before baking for up to 48 hours
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