Kitty Coles, food writer and food stylist

“I love serving a pyramid of jacket potatoes at festive dinner parties: think of it as the savoury croquembouche of Christmas. It’s half crispy potatoes, half mash – buttery and very easy. Mounded up, dripping with butter and wedged or grated with cheese and pickles, the table always oohs and ahhs – not at the impressive main, but at the mountain of potatoes.

“I love to bake a few whole onions with the potatoes, so you get really soft onion to scoop with your potato. Just load the potatoes with a few onions in a large tray and bake in the oven at 200ºC for an hour, or until crisp on the outside and soft in the middle. Score the potatoes and onions in half, then stack then up into a pyramid on a big platter. Add a slice (yes, a slice!) of butter to each, then, for a Christmas version, crisp some sage in another big chunk of bubbling, melted butter for a few minutes, and pour all over.”

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