3048. BAKED SWEET POTATOES with OLIVES, CHILLI, BACON and SMOKED MACKEREL

serves four


4 large orange-fleshed sweet potatoes
1 tablespoon olive oil
150 grams unsmoked back bacon, thinly sliced
6 spring onions, sliced
2 red chillies, seeded and sliced
200 grams smoked mackerel fish fillets, skinned
75 grams black olives, pitted and chopped
25 grams butter

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6. Roast the sweet potatoes for 45 minutes to one hour, or until a knife slides easily into them. When almost ready, heat the oil in a pan and fry the bacon for four minutes over a high heat, until golden. Add the spring onions, chilli, mackerel and olives, and cook for two to three minutes more. When the potatoes are ready, cut a slit down the middle and place a knob of butter in each one. Fill with the mackerel and bacon mixture, and serve hot.

bacon recipe courtesy of: Tonia George, Red Magazine online; Hearst Magazines UK/National Magazine Company Ltd, 72 Broadwick Street, London, W1F 9EP