wedgie bake.

** WARNING- this recipe is not healthy but promises to be a crowd pleaser at your next BBQ or get-together.

Outside of Lamb chops and Snags (sausages) an Aussie BBQ isn't truly complete without a good ol' potato bake.  I am not sure what the equivalent would be in American terms... maybe potato casserole? Either way, it is very popular over here and is always a crowd pleaser.  While there are many, many recipes and versions of this favourite, it always involves peeling and thinly slicing many, many potatoes which is often the reason people skip the potato bake and go for the easy garden salad instead. That is until now!

A few months ago a friend of our introduced us to WEDGIE BAKE and we have never looked back! It is made just like potato bake but with wedges instead of raw potatoes. GENIUS!

What's that?? You want to learn how to make this amazingly unhealthy yet popular dish?

What you need:

• wedges (duh)
• shreeded cheese
• 200g diced bacon
• 300ml cream
• 1 red onion
• 4 cloves of garlic
• chili powder
• mixed herbs

Start by preheating your oven to 225°C (425°F).



The next thing I did was cook the bacon pieces about half through. I am not sure this is really necessary but I am always worried about putting raw meat in dishes without cooking if first.



Pour your cream in a medium sized mixing bowl...



and mix in chilli powder, chopped garlic and mix herbs. As always, I just guesstimate these amounts until I am satisfied with the taste.



Roughly chop the red onion.



Line the bottom of your baking dish with frozen wedges.



Pour half of your cream and spice mix over the wedges.



Sprinkle half of the bacon and half of the chopped onion on top of the wedges so it looks like this.



Finally, sprinkle shredded cheese on top.



Then repeat... wedges, spiced cream, bacon, onion, cheese. You can continue to add more layers if your dish is smaller but deeper than the one I used. Mine was rather big and shallow so I only needed to do two layers to fill the dish (half the ingredients in the first layer, half in the second).



Cover with foil and place your completed potato bake in the pre-heated oven for about 40 minutes. Uncover at 40 minutes, add more shreeded cheese to the top and turn your oven to grill (or broil in the US) until the top is golden brown and crispy like this!



Since we were off to a BBQ at a friends house, I loaded the steaming hot, potato, cheese goodness into my new little casserole carrier and we were off.



And there you have it. Fast, easy and so totally yummy!