I recently went to Paris for a work trip and ate so much while I was there. The portions of serving were huge, so I tried my best to order mainly dishes with vegetables to get enough fibre throughout the day. We had crepe-like galettes, filled with spinach and cheese, vegetarian momos at a rather authentic Tibetan eatery, grilled octopus in curry sauce (the octopus was really delectable!), French sweet desserts, grilled vegetables tomato pasta, an atas lunch which served great risotto etc. On my last night there, a huge plate of eight slices of foccacia with avocado, ham, rocket leaves and shaved cheese toppings was served to me, alone. I had thought that most antipasti dishes were small dishes – appetisers. I was so wrong. I only finished the toppings and one slice of foccacia anyway. And brought the rest of them home since I was going to fly out the next morning. What a gastronomic adventure! It wouldn’t have been possible, really, without the great company I had during the trip.
So, back at home. After sleeping away my jetlag, I decide that I need to do something simple this weekend – hasselback potatoes. This dish apparently originated from Sweden, using the hasselbacking method of slicing and cutting up an ingredient thinly to allow it to be cooked and/or baked such that it becomes crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. You can safely assume this method can be applied to all other root vegetables too, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes and tapioca. But most of the time, it’s potatoes that we see served hasselbacked.
The slicing and the baking is the most crucial. Thereafter, you can add on any toppings that you like and prefer, to make this a very personal dish of yours.
Ingredients:
- Baby potato: 800g
- Olive oil: 2 tbsp
- Salt: 1 tsp
- Ground blackpepper: 1 tsp
- Breadcrumb: 50g
- Ground walnut: 40g
- Parmesan cheese: 50g
- Sour cream: to serve with
- Mayonnaise: to serve with
Method:
- Preheat oven at 180 degrees Celsius.
- Place potatoes between a pair of chopsticks. Using a knife, carefully cut slits in the potatoes 2/3 of the way to the bottom of each potato, until the knife reaches the chopsticks. The slits should be as thin as possible.
- Place potatoes slit sides up on greased baking paper in a baking tray. Sprinkle olive oil, salt and blackpepper and coat potatoes evenly.
- Bake 1 hour till cooked.
- Combine breadcrumbs, ground walnut and Parmesan cheese. Sprinkle over baked potatoes. Bake another 15min at the same temperature.
- Serve hot with sour cream and mayonnaise.
Trick:
- Try to slice the potatoes as thinly as you can so that they can be baked as crisp as possible. Mine can definitely be a lot thinner still, but till next time!
Serving:
3 persons as main dish
