Hasselback potatoes

Not potato weekend, but potatoes on a weekend. This time, I tried The Kitchn's recipe for Hasselback potatoes. The photo reminded me of the potato roast that my sister-in-law introduced me to, but without the need to peel potatoes or to cook 4 pounds of them.

Set your oven to 425. Wash your potatoes. I made two, one for me and one for the husband. No need to peel.

Slice the potatoes thinly, but not all of the way through. You can see that I went a bit too far on one of my cuts in the potato on the right in the photo below, but it was still connected a bit and stayed together.

Brush the potatoes with olive oil (or a combination of olive oil and butter, according to the recipe, but I just used olive oil). Then bake for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, take the potatoes out and brush with more olive oil, getting the brush in between each slice. Then bake for another 30 minutes.

Take out the potatoes and stuff with chopped fresh herbs. The recipe suggests that other things could be stuffed in, such as cheese or bacon. Bake for 10 more minutes.

Here are the finished potatoes.

To me, these potatoes were better than the potato roast (crispy outsides, but not reminding me of dehydrated potatoes, as the potato roast edges did). It certainly felt much easier: no peeling of potatoes and no stuffing potatoes into a baking dish. It also allowed me to make two potatoes, one for each person, instead of an amount that needs to fit into a baking dish to allow the potato slices to stand up.

I think these potatoes would be good with thin slices of shallots or garlic added between the cut slices of potatoes. Either would need to be added at the start of cooking, to allow for sufficient baking time.

I really enjoyed this cooking method and will make potatoes this way again. It just has to be done on a night where you have an hour and fifteen minutes before you want to eat dinner....