Globecooking recipe : Hasselback Potatoes (Sweden)

 

I've been wanting to try hasselback potatoes for a while but two things put me off. The first was that they looked fiddly and the second was that I was pretty sure that once I'd made them, nobody would want regular baked potatoes ever again ! Well, they are actually dead easy to prepare but I think I'm right about the second bit ! I didn't realise that this is a Swedish dish - they are also known as Swedish roast potatoes.

 

 

Take some medium-sized, unpeeled potatoes and make lots of slits a few millimetres apart without cutting right through. My top tip (which I think I picked up from Nigella Lawson originally) is putting the potato on the bowl of a wooden spoon to cut it. This stops it rolling around and also prevents you from cutting right the way through.

 

 

Place the potatoes in an ovenproof dish.

 

 

Melt some butter in the microwave and add a glug of olive oil. Brush over the top of each potato.

 

 

Bake for about an hour overall, depending on the size of the potatoes. They will fan open as they cook so take them out of the oven and brush more of the butter/oil mixture over the top several times, making sure it gets in between the slits.

 

These are half-way between roast and baked potatoes so you could serve them as an accompaniment to a meat dish or as a main meal, with your favourite baked potato toppings. Sprinkled with some rock salt, they're delicious.

 

*** Don't miss my country-by-country globecooking recipe index ! ***