Sweet Potato Hasselback 21Nov11
It’s almost time for Thanksgiving!!! As soon as I decided to cook this year (about 2 months ago) I have been fine-tuning the menu and trying new takes on old favorites. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it’s pretty much the best excuse to cook all day long. So on top of the traditional Roast Turkey, Stuffing, Roasted Garlic Potatoes and Gravy, I am making my Jalapeño Cornbread, a variety of salads, and my alternative to candied yams or sweet potato…. sweet and savory sweet potato hasselbacks!
I love yams and I love sweet potatoes. I’ll eat them mashed, baked whole, french fried, in risottos and pretty much any other way to cook them. Except with marshmallows on top. I think it’s just a little too sweet for me. Hasselback Potatoes are baked potatoes with slots cut in and stuffed with garlic or breadcrumbs. It’s a Swedish dish… gotta love Swedish design, even in food! So I’ve tried a few variations of this recipe but this is the perfect balance of sweet and savory. You can use both yams and sweet potatoes for this recipe. Yams are generally a little more narrow than the sweet potato so make sure you don’t over cook, they will tend to mush together.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Ingredients:
4 same-sized sweet potatoes, scrubbed and peeled
2-3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 sprig of rosemary
1 teaspoon of brown sugar per potato
1/2 tablespoon of butter per potato
pinch of salt per potato
pinch of fresh ground pepper per potato
tiny dash of cayenne pepper per potato
extra virgin olive oilPreheat oven to 400°F or 205°C
Step 1: The Hasselback Potato
Traditionally Hasselback Potatoes leave the skin on to crisp up but I like the sweet potato version without skin. Find the flat part of the sweet potato and make sure that’s on the bottom. Carefully cut slices into your sweet potato starting from one end. You want to leave about 1/2 cm in between and cut as low as you can without cutting all the way through.Step 2: Assemble!
Insert about 4 or 5 slices of garlic into each sweet potato. Brush the whole thing with some olive oil and place onto a baking tray. Take your 1/2 tablespoon of butter and break it up into little pieces and rub on the ridges of your potato. Now top each one with brown sugar, salt, fresh ground pepper and tiny dash of cayenne. Make sure you spread that brown sugar all along the cracks! Break off a few leaves of rosemary and top each potato with 4-5 leaves.Step 3: Bake!
Place baking tray into the oven at 400°F for about 35-45 minutes or until soft in the middle. Stick a fork in it to test. Check on them at about 20 minutes if you are using yams that are generally thinner. It should be just crisp on the outside and soft in the inside.
I wish everyone a very delicious holiday! Bon appétit!
