Hassdelback or Hasselhack

Our supper club meets periodically. On this occasion the menu was crab bisque, salad, venison, hasselback potatoes, green beans, cheesecake. And, it was all amazing.

I was voluntold to do the Hasselback potatoes. I had never heard of such a thing, so went off to do research. Once you have finished the cutting they are really easy. But the cutting does require more precision knife work than I am used to. At least it provided the motivation to sharpen my knives.

Ingredients (for 10 people)

10 Medium potatoes. I used Yukon Golds, but tried russets and sweet potatoes while practicing

1 stick butter - I used salted, but if you use unsalted you will need more salt

1/2 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Yes, I know, it's a volume measure, don't hate me)

1 Head of garlic broken into invividual cloves

1 Bunch thyme

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Method

Make a bath of lightly acidulated water (a quart or so with the juice of a lemon). This stops the potatoes browning after they have been cut.

First prepare the potatoes. The trouble with these is that the slices have to be really thin, and you don't want to cut all the way through the potato. The photographs below demonstrate with a russet but I used the same approach with the yukon golds.

You do want to make sure that when you cut the yukon gold in half, you do it lengthwise and keep maximum thickness. This makes the rest of the slicing a whole lot easier.

Cut the potatoes one at a time. Put a potato, cut side directly onto the counter between 2 chopping boards. The longer side of the potato is parallel with the cutting board edges.The chopping boards will act as a gauge to prevent you slicing too far. 

This is the hack mentioned in the title. Most recipes suggest using wooden spoons, but they are too fiddly for me.

Slice the potato crosswise, very thinly - for an average sized Yulon Gold potato, I was getting around 16 slices. Put the potatoes into the acidulated water.

In a microwave safe bowl put the thyme, crushed garlic cloves, butter, oil, salt, pepper. Microwave at 50% power for a couple of inutes, and then leave to infuse.

Set an oven rackto the lower middle. Preheat the oven to 425F while the oil/herb/butter/garlic mixture is steeping.

Place the potatoes, flat side down, onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Reheat the oil/herb/butter/garlic mixture and brush over the potatoes, trying tto get liquid between the slices. At this stage that will be difficult, but as they cook, the potatoes will open up.

Put the baking sheet into the oven and set a 20 minute timer. After 20 minutes, baste the potatoes again with the oil/herb/butter/garlic mixture. This time it is easier to get it between the slices. Turn the oven down to 400F. 

Baste twice more at 15 minute intervals. Again working as much of the oil/herb/butter/garlic mixture into the slits as possible.

If you are baking in a non-fan assisted ovent, you may need to rotate the pan. I would do it after the second oven basting.