Recipe: Swedish "Fan" Potatoes (Hasselbacks)

Swedish "Fan" Potatoes

Hasselbacks
Traditional
Makes 8 servings
Serve immediately.
Do not refrigerate or freeze.

Lamb
Roast Boned Lamb Stuffed
with a Pinwheel of Fresh Herbs,
Swedish "Fan" Potatoes, and
Minted Peas and Cucumber
with Shallots.

The curious name derives from that of a restaurant in Sweden which invented the method of part-slicing the potatoes in a fan shape before roasting. For extra flavor, strew some garlic cloves in the roasting dish, which will perfume the oil with which the potatoes are basted. The garlic is roasted to a creamy purée which is scooped out of its skin on the plate. Cook the potatoes in a gratin dish which can then go straight to the table.

8 large (8-ounce) baking potatoes,
peeled and cut across in half
2 teaspoons sea salt, approximately
12 unpeeled garlic cloves (optional)
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons margarine

In a large pot, cover the halves of potato with cold water and 1 teaspoon of the sea salt and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes. Remove from the heat. Pour off the water, cover the pan with a cloth, and leave for 2 minutes to absorb any surface moisture. When cool enough to handle, push a skewer lengthwise through the bottom third of each potato in turn, then slice down at 1/4-inch intervals at a slight angle just as far as the skewer. Remove the skewer.

Arrange the potatoes in one layer in a gratin dish or roasting pan surrounded by the cloves of garlic, if using.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

When ready to roast, heat the oil and margarine until steaming (1 minute in the microwave), then pour over the potatoes and sprinkle with more sea salt. Roast for 1 hour, basting three times in the last 1/2 hour.

The potatoes can be kept hot without going soggy at 220 degrees F for up to 30 minutes.

Serve from the dish with roast meats or poultry.

Olive oil actually gives a better color and flavor to roast potatoes than sunflower or canola oil. However, you don't need to use the extra-virgin oil, which in any case has too fruity a flavor to marry with potatoes. Instead, use "pure" olive oil—a blend of refined (tasteless) oil with extra-virgin, which is lighter in flavor and therefore excellent for use when roasting, frying, or making mayonnaise, where you don't want the flavor to dominate. I've recently used this oil with great success for dinner party potatoes. As olive oil is the favored dietary oil of the moment, I've even felt virtuous, since despite giving my guests a large, if tasty, dollop of calories, I was also boosting their intake of monounsaturates.

Buy the Book!

Mother and Daughter Jewish Cooking
Two Generations of Jewish Women Share
Traditional and Contemporary Recipes
By Evelyn Rose and Judi Rose
William Morrow, March 2000
Hardcover, $25.00
ISBN: 0-688-16451-X
Recipe reprinted by permission.