How to Cut Hasselback Potatoes - Food Wishes

[Music] hello this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with how to cut Hasselback Potatoes that's right there are hundreds of different Hasselback potato recipes but every one of them has something in common and that is we need to be able to slice the potatoes in a very specific manner and besides learning a very valuable technique I'm also going to show you a little bit of an experiment I did plus one of the worst examples of potato oxidation I've ever encountered in my career but we'll get to that for now let me show you the actual valuable part of this video which is the knife work and to get started the first thing we'll need is enough of the right kind of potato which I recommend should be russet and besides getting enough to fit whatever you're going to cook these in we also want to make sure these are about the same size since we're basically going to cook them whole and we want them to cook evenly so what we'll do is peel those and keep them in a bowl of cold fresh water and then for this method besides a cutting board and knife we are going to need a pair of wooden chopsticks which you probably have in a drawer somewhere but if you don't I just gave you the perfect excuse to order takeout and the first thing we'll do is cut a small slice off the side of the potato which I like to do on the narrow side so the potato sits up as high as possible and we'll trim that little bit off so our potato stays in place as we cut and the reason we have our potato between the Chopsticks is because to prep a Hasselback potato we need to slice down every eighth to a quarter inch almost but not quite all the way through and by using the Chopsticks it is physically impossible to cut all the way through the bottom of the potato and yes instead of Chopsticks you could use a couple wooden spoon handles or if times are really tough you can go out into the woods and grab a couple sticks but no matter what you use this is pretty much a foolproof system and of course as we do these and finish them we're going to put them back in that cold water so the potatoes don't oxidize and turn brown he said foreshadowing in an upcoming scene okay so that's a great tip for how to do these without cutting all the way through but here's another tip for getting those slices the same distance apart which is based on the fact that it's easy to remove your finger than a knife and since as usual we're using that knuckle to guide the knife if I move my finger across the potato the same distance every time and my knife stays against that knuckle then theoretically every one of these Cuts is going to be the same distance apart so a cut is made the finger moves and the knife follows and by the way don't overthink this okay your hands know what to do all right do you think a great dancer is actually thinking it where to put their feet no they just let it happen okay it's People Like Us that think about where to put our feet when we dance which is why we look like that in all those wedding videos but anyway the point is trust your motor skills and just let it happen and that my friends pretty much concludes the useful part of this video and once your potatoes are cut you can proceed with any one of those hundreds of different Hasselback potato recipes I mentioned earlier most of which involve draining these and then slathering them in fat and seasoning them and then roasting them nice and brown and crisp so that's what I started to do and I went ahead and generously greased My Pan with duck fat although pretty much any other animal fat will work including butter and after fatting the pan I went ahead and laid in the potatoes at which point I decided to try and experiment okay instead of Simply seasoning these and roasting them I decided I was going to partially cook these first and then refrigerate them and then roast them since it's a proven scientific fact that if you cook a potato and let it cool and then cook it again it will always every time be crispier which is of course the secret behind every great french fry you've ever had so my plan was to pour about a cup of water in this along with a generous amount of salt and I would bring this to a boil and then cover it and let these potatoes Steam for about seven minutes or so or until I thought the surface of the potatoes were just starting to soften up oh and please note before the lid goes on how these potatoes don't have any dark spots and are pretty much unblemished because they certainly did not stay like that but anyway like I said I covered these and cooked them for about seven minutes at which point I uncovered them but I continued to let them cook over medium-high heat for a few more minutes so as to reduce a little more of that liquid and while that was happening one of the ends of the potatoes fell off which reminds me to tell you do not cut too close to the ends okay even if you don't cut all the way through some of that potato might fall off but if it does just put it back where it was and use another potato to hold it in place and no one will ever know what happened so I fixed that situation and like I said I let a little more of that water evaporate out at which point I turned off the Heats and while still warm I decide to brush these with some more duck fat and as I was doing that I noticed I had a major situation with the appearance right suddenly out of nowhere I had brown spots and the surface of some of the potatoes was turning brown and looking weird and I became disappointed and Confused since that wasn't supposed to happen and I've done similar things before and it hasn't happened but anyway I let those cool and I wrapped them up and popped them in the fridge until fully chilled and I hope for the best but expected the worst which is exactly what I got when I pulled them out of the fridge and unwrapped him since they looked even worse and borderline unusable and I was just about to compost these and start over but then I remembered I'm a man of science and also a man of not wanting to go back outside to buy more potatoes so I decided to press on and cook these just in case this ever happens to you and I went ahead and tossed some fresh thyme into the pan along with some whole garlic cloves and I also applied some more duck fat over the top as well as another generous sprinkling of salts and by the way no I don't open every slice up and place fat and seasoning inside which if you have the time and patience for feel free to do but generally the slices open up as these roast and if you simply baste them a few times while they're cooking you can pretty much achieve the same result but anyway up to you I mean you guys after all the swedes of your Hasselback potato needs which reminds me these were invented in Stockholm in the 1940s which is good to know just in case you ever find yourself on a potato-related trivia game show but anyway after I flavored lubricated and Seasons I went ahead and popped these in a 425 degree oven and I roasted them for about an hour at which point they look like this which I have to admit was not as bad as I thought they would look and then to shine up the tops I went ahead and gave them a little basting with the fat in the pan Which again no matter what recipe you're using you should definitely do two or three times while these roast and then after brushing that delicious Thyme and garlic scented duck fat over the top I tossed in a little fresh thyme for the contractually obligated pictures and then I grabbed a fork so you could hear just how crispy these got oh yeah Fork don't lie and above and beyond the Hasselback potato's unique appearance it's that amazing contrast between that crispy crusty exterior and that beautiful creamy fluffy Center that just makes these things so much fun to eat and yes many versions of this recipe call for adding stock to the pan but as I said earlier to get the crispiest potato possible it has to be pre-cooked and then chilled which gelatinizes the starch and then roasted to get that maximum crispiness so despite the challenges I was able to enjoy this especially with a little bit of roasted garlic which is always nice and I know a workman's not supposed to blame his tools but these are not tools these are potatoes and I'm going to blame them because I really do think it was the potato that caused the discoloration but having said that I will be looking at the comments just in case somebody points out something I did that might have caused these issues but like I said unless I hear something convincing I'm going with definitely it was the potato's fault but anyway that's it how to cut Hasselback Potatoes no matter what recipe you follow or whether you decide to pre-cook these or not I think we showed a really good and easy way to cut these and I really do hope you give it a try soon so please follow the links below even though there's not going to be any ingredient amounts but there will be more info as usual and as always endure

Channel: Food Wishes

Views: 266,757

Keywords: Hasselback, Potatoes, potato, side, dish, demo, cutting, Christmas, recipe, holiday, easy, chef, john, food, wishes, cooking, fancy

Id: WLiSgMAb0Mw

Length: 9min 7sec (547 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 09 2022