Fully Loaded Truffle Accented Hasselback Potatoes

Who doesn't love fully loaded potato anything?! Roasted potatoes gives us such a beautiful, comforting, starchy base that it just begs to be loaded up with a myriad of toppings to add to the awesomeness!

Roasted potatoes can take many forms - you can have anything from the classic cut potatoes, the funky smashed chats for maximum crispy surface areas, to the fancy looking but very simple Hasselback potatoes!

Very simply, a hasselback potato is a potato that's sliced thinly, but not all the way through, so you get an accordion-like fanning effect. This is best done on long, oval shaped potatoes, but if your potato is circular, you can do what I did, and just cut it in half. Upon roasting, these thin layers crisp up and fan out, much like conjoined potato chips, and creating a stunning look to what might have otherwise been your plain ol' roast potatoes.



For these, I decided to load it up and make it a little more special. Inspired by hasselback potatoes that I'd seen at Victor Churchill, I decided to try my hand at a salami and cheese stuffed hasselback potatoes.

Fully Loaded Hasselback Potatoes: 

1 kg roasting potatoes
100g gruyere cheese
150g thinly sliced mild salami
2 tsp truffle oil
2 tsp dried mixed herbs
50g butter (or garlic butter, whichever you prefer)
Oil
Salt and Pepper
Wooden disposable chopsticks or an old wooden spoon

Preheat the oven to 180C, fan forced.

Halve the potatoes lengthways (I was using circular potatoes) or lay longways on a chopping board. Using a pair of chopsticks on either side of the potato (or lay whole potato in a wooden spoon as a guide), slice down into the potatoes, leaving the very bottom intact. I found that slicing down with the wooden chopsticks on either side really helped.

When you've finished cutting the potatoes, just give them a quick rinse under running water, making sure to fan out the slices gently with your thumb. This will help the slices not stick together as it roasts.

Then lay out the potato on a roasting tray, and drizzle some oil over (I used vegetable). Add your salt and pepper, and dot evenly with butter and sprinkle over the dried herbs. You can also use herbed butters instead if you have any on hand - I keep a steady supply in my freezer when I harvest herbs from my garden. Season liberally with salt and pepper, and roast till the potatoes are mostly cooked. Mine took about 30 minutes, but it can vary depending on the size of your potatoes.

While the potatoes are roasting, cut up your salmi into manageable pieces that you can slide in-between the layers. Mine were cut into 9 pieces - a third across and vertically.

You'll see the slices start fanning out slightly, and once the potatoes are mostly cooked - all you need to do is melt the cheese after this - take the potatoes out of the oven. If you're preparing this in advanced, you can cool the potatoes at this point and warm it up when you're ready to serve.

Then, using a bread knife to help you, slide the salami slices in-between the fanned out slices in your potato. You don't have to do all of them - I know it can be extremely tedious - I just started in the middle and added some either way. You can make them as stuffed as you choose.

Then finely grate the gruyere over the top of it, and put back into the oven to melt the cheese, and slightly crisp the edges of the salami.

Once it's done to your liking, remove the potatoes from the oven, and while it's hot, drizzle the truffle oil over and serve immediately. Feel free to add an extra grate of pepper if you'd like. And don't forget the crispy bits of melted gruyere that is certain to be on the bottom of the tray!!! I just love how they look like lacey bits of cheese.

And there you have it, an impressive looking side to any roast lunch or dinner, made special with just a little bit of love.