Thanksgiving is around the corner. Dazzle your guests with these inventive, healthy and delicious side dishes!
Here are the preparation hints – See Recipe on bottom for full details!
Hasselback Sweet Potatoes with Aged Gouda – Maple Syrup Glaze: Not your typical mashed sweet potatoes with marshmallows. Aren’t we ready for an update? This one looks fancy, but is actually easy to pull together.
Hasselback Potatoes are the Swedish version of baked potatoes. These baked sweet potato* “fans” were popularized as the namesake dish of the restaurant at the Hasselbacken Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden.
Here’s the method: Slice the peeled potatoes in 1/4” intervals, not quite through the bottom. Place in a baking pan to fit with a glaze of maple syrup, extra virgin olive oil and cinnamon. Bake covered until softened. The potatoes will fan out beautifully. Fill the crevices with chopped garlic and freshly chopped rosemary.
Bake a second time until the glaze is syrupy and the potatoes are bursting with flavor and fully cooked. Top with an aged, nutty, grated L’Amuse gouda cheese** and bake until bubbly.
You can make these a few days ahead – phew!
Ready for company on a Vintage Ironstone Platter. The potatoes will fan out beautifully, Stuff with garlic, top with rosemary and baste with maple glaze
Recipe: Hasselback Sweet Potatoes with Aged Gouda – Maple Syrup Glaze
These “fanned” sweet potatoes simply bake in the oven with a syrupy, maple glaze. Tuck garlic in the crevices and sprinkle with fresh rosemary. I love adding a touch of grated, aged gouda cheese on top – your company will scream”YUM!” These delicious potatoes just look fancy – but are actually easy to pull together.
- 4 large sweet potatoes, peeled, organic
- 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oi
- 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon marash pepper, or red pepper flakes
- 3 large fresh garlic cloves, peeled and coarsely chopped
- 1 ½ teaspoons fresh rosemary, stemmed and chopped
- ½ cup filtered water
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon natural maple sugar, optional
Ingredients: Organic Sweet Potatoes, Local Garlic, Cinnamon, Pure Maple Syrup, Marash Pepper, Fresh Rosemary and Aged L’Amuse Gouda Cheese
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place 2 wooden spoons (tapered ends) next to a potato on a cutting board. Cut straight down with a knife to the bottom – not cutting all the way through.
Place potatoes with wooden spoons (or chopsticks) on each side as a guide – cut in 1/4 ” intervals, not all the way through for a perfect “fan” shape
The spoons act as a guide (can use chopsticks too), you do not want to cut all the way through. Continue cutting slits down the potato at 1/4 inch intervals. Cut all the potatoes and place them in a heavy baking pan to fit.
Make a glaze: mix together in a small bowl, the olive oil, 2 T. maple syrup, salt, cinnamon and pepper flakes. Brush over the potatoes.
Cover with heavy foil, crimp tightly.
Bake in the oven one hour until the potatoes are mostly cooked, and they “fan out.”
Carefully remove the foil and tuck the garlic into all the crevices. Top with the rosemary.
Pour 1/2 cup of water and 1 T.maple syrup on the bottom of the pan. Bast with the glaze over the potatoes.
Bake uncovered until the potatoes are fully cooked, and slightly browned – caramelized around the edges.
Remove from the oven. Top each with some maple sugar for an extra boost of maple flavor.
Can make at this point up to 2 days before serving.
To serve: add grated gouda cheese evenly over the warm Hasselback potatoes. Bake until melted and bubbly, about 5 minutes. Broil 6″ from the heat source for crispier potatoes, watch carefully. Servings: 8 – 12
History: Hasselback Potatoes are the Swedish version of baked potatoes. These baked sweet potato “fans” were popularized as the namesake dish of the restaurant at the Hasselbacken Hotel in Stockholm, Sweden. This recipe may not be reproduced without the consent of it’s author, Karen Sheer.
Where to locate ingredients in Greenwich:
*Sweet Potatoes from Oxen Hill Farm, Greenwich Farmers’ Market, Horseneck Lot (Last Day Nov. 21)
**L’Amouche Gouda Cheese from the Greenwich Cheese Company, 145 E Putnam Ave in Greenwich
*** Augustine’s Farm, 1332 King Street, Greenwich
*** Smith’s Acres, Greenwich Farmers’ Market, in Horseneck Lot
**** Whole Foods Market, 90 E Putnam Avenue, Greenwich
Karen Sheer lives and cooks in Greenwich. She is a professional chef, writer, caterer, photographer and food consultant specializing in original recipes. Her blog is “A Zest For Life”– Karen’s Obsession with Food and Style.
Each recipe is inventive, original and well tested. Karen’s recipes are written to give you the feeling she is in the kitchen with you coaching step by step. Health and wellness are her passions. Karen’s recipes promote fresh, local ingredients which lead to a healthier lifestyle!