Quick little recipe this evening – these potatoes look extremely fancy and taste crispy and salty and perfect. If you want to make these potatoes the only strong recommendation I offer is that you choose an extra sharp knife otherwise the process becomes tedious and unpleasant. I chose this Nigella Lawson recipe last night to go with some chicken for an easy Saturday supper spent watching Jeeves & Wooster- I still don’t know very many people here in Vancouver yet so my introversion skills are being expertly honed; at this point I’m even admitting to myself some outside contact might be an appropriate call to action at the moment. Anyway, these are really good and impressive to look at so I urge you to make them whenever you next feel a yearning for even-better than roasted potatoes – your tastes will obviously vary but I adore these a little bit over-cooked rather than under as all of the surface area browns and caramelizes while the inside remains creamy and light.

hasselback potatoes:

As many medium-sized new potatoes as you’d like (not the really tiny ones)

A light olive oil or canola oil

Kosher salt

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

2. Scrub the potatoes and allow them to dry in a colander while you line a baking sheet/jelly roll tin with parchment paper. Drizzle some oil on the paper and distribute it over the whole surface with your fingers; sprinkle some salt over the oil.

3. Put a potato in the basin of a wooden spoon on it’s side, this prevents the potato from slipping around and possible accidents. At about 2 mm intervals slice 3/4 of the way through the potato until one whole side has been sliced. Place the potato cut side down on the baking sheet and repeat with the remaining potatoes. When they are all ready to go drizzle a little bit more oil over the backs of the potatoes before putting in the oven.

4. Start checking around 40 minutes to see if the cut side of the potatoes are crispy enough for your taste at which point they need to flipped onto their backs and roasted for another 15-20 minutes.

I have been listening to Joni Mitchell almost all of the time for about the past 2 years, there is something so familiar to me in both terms of sound and lyrical content, like it is inherently part of my first memories of colour and shape. I know that might sound ridiculous but when I think of major life events thus far in my life I feel like Joni Mitchell always provides an always germane soundtrack to things that have unfolded brightly and less-than brightly over the past 26 years.

Joni Mitchell – Chelsea Morning