Hasselback Potato - more than just a baked potato!

Hasselback Potato recipe

Wash your tattie. Cut into slices without going right through - like leaves in a book. Each slice not thicker than 2mm. A great trick is to cut the potato on a wooden spoon so the knife doesn't go right through (see below).

Brush with olive oil and celery salt. Then depending on size (not too big) cook at 175 degrees centigrade (gas mark 3) until the potato skin look crisp and the flesh feels soft - usually 45 to 60 minutes. Ten minutes before it's cooked, you may wish to sprinkle a generous amount of cheese on top.

This is a Swedish version of baked potatoes named after a dish at the Hasselbacken Hotel's restaurant in Stockholm. My Norwegian partner introduced me to them - just one more reason why I love her!

Philip Booth

Potatoes in Space

In 1995 potatoes were the first plants to be grown in space when they were taken on board the space shuttle Columbia.

The 60-day Potato diet man

Man cannot live on bread alone, but can he live on nothing but potatoes? That was the question posed by Grist. This is what they wrote:

Chris Voigt, chief of the Washington State Potato Commission, is finding out firsthand by eating nothing but 20 potatoes a day for two months. (Why 20? To eat enough calories to maintain his current weight.)

Voigt was feeling steamed (or perhaps boiled) at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's recent spurning of the spud when it blocked the vegetable from a list of subsidized foods in low-income programs. "The potato is not the scourge of the Earth," he said. And with plenty of nutrients like potassium, Vitamin C, and protein, it's definitely not. But going on yet another of America's extreme diets may not exactly be getting to the root of the problem with potatoes. (For that, I'll direct you to the deep-fryer.)

Already practically Mr. Potato Head with a job like his, this stunt will surely bake in that title for Voigt, who admits 20 potatoes a day does not constitute a balanced diet. Half way through the gastronomic experiment, he seems to be feeling rather full and rather bored with only eating potatoes dressed up with a little oil, herbs, or bouillon. Which explains why he's now making videos of mashing potatoes with a potato launcher.

See Grist story plus video here.

Fish and Chips for Everyone!

During the second world war the minister of food declared that Fish and Chips should be one of the few foods not to be rationed. Do what you like to the British, but don't take away our Fish and Chips!