Parmesan Hasselback Potatoes (serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side)

October 23, 2016August 4, 2018Leave a comment

Parmesan Hasselback Potatoes by The Fat Foodie

In the past few months I’ve discovered a great food blog called Cooking Without Limits which focuses on lovely recipes and gorgeous food photography. She recently put up a blog post on half Hasselback potatoes which inspired me to have a bash at creating my own variation, parmesan Hasselback potatoes.

Hasselback potatoes are a Swedish baked potato dish which looks really stunning and tastes fantastic, incorporating thinly sliced, crisp, buttery fanned out wedges of potato with whatever you choose to season them with. Although they are delicious with a simple addition of salt, if you add rosemary and parmesan cheese it truly lifts them up to the level of sublime.

Although they look tricky to make, they’re actually surprisingly easy to prepare and you could make parmesan hasselback potatoes with sweet potatoes if you had a mind to. I made them to accompany a dinner of chicken en croute, but you could serve them with any meal that you would normally serve roast potatoes with. Actually, if you added crispy shards of smoked bacon, chilli flakes and sour cream you’d have the makings of a very satisfying main meal in itself.

I made my hasselback potatoes with a sprinkling of rosemary and a generous topping of parmesan shavings and they were divine, producing forkfuls of butter-toasted soft potato with a well-seasoned, cheesy crust. Although I made mine with little new potatoes you could easily make them with large baking potatoes too. It’d probably make one of the fanciest, but tastiest baked potatoes you’ve ever eaten!

I’d strongly encourage you to try making these parmesan hasselback potatoes because once you’ve mastered them they’re a great addition to your repertoire and instantly make any meal look enticing and more polished overall. Imagine your family’s faces when you produce a batch of these golden brown wee tatties to go with their roast chicken on Sunday!

Ingredients:

New potatoes (I make 3-4 potatoes per person as a side or 4-6 per person as a main dish)

1 tsp of salt

1 tsp ground black pepper

1 tsp finely chopped rosemary (dried or fresh, but you might need a bit more if using fresh)

3 tbsps. melted butter or vegetable oil

75g finely grated parmesan

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180°C/160°C fan/350°F/Gas mark 4.

Wash (but don’t peel) all of your potatoes and skewer them horizontally through their middles with a kebab skewer. (You can put more than one potato on each skewer.)

How To Skewer Your Potatoes

Lay the skewered potatoes on a chopping board and cut through each of them until your knife meets the skewer. Once you’ve done them all, flip the skewer over and repeat on the other side of the potatoes.

How To Cut The Potatoes

Put the potatoes on a large baking tray and brush the potatoes generously all over with melted butter, reserving some of the butter to use halfway through their cooking process. But don’t worry if you use up all of the butter before baking them because you can always use more butter, right?

Parmesan Hasselback Potatoes Ready For The Oven

Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle on the rosemary and then put them in the oven for about 25 mins.

After this initial 25 minutes of cooking the potato slices will have started to fan out, so take the potatoes out of the oven and give them another brushing with melted butter. Put them back in the oven for another 20-30 mins.

Parmesan Hasselback Potatoes by The Fat Foodie

Once the potatoes are cooked and have soft interiors and golden brown skins, take them out, sprinkle the parmesan cheese over them and put them back in the oven for a few minutes to let the cheese melt and go crispy.

Carefully remove the skewers (they’re roasting hot!) and serve.

Dinner by The Fat Foodie!

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Broccoli and Parmesan Quiche (Serves 6)

July 10, 2016August 4, 2018Leave a comment

Broccoli and Parmesan Quiche by The Fat Foodie

I made this broccoli and parmesan quiche a few days ago and I was incredibly happy with how it turned out. The parmesan pie crust is a variant of a Hairy Bikers recipe that I came across and, let me tell you, I’ll definitely be using it again.

This is a gluten-free recipe, so you might need to use some more butter because gluten-free flours are renowned for being really absorbent, but let me know if you do try it please. Also, I made this with standard butter, but you could easily use a non-dairy equivalent. You may need to chill the pastry for an hour in the fridge before you use it though, just to make it easier to roll out.

In this broccoli and parmesan quiche the combination of the parmesan, butter and gluten-free flour makes for a quiche crust that has the crisp texture and taste of a really good savoury cheese biscuit. It’s crunchy and crumbly with a nutty flavour, but it’s also delicate and enhances the eggy filling of the broccoli and parmesan quiche beautifully. It’s a lovely way to worship the humble vegetable that is broccoli.

Ingredients:

For the pastry:

180g gluten-free flour (plus extra for dusting)

100g cold unsalted butter (or a non-dairy version)

2 tsp chopped fresh thyme

50g grated Parmesan cheese (or a non-dairy version)

1 medium egg yolk

1 tsp ice-cold water

For the broccoli filling:

3 medium eggs & the egg whites left over from making the pastry (waste not, want not, right?)

200g of chopped broccoli heads (not the stalks though)

200g lactose-free soft cheese (or a non-dairy version)

150g grated cheddar cheese (or a non-dairy version)

Freshly ground black pepper

Method:

To make the pastry:

Put the flour into a large bowl and rub the butter in until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.

Add the chopped thyme and parmesan.

Add the egg yolk and cold water and mix until it forms a ball. (If you feel it’s too dry, add a little bit more water until it comes together).

Wrap your pastry in clingfilm and put it in the fridge for at least half an hour.

Preheat your oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas 4.

Line your chosen pie tin with tinfoil.

Sprinkle some flour onto your work surface and roll out the pastry until it’s the right size for your pie tin.

Place your rolling pin on the edge of your pastry circle and roll the pastry onto the rolling pin (it makes it easier to transport it to the tin).

Roll the pastry back out onto the tin and push it down so it fits into the tin. (Bear in mind that the sides must be high enough to contain your quiche filling.)

This is quite a crumbly dough, so if it breaks apart don’t worry at all. Just take your pieces of dough and fill all the cracks until you’ve got a structurally sound pie case.

Prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork about 8 times (this helps release any air that might get trapped underneath).

If you have them, fill the tin with baking beans, if not don’t worry about it.

Bake in the oven for about 15-20 mins, or until it’s golden brown. Baking the pie crust first will ensure your quiche won’t have a soggy bottom.

To make the quiche filling:

Mix all of the ingredients, with the exception of 50g of the cheddar cheese, together.

Pour into the pastry case and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top.

Cook in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the egg mixture no longer wobbles when shaken.

Serve with a nice green salad.
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Broccoli and Parmesan Quiche by The Fat Foodie

Mushroom Risotto (Serves 4)

May 22, 2016August 4, 2018Leave a comment

Mushroom Risotto by The Fat Foodie

On Friday night I cooked what could possibly be described as one of the most decadent meals I’ve ever made. The ingredients were simple enough, with the exception of black truffle infused rapeseed oil, but the combination they created when melded together into a mushroom risotto was absolutely delicious.

In all honesty, I’ve never really seen the attraction of risotto. To my mind, rice should either be the accompaniment to a curry or found in the form of a creamy rice pudding, not as a stodgy savoury pile of starch mixed with meat or vegetables. However, after cooking this mushroom risotto I will happily admit that I now stand corrected.

Although there is, by my own admission, a very generous amount of butter and truffle-infused oil in this recipe, it never feels oily or overly fatty on the tongue. Instead, the flavour-infused swollen little grains of arborio rice just carry the creamy, earthy taste of mushroom in each forkful. So, if you fancy treating yourself to a bowl of something which feels like well-earned self-indulgence, this mushroom risotto is the one for you.

Ingredients:

1 vegetable stock cube (I use Casa de Sante’s low FODMAP Vegetable Stock Powder)

1 litre boiling water

3 to 4 tbsps. truffle oil (or olive oil instead)

Juice of ½ a lemon

250g pack oyster mushrooms (sliced)

300g risotto rice, such as arborio

1 x 175ml glass white wine

60g butter (or non-dairy version)

A handful of chopped parsley leaves (you could use chervil or tarragon if preferred)

3 tbsps. of chopped chives

50g grated dairy-free parmesan (normal parmesan isn’t vegetarian)

Method:

Prepare your lemon, herbs, parmesan and mushrooms as directed in the ingredients list.

Dissolve the stock cube in a jug filled with one litre of boiling water.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the mushrooms, add salt and pepper to your taste, and continue to cook until the mushrooms have softened.

Add the rice into the pan and cook for 1 min.

Pour in the white wine and lemon juice and stir until it is absorbed into the rice.

Pour in a quarter of the stock.

Simmer, stirring often, until the rice has absorbed all of the liquid. Add the same amount of stock again and continue to simmer and stir. It will start to become creamy and the grains of rice will start to look plumped up and tender.

Add the remaining stock and once it’s been absorbed the rice should be cooked. Taste the rice and if it’s still too al-dente for your taste, then just add a bit of hot water to it and continue to cook.

Once the rice is cooked, take the pan off the heat and stir in the butter, chives and half of the parmesan.

Divide into your serving bowls and scatter with the remaining parmesan and parsley. Then drizzle with a bit more truffle oil because what’s life without indulgence?

Mushroom Risotto by The Fat Foodie

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The Fat Foodie

Making Low FODMAP Food Good!

Tag: #parmesan

Parmesan Hasselback Potatoes (serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side)

Broccoli and Parmesan Quiche (Serves 6)

Mushroom Risotto (Serves 4)