Accordion Potatoes

I feel like accordion potatoes are super trendy right now - or at least, it seems like I've been seeing them all over the place. So for Christmas, I made a batch using garlic and bacon and lots of butter.

Ingredients [serves 6]:
6 small yukon gold potatoes
2 slices bacon
2 tablespoons butter (unsalted)
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (freshly ground!)
+ grated cheddar cheese (optional)
+ also optional: sour cream, chives, scallions, rosemary

Start by putting the butter, garlic, salt, and pepper in a small bowl and microwave until the butter is melted. I actually like to let it get hot enough to sizzle a bit (which takes 30 seconds on high in my microwave).

Next, prepare your potatoes. I like yukon golds because the skin is thin and easy to clean. I like to boil them so they're cooked through first because it means they spend less time in the oven (and it's less likely that the garlic topping will burn). To boil the potatoes, put them in a pot, fill with water so they are submerged and place on high heat. Once the water comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer and allow to cook for 10 minutes or until you can stab it easily with a fork or knife and have the utensil come loose easily. Let them cool (you can boil them a day ahead) and then slice into them about 3/4 of the way through.

This step is totally optional and if you omit the bacon, you can have vegetarian accordion potatoes but I love bacon so I will not skip this step. I took my two slices of bacon, stacked them together, cut it in half, stacked it again, cut them in half, etc. until the slices were small enough to fit in the sliced potatoes. Do the same, or slice them into super small pieces, whatever you like, and then wedge a few pieces into the potatoes.

And then, put them onto a foil-lined baking sheet and pour a bit of the garlicky butter mixture over each one.

Then, just pop these into the oven, 350 degrees, for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the garlic looks toasted and brown.

Toasted and brown like these!

Then, all you have to do is plate them up and serve.

Oh, and last minute, we decided that a bit of grated cheddar would be awesome on these, so we plopped a bit of cheese on each one.

And the heat of the potatoes will help the cheese melt, no worries. And like I suggested above, these would also be amazing with some sour cream and chives.

Here's the recipe page: