Halloween baked potatoes

Today I bring you a dish without mystery, one of the fastest, simplest, and most successful! Perfect to celebrate the scariest night of the year, you'll love this Halloween roast potato recipe !

Potatoes are a great resource to accompany everything you cook. And if it is about preparing a Halloween table, with this recipe you have the chance to win! Because we are going to turn some simple roasted potatoes with their skins into such terrifying and monstrous faces that they will become the most applauded dish of the night.

This tuber has the perfect hardness to cut and hollow out the parts you want and draw a gruesome face, with much less effort than it takes to do it on a pumpkin. Also, by making them without peeling, we are going to embroider it, because the skin around the parts that we have emptied dries more than the rest and creates a much more fun effect.

To mark the parts where you are going to cut, you can help yourself with a punch or do it directly with the knife that you will use to empty; ideally a knife for vegetables and fruits, like this one from Opinel , whose sharp and curved blade will work great for you. And if you see yourself capable of making a work of art, you can arm yourself with this complete set from Westmark , which, being perfect for decorating pumpkins, can do anything!

Ready potatoes and ready tools, let's go with the recipe!

Ingredients

• One large or two medium potatoes per person*
• Extra virgin olive oil.
• Aromatic herbs to taste: rosemary, thyme, oregano, etc.
• a pinch of salt

*As I told you at the beginning of the post, this recipe does not have much of a mystery. But there is something important for it to turn out well: choose a good variety of potato and that the size of the potatoes is as similar as possible, so that they all roast at the same time.

Preparation

1. Heat the oven to 180 °C.
2. Wash all the potatoes well and dry them with a cloth or kitchen paper.
3. Carefully and with the help of a knife, make the nose, eyes and mouth on each potato. To make it easier for you, you can draw them by first marking them with the tip of the knife and emptying each part little by little.
4. Place the potatoes in a baking dish , with the part where you have drawn the face facing up and add a little oil, the aromatic herbs and a little salt.
5. Put the tray in the oven and bake at 180 °C for 25 to 45 minutes, depending on the size of the potatoes.
6. When you see them golden, they will be ready to serve. You can prick with a toothpick to make sure they are fully cooked.
7. Take them to the table and enjoy them accompanied by your favorite sauces, or a good melted cheese.

Grades

• If you decide to roast large potatoes, before putting them on the baking sheet, poke two or three holes in the back with a toothpick or skewer, to help them roast evenly throughout.
• Roasted potatoes are a first-rate companion to any dish. And with melted cheese it is an example of a perfect marriage. Take advantage of the fact that you turn on the oven to roast the potatoes and also put the cheese pan with a camembert, a little oil and a sprig of rosemary. An exceptional pairing!
• Do not throw away the remains of the potato cuts! You can leave them covered in water in the fridge until the next day and add them to a puree or fry them and put them in an omelet. Or add them in a ramekin on the same baking tray together with the potatoes, and take the opportunity to roast them (with a little salt, pepper, oil and thyme you will have more snacks... than with a little brava sauce or mayonnaise will fly on the table).
• Dress the potatoes however you like. For example, you can add a few cloves of unpeeled garlic to the same tray as the potatoes, and then, at the table, use those roasted garlic to flavor the potatoes. You can also accompany them with your favorite sauce or an oil flavored with herbs or spicy.

Recipe Variations!

• If you want to ensure that they cook quickly, you prefer to make a bite instead of a side dish or serve as an attractive appetizer, you can slice the potatoes instead of making them whole. Thus, it will take a little longer to "draw" eyes and mouths, because you will have more to do, but it is easier to do as the cuts are thin and you will save a lot of baking time .
• You can also use sweet potato! The roasted sweet potato is delicious, so you can make whole sweet potatoes or monster roasted sweet potato sheets for Halloween too... or to cheer up any day. The little ones will love it!