I consider roast potatoes the pinnacle of mankind’s achievements. If any kind of food deserves a recipe, it is roast potatoes. So despite the title of this blog and my ravings against the need for recipes, I unashamedly present my roast potato recipe (pictures taken during my recent adventures with roast chicken kindly supplied by Abel & Cole):
My perfect roast potato recipe includes elements I’ve unashamedly nicked from Gordon and Jamie. If you want more of their genius, I can highly recommend:
- Jamie’s very accessible “making you a better cook”
- If you’re after something more complicated, Gordon’s “recipes from a 3 star chef”
- For general reading, I enjoyed both of Gordon’s biog-style books: “humble pie” and “playing with fire”
Anyway, the recipe:
- Pick good potatoes. This is really important. Don’t go for general “white potatoes” – pick a variety. Maris Pipers are good. So are King Edwards. Experiment and you’ll find your preferences.
- Either peel ‘em or don’t. Try it both ways. You get a difference kind of roastie each way and both rock in my opinion.
- Chop them, but only into large chunks. There’s a place for tiny roast potatoes, but for now, big is easiest. I tend to chop your average size potato into 2 or 3 chunks.
- Par-boil by throwing in cold water with some salt and bringing to the boil. Don’t go much further than just bringing them to the boil.
- Drain and shake – you want to rough them up a little – either shake them in the colander or in the pan
- Fry them. This is a crucial step (you can even skip the par-boil if you are truly lazy, but don’t skip this). You want to fry them in your roasting dish (incidentally, Amazon have a sale on Le Creuset at the moment – get some while you can). The pinnacle of roast potatoes use goose fat, but if you don’t have that to hand, my preference is just to cover the bottom of the roasting dish with sunflower oil (which has different qualities at high temperature to olive oil), throw the potatoes in, shake ‘em around and then add some olive oil on top for flavour. Fry them over a high-ish hob adding salt and pepper. You aren’t trying to cook them through, but simply get a bit of colour and get them started – experiment to see how far you want to cook them. You will need to turn them carefully and often to avoid sticking.
- Throw them in the oven on a really high heat – this is often when you move the meat down so you can often keep the oven on the same temperature and shuffle things around if you’re cooking with gas
- Crucially don’t turn them from this point on. This gets you the dry crispiness you want and makes sure they are crunchy without over-cooking. Also, you don’t risk breaking them – you only have to get a spatula under them once to serve them. If they are getting a bit crispy without looking like they are cooking evenly, turn the temperature down a bit
- After about 45 minutes, when they look ready, serve them. The whole process will have taken a little over an hour to this point
- Mmmmmmmmm.
If you want to be more adventurous once you’ve nailed the basics, you can experiment with throwing all kinds of things in late in the process (20-25 minutes before serving). I’ve had fun with:
- Cherry tomatoes
- Goat’s cheese
- Rosemary
- Garlic (whole cloves)
February 15th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Definitely the most important bit is letting them cook for a long time. I’ve had too many roasties that are crunchy on the inside… erg. I usually do thinks a little differently. I tend to boil up the potatoes for longer until the are starting to go soft. Then I strain them and sprinkle on a little plain flour (not too much). The I add them to the oven dish with the oil in it and cook until crispy.
BTW those La Creuset won’t work on my induction hob for the frying bit. I love induction hobs for their effecient controllable heat even if it’s a pain to get cookware from. I never liked the idea of electric hobs before but induction has changed my mind.
February 15th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
“Efficient controllable heat” – spoken like a true engineer, Stephen
Seriously though – I haven’t played with adding flour much – I should try that out.
February 15th, 2009 at 3:58 pm
Will – it sounds perfect. I have a passion for the perfect Sunday roast dinner and well cooked spuds and parsnips are the centrepiece…I am not sure I will do justice to your recipe so will have to ask you to run a seminar providing roasties as a lunch time snack.
February 20th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
First of a series? Mashed potato next?
Best potato has definitely got to be King Edwards for me. The classic Delia method of par boiling (little bit more than what you do), draining and then giving a good shake is the key for the crisp bits. If doing with a roast I always baste them with some of the meat juices. More flavour!
April 9th, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Nice receipe – although for me the secret to truly great roasties? Cup fat.
Cup fat is something my Mother is famous for – it’s dripping basically. Everytime you grill any kind of meat, collect the fat that’s dripped into the grill tray, pour it into your cup, and pop the cup in the fridge.
Use said cup fat to make amazing (but exceedingly unhealthy) roasties.
It’s also good to stick some onions, garlic and a bit of chopped bacon or panchetta into the roasting tray with the roasties.
April 9th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Hey Hannah,
Thanks – cup fat sounds truly awesome. Goose fat makes fantastic roasties – especially if it has some of those crispy caramelised bits in there and I can imagine this is similar to how cup fat comes out…
I haven’t tried using bacon etc. in with them – but onion and garlic are definitely good and rosemary, small vine tomatoes and goats cheese also work well (add towards the end to avoid burning!).
January 24th, 2010 at 2:48 pm
I usually roast them on high heat to generate the crust and then let them steam-cook in 1/2 – 1in of water. Simply roasting them in the oven is pretty delicious, too: I don’t like excessive amounts of fat (usually prefer sunflower oil for roasting, too).
Roasted tomatoes go well with lettuce and сilantro. I also love roasting ceps and having them join the roasted tomatos
When I wasn’t a vegan, using lard oil for cooking was delicious. Good choice, if you don’t vividly remember the “do with others what you want others do with you” thing.
April 27th, 2010 at 5:19 pm
Fry them. This is a crucial step
soo fry on stove top? i guess