Perfect Roast Potatoes

Ciphon

Ciphon

Ciphon

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Hi All,

We're having a roast dinner this afternoon with a bunch of friends, and I'm in charge of the roast potatoes (To the internet)!

Any tips to make them nice crunchy on the outside, yet fluffy and light on the inside?

So far my plan is:

1. Boil the spuds for 10~ minutes

2. Meanwhile, heat up a tray with oil and butter on it (Not sure on oil to spud ratio? I don't want them to go soggy...)

3. Drain the spuds, and smash them around in the sauce pan to fluff them up a little

4. Take the tray out of the oven, place potatoes on it, spoon over some hot oil - back in the oven

5. Remain in the oven until golden and crispy, every so often rotating and spooning over more oil.

Am I missing anything to make them awesome?

I know Jamie Oliver likes to ever so slightly crush his with a masher at step 4, is this a good idea?

I'm a fairly novice chef, but love a good roast 'tatter ;).

Any tips appreciated.

Thanks! :D
 
Boil in salt water, go as far as you dare on cooking whilst boiling.

Drain carefully, no smashing required as they are so delicate. Let them steam themself dry for as long as possible, heat tray with oil in oven. Carefully place photoessays in tray so they don't fall to bits. Spoon over oil, put in oven. Then once they start forming crust you can turn them over.
 
Glaucus said:
Boil in salt water, go as far as you dare on cooking whilst boiling.

Drain carefully, no smashing required as they are so delicate. Let them steam themself dry for as long as possible, heat tray with oil in oven. Carefully place photoessays in tray so they don't fall to bits. Spoon over oil, put in oven. Then once they start forming crust you can turn them over.
Click to expand...

Sorry - didn't see this - I hadn't refreshed!

Boil in salt water, ok!
 
Glaucus said:
Boil in salt water, go as far as you dare on cooking whilst boiling.

Drain carefully, no smashing required as they are so delicate. Let them steam themself dry for as long as possible, heat tray with oil in oven. Carefully place photoessays in tray so they don't fall to bits. Spoon over oil, put in oven. Then once they start forming crust you can turn them over.
Click to expand...

This is a key point.

Add a spring of rosemary and garlic but only for the last 10mins

If you really want to go far, blanching them in some pectinex SP-L beforehand might help..
 
Best oil to use is ground nut oil, if you can get your hands on it use goose fat though. The type of potato is really important too, make sure you pick a type that's good for roasting and is in season.
 
In future as well a nice thing to try is is to roast new potatoes, don't have to peel them or anything, just a glug of olive oil and a sprinkle of salt and they are amazing :)
 
Some great tips guys, and some awesome looking things to try in the future.

About to start cooking - wish me luck!! ;)
 
a good way to fluff them up is to use a colander to drain, and then use the colander itself to move the potatoes around, give them a light coating of flour and pepper and then put onto tray draining a bit from what ever your roasting onto them, or chucking them onto the same roasting tray..
 
Good tip as well, once your oil is hot from the oven, heat up your front 2 hobs if they're free for a few minutes and put the oven tray on there as you're putting the potatoes in. Stops the oil cooling down when you put the potatoes in, as you're adding pretty cold potatoes (relatively) and that will make the potatoes take on more oil. You want a very hot oil to crisp them up quickly.
 
Good call QuickLink, I do the same, really helps to keep them crispy. I once read that salting the boiling water stops them crisping up as well, so I always salt them in the roasting pan. Not sure if it actually makes any difference at all, but if you use some sea slat you get the odd little crispy salt crystal embedded in the crispy spud coating and that's worth it in itself :)

That lamb recipe looks fantastic Glaucus, have you tried it?
 
Yeah I did it with mutton leg. I can only assume a fattier cut like shoulder, would only increase the pleasure.

It's so easy to get stuck on traditional roast, it was kind of an eye opener. To why the hell do I always cook the same side dishes for roasts.
 
Just got brisket out, to slow roast.

That's dinner and sandwiches for work sorted for the next day or two.

I haven't tried that exact recipe, but I love slow cooked meat. I prefer it to fast and medium/rare roast cuts.
 
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