Perfect roast potatoes

OK, a simple but vital one for my first post in the section. How to make perfect roast potatoes.

Ingredients

Potatoes
Goose fat

Kit
Saucepan
Colander
Fork
A large baking tray - as big as will fit in your oven

Method


Get the oven and baking tray nice and hot. About 240c is good, but you can work with whatever else the oven is being used for: maybe a bit less for chicken, for example. You'll just need to adjust timings to suit. At 240, 30 minutes should be long enough. At 180 or less, you might need an hour.

Peel potatoes, and cut into even pieces. Normally, I'd cut a medium sized potato once, to give a piece that's maybe 2 1/2 inches at it's widest point, and about half that at its narrowest. Basicly, a 'two bite' chunk. Too much to pop in your mouth in one go, but not so big you can't eat half in one go.

Soak and rinse the potatoes thoroughly. You want to get as much excess starch out as possible, so soak them in plenty of cold water, changing it a few times. The end result should be the water remains pretty much clear.

Put them in a pot, cover with cold salted water, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, simmer for about eight minutes. When you stick a fork or medium sharp knife into the potatoes, it should enter them easily, but they should still be firm, not falling to pieces.

Empty the potatoes into a colander. Give them a shake to get as much water off as possible. Most should just evaporate off anyway.

Take your fork, and score the potatoes thoroughly. The idea here is to create a crumbly fluffy surface, about 4mm deep, all over every potato. If you've boiled them the right amount, you should be able to manage this by just running the fork lightly over them. If you;ve got to work to score them, they need a bit more time on the boil. If they fall apart, they're kind of overdone. You can get away with that, but it'll mean there's a lot of little crunchy lumps with the finished spuds. Some people like that though.

The point of doing this is to make sure the fat is well absorbed all over the potatoes, and you get a thick, crunchy, crumbly, surface. If you don't fork them, they won't absorb the fat evenly, and the crust will be thin, and possibly a bit leathery. Not perfect, anyway.

Grease your tatas. Fnar fnar. Check the spuds in the hot baking tray. Add a good few big dollops of goose fat. Stir the spuds and fat together, until they're thoroughly covered.

You want to use goose fat for two reasons. First, it has a very high burn point, so you can transfer a lot of heat to the potatoes, without them tasting of burnt oil. Second, it tastes nice in itself. Olive oil has a similarly high burn point, but doesn't impart the same flavour. Still, that may be good if you're veggy. Carnivores could also try duck fat or beef dripping.

Roast them, turning them over once or twice (say, every 15-20 minutes). They're done when they're a nice golden colour all over.

Serve hot. Or serve cold. They'll be nice either way. The insides should be fluffy, the outside crunchy and crumbly.

This post has been edited by MichaelKVegfruit: Jul 30 2008, 07:45 PM

Thanks mate, will need to try that.

Excellent, nice one, mate.

Another way of getting the same effect without having to fork every potato, is to drain, them, put the lid back on and shake the pan back and forth quite vigorously on the worktop... if done right, this "fluffs" them up in the same way as forking them.

As an additional extra, before shaking them: Mix together ½ teaspoon of garlic purée, ¼ cup of very finely chopped fresh rosemary (less if using dried, and pre-soak dried rosemary for ½ hour in boiling water) 1 tbs olive oil, large pinch of salt and pepper... Mix them all together, then throw the mix into the pan of par-boiled potatoes, and gently stir the mix in until all the potatoes are coated... then replace the lid and shake as above.

This post has been edited by yourmercifulgod: Jul 29 2008, 05:46 PM

Chhers ymg, I like the shaken, not forked, idea a lot. Going to try that next time.

I guess it means you have to be a bit more careful at the boiling stage? I can see myself getting them too well boiled, shaking them, and ending up with a colander full of mash.

I've always followed Delia on this one.......

First place the roasting tray with the fat in it on the highest shelf of the oven while it pre-heats. Thinly peel the potatoes using a potato peeler, then cut them into fairly even-sized pieces, leaving the small ones whole. Then place them in a saucepan, pour over boiling water from a kettle, just to cover, then add salt and simmer for about 10 minutes. After that lift one out with a skewer and see if the outer edge is fluffy. You can test this by running the point of the skewer along the surface – if it stays smooth, give it a few more minutes.

Then drain off the water, reserving some for the gravy. Place the lid back on the saucepan, and, holding the lid on firmly with your hand protected by a cloth or oven glove, shake the saucepan vigorously up and down. This shaking roughens up the cooked edges of the potato and makes them floury and fluffy – this is the secret of the crunchy edges.

Now, still using the oven glove to protect your hands, remove the hot roasting tray containing its sizzling fat and transfer to the direct heat (medium) on the hob. Then use a long-handled spoon and quickly lower the potatoes into the hot fat. When they are all in, tilt the tray and baste each one so it's completely coated with fat. Now place them back on the highest shelf of the oven and leave them unattended for 40-50 minutes or until they are golden brown. There's no need to turn them over at half-time – they will brown evenly by themselves. Sprinkle them with a little crushed salt before serving straight away; they lose their crunch if you keep them waiting. If they're ready before you are, turn the oven off and leave them inside.

Absolutely mate, careful indeed... Trial and error are the key words here. Not enough par-boiling and no fluffing. Too much and you end up with mashed chunks.

Once you get it sussed you'll be laughing though.

One of the things I'm liking about this section is people contributing other bits of advice with their replies. Like this one from small:



Anything starchy is great for making gravies and all sorts of other sauces with: you can do the same trick with pasta water, to bind and thicken your sauce with. There's a long description in Heat, Bill Buford's book on Mario Batali (and Italian food in general), that describes the pasta water used in Batali's restaurant. It's never emptied during a shift, so by the end of the night, it looks like a mix of dirty dishwater and wallpaper paste. It's apparently vital to making a glossy, sticky, sauce with though.

I'm much too lazy to do all that boiling and twiddling about. Here's the fast techno-method:

1 ) Peel spuds, cut into similar sized chunks and microwave in a plastic pot (add a little water) until they are done (about 10 mins)
2 ) Meanwhile, put an inch of fat (I use lard) in a roasting tin, and put it on the cooker ring

3 ) When the spuds are done, put them in the hot (I mean smoking) fat and rough them up with a fork whilst the outsides go brown & crispy. This takes about 5 miutes max.

Serve with microwaved frozen peas, yorkshire puds (5 minutes from frozen in the oven) and pre-cooked chicken (re-heated from the freezer) for an instant roast dinner.

With good timing, you can have really nice tasting "roast spuds" with your roast dinner within 20 minutes. I learned this when looking after my 2 kids & working full-time

This post has been edited by torrenter: Aug 1 2008, 04:23 PM

y do u boil them? just put them on a slow roast in the ovan at about 160/170c, r u a chef?

They're parboiled first to facilitate the fluffing (either by forking or shaking) so that they are crispier on the outside.

facilitate the fluffing is this still food we're talking about