To parboil or not to par boil

[Char65]

I've parboiled potatoes before roasting for years but it can be difficult to get the timings right and the type of potato can lead to them breaking up a bit when roasted. On Christmas Day the potatoes, par boiled for about 6 minutes with salt, were fine but to me they're not as crispy as when I just used to coat them in lard (now veg oil) and roast them with the chicken or turkey so they were infused with meat juices. For other meats I'd put them in beforehand. I wonder what others think? I may go back to putting them straight in the oven as not been happy with the results of late.

You have to par boil until they're almost falling apart. Gently rough them up them cook in hot olive oil. Turn a couple of times and add garlic and rosemary near the end. (I do a slightly reduced Heston method).

Parboil, yes. I find rapeseed oil gives crisper results than olive oil, too, fwiw.

I semi steam mine to keep water away from them as much as possible

I overdid them this year and they were the best potatoes I'd done in a while. I was worried at first as they were falling apart, they also needed a very long time to roast but they were unbelievably crunchy.

Once you finish steaming, I let them sit in the colander after shaking them, this gets all the steam off (remove from the pan of water).

Then into lots of hot oil

I’d always parboil potatoes before adding into the oven. The texture difference is worth the additional faff. You could always parboil the day before and cook from the fridge if you’re concerned about timings. The fridge will help the outside of the potato to dry out so should make better roast potatoes.

Yes and this is what I remember from my early days of marriage when I didn't know how to cook but the roasties still tasted lovely!

Microwave for a few minutes depending on the size of the potato, just to warm them and start the cooking process. I also microwave them for rather longer before baking them in their jackets, it really shortens the cooking time. And if I want a small quantity of fully cooked potatoes either for mashing or for potato salad I'll use the microwave for that too.

Speaking of which I must go and nuke some cauliflower 'rice' for a lower carb white salad to go with my dinner.

For larger quantities of spuds it's the steamer all the way.