Crispy Roast Potatoes - how?

[advocateofthedevil]

Have a floury variety of potato, know to cook first and then shake to fluff up the outside. How long do I roast them for afterwards and how can I guarantee they are crispy?

Mkae sure you make the oil really hot. Par boil them so they are ALMOST cooked then put them str8 in the HOT oil and cook till golden!!!

Oh don't, you're giving me a craving .....

I cook mine for an hour to an hour and fifteen in oil rather than fat with a few mixed herbs. They always seem to turn out quite nice!!

Get my DH to cook 'em. Perfect every time but unfortunately no idea how he does 'em - afraid to ask in case he'd expect me to cook the sunday lunch when it's been his job for the past 24 years.

as well as shaking them violently after boiling

put cuts in them all over,

Use goose fat. Read somewhere that it has no cholesterol, but not sure if this sounds right?. Works like a dream for me, save it up from the Xmas bird, keeps in the fridge for ever, then buy tins of it when the Xmas supply runs out.

I have the oven on a very high heat - 220c (gas mark 8 ?).

I heat the oil (sunflower) in the roasting pan on the hob and CAREFULLY put the potatoes in, turn them over a few times to "seal" their outsides. Then into the oven for about 30 mins.

They are always yum (one of the few things I do cook well).

Shake a little bit of flour (or semolina, apparently but never tried it) over them as well - helps the edges 'catch' and go crispy after you've roughed 'em up on the outside.

ta very much. Hurrah for mumsnet!

goose fat - save it from Xmas bird or buy it in tins, generally labelled graisse d'oie, just to make you work a little bit harder for your roasties. Thought mine couldn't get any better until we moved house and inherited an Aga...the top oven is so hot, they come out really really crispy.

hot overn 20 mins

( par boile d fisrt)

goosefat or L-A-R-D

What I find helpful is making sure you don't turn/mess around with them too much when they are in the oven! I would probably have 30 mins on one side and 30 mins on the next side!

Yummy
Have a look here if you're in need of a more detailed instruction!

aunt bessies advoate?

or use a deep fat fryer to cheat.

part boil then bake in a mix of olive oil and butter, with seasoning.. perfect everytime! ohhhh yuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuum

lard or dripping.

Grill at the end to get extra crispy bits. Obviously not so handy if you have an eye level grill, but great in an oven with a grill.

par boil and shake around in plain flour to rough them up a bit works every time

Top tip don't forget about them when you're boiling the potatoes. Tasted fine but still not crispy. Lard and goosefat no good for when veggies are going to be eating them.

Nigella apparantly adds semolina after shaking them up - not tried it myself, but sounds good.

Yup - the 'professional way' is to par-boil, shake 'em, coat in oil and then blitz in a very hot oven.

Trouble is if you're a lowly home cook doing a roast and you only have one oven, chances are you don't want to put it on really hot, cos it's not right for whatever meat you're roasting. And unless it's really hot you won't get crispy roast potatoes. So now what we do is forget the par-boiling, just put the peeled spuds in a dish coated with oil whenever you put the meat in and cook for about an hour and a quarter. No need to touch them and they turn out pretty good. Also saves washing up another pan.

The Nigella method of semolina works well. I do it with flour though. Parboil pots, put back into pan. Shake over a tbsp of flour and shake up to coat. Make sure oil is HOT before pots go into oven. This does seem to work.