How Do You Do Your Roast Potatoes?

[indianwells]

I boil until cooked right through.Drain and let them dry.While still warm carefully put on a lightly oiled shallow baking tray.I then lightly flatten them with a large spoon just until they crack.Then I sprinkle them with a little olive oil,some sea salt,black pepper and a little dried Thyme.I cook for 3/4 to 1 hour,turning half way through.I've never had a faliure doing it this way.How do you do yours?

[Young_1]

Around christmas everyone was buying goose fat but ive found that it doesnt really give a good effect. Picking a good spud is also a good start i like king edwards. I start buy choping and then doing what you had done but a little technique whne uve done this and they are still warm just scrape the edges to give a better crispyness but make sure you dont brake up the potatoes. To make them golden brown and tasty it would help to cook them round some meat so they can take the jucies but yep i also use thyme salt and pepper and little bit of a stock cube mite help aswell.

[siduri]

I like mine cut into lengthwise quarters or 6ths or 8ths, depending on the size of the potato. I never bothered with teh type, because they don;t sell them here by type, or only began to recently.
I heat the oven to maximum (just as high as it will go)
take a flat baking sheet, with shallow sides (no more than an inch or it will hold the steam and they'll steam and not brown) , put a sheet of parchment paper so tehy won;t stick, drizzle a little (very little) olive oil on it.
toss them with a little olive oil, salt and nice grated black pepper.
Put on the paper on the baking sheet, not too packed together, in one layer, and set the pan directly on the floor of the oven
If you are roasting meat, set them around the roast, can be chicken, beef, pork or lamb - they all impart their own delicious flavor
roast till they brown on one side, turn over, roast till crispy and nicely browned on the other.
In my opinion, if you boil them first they'll never get brown enough, at least for my taste. Tastier by far than french fries.
You can also put sausages around them, and even a couple of red bell peppers, cut in pieces, and/or a couple of quartered onions, just be sure you have everything in one single layer. very tasty.

[Joyfull]

cut the potatoes in chunks, thick slices, quarters, etc.. whatever I fancy at the time.. Melt a chunk of butter in the oven on a flat sheet pan, take out pan, add a little olive oil to the melted butter. Put chunked potatoes on pan, toss with the butter/oil mixture so that they are nicely coated.. I sometimes sprinkle with a bit of salt and pepper, sometimes other seasonings instead..
Roast around 375 or (350 if I use my convect.) till tender in the middle and crispy on the outside.. mmmm, good!

[Mezzaluna]

Wow. Just looking at the locations of the people posting on this thread makes me appreciate the global community we are! If the original post was from the U.S. (or maybe Canada), the answers would be different. My recommendations of potatoes would probably be incomprehensible to Indianwells!

I suppose the choice of potato centers on whether you use a starchy or waxy variety. Are potato varieties divided like that in the U.K. and Europe?

In the U.S. I'd use small red potatoes (not terribly starchy variety), scrub thoroughly and quarter them. I'd pour a bit of olive oil in my palm, massage the potatoes with the oil, and toss them on a baking sheet. Then I'd sprinkle on coarse sea salt or kosher salt, fresh or dried herbs and maybe some fresh-ground pepper before putting them in a hot oven. Let them get golden on the bottoms, then turn them a couple of times. Shouldn't take more than 25 minutes with the variety I use. You can sprinkle a bit of grated parmesan cheese on them for the last 5-10 minutes.

[shel]

I just love this thread. Potatoes and I are good friends, and this discussion has some nice ideas and techniques, plus I just happen to be in the mood for potatoes these last couple of days.

Shel

[Ishbel]

I use King Edwards, Kestrel or Maris Piper varieties, I also like Kerr's Pink, but think that is probably a Scottish variety only available in Scotland.

I cut potatoes into even sized pieces and par-boil. Only about 8 minutes or so. I then drain well. Then return to the pan, put on the lid and give a vigorous shake - this 'roughens' up the outside of the potatoes, which gives all the glorious crunchy bits to a well-roasted tattie!

Have a shallow dish ready with very, very hot oil (I prefer to use sunflower oil for every day - and goosefat for Christmas/Easter holidays) - put the warm potatoes into the oil and make sure you spoon over some of the hot oil.

Put in a hot oven and baste occasionally - check they don't get too brown.

Tried and tested UK methodology

Mezzaluna - although we have waxy type potatoes - most of our potatoes are typed as 'salad' or 'old crop' or new potatoes. Some salad potatoes like Charlotte and La Ratte are French potatoes now grown commercially in the UK - but the very best potatoes IN THE WORLD for salads are from Jersey, in the Channel Islands and come into season early in the summer and are sold as Jersey Royals. They barely need peeling (their skins are almost peeling off when you buy them) - a real taste of UK's summer.

Main crop potato varieties are many, including the ones I mentioned above, but also Desiree (great for jacket potatoes), Marfona - great roasted or jacket potatoes.

We also import potatoes (between our seasons) from Cyprus and Egypt and Majorca.

[Blueicus]

I learned that I like to use small white waxy potatoes for roasting, which I do by blanching them for a couple of minutes, then toss them with oil and seasonings (differs depending on mood), then roast them at 375 until tender then crank them to 400 for a few more minutes.

[Panonthefire]

Hi everyone,

This is the way I do my roasted potatoes, they are actually pan roasted potatoes.

I use small red potatoes or fingerling potatoes, but I also roasted Yukon gold potatoes.

I put a skillet on max. heat, I add duck fat. when the duck fat gets hot I add a big nugget of butter. when the butter starts moussing and takes a nutty color (and flavor) I add my potato, salt, peper, a spring of thym, a fresh garlic clove. I reduce the heat so the butter keeps on moussing for the entire time the potatoes cook.

The potatoes gets a real nice golden brown color and they absorb the taste of the nutty butter and duck fat.

[Jayme]

Mezz-
You are right- the posts look like roasted potatoes from around the world! LOL Ain't it great?!! I do mine like Joyfull- I parboil potatoes- usually red potatoes, but russetts or Yukon golds work well too. Cut them in chunks, toss with oil, and minced garlic, and roast in oven until crispy, season with salt and pepper, and italian seasoning.

[JonK]

At first I didn't think I could possibly add anything to this thread, but it turns out we do use a different method for oven roasted potato wedges designed to avoid the extra step (and pot) of parboiling.

After the usual toss with olive oil, coarse salt, pepper and possibly other seasonings, we put the wedges (about 3/4 inch thick) on a baking pan that's been lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Then we cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and pop into a 425 degree F oven for about 20 minutes. We then remove the foil and continue roasting until the bottom sides are crusty and golden. After carefully turning the potatoes with a metal spatula (to get under and not disturb the crust), we pop the pan back in the oven for another five or ten minutes, until the second side is crusty.

The first step does what the parboiling does without adding extra water to the potatoes that could otherwise slow browning.

We find that a low to medium starch potato works best (like Red Bliss, Yukon Gold, so-called all-purpose potatoes, but not russets).

[indianwells]

Thanks for that Jonk,I never thought of that!Having steak this week so will try it.

[Joyfull]

We find that a low to medium starch potato works best (like Red Bliss, Yukon Gold, so-called all-purpose potatoes, but not russets).[/quote]

Isn't that interesting.. For my family, they all prefere the russets.. The russets always come out nice and crispy for me.. Mind you, I don't par-boil though.. The peeled chunks just go in the oven as is..
I've tried the reds, yukon gold, whites, and always end up going back to the russets..
probably cause thats what my Mum always used too!!

[Jayme]

Jon-
Have tried just roasting in the oven, but the potaotes usually stick so badly to the pan or get so dried out by the time they are cooked through-
I'd imagine that covering the pan with foil, would basically steam the potatoes in the oven. Sounds good! Will give it a try!

[akila001]

I cute mine in quarters. Put them on a foil in the oven. I pour olive oil, herbes de provence, hawaiian salt and pepper and leave them for almost an hour. It is delicious!