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| Hippy's Happy Eating Emporium | |
| Roast Potatoes | |
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The principle of roasting potatoes is simple; par-boil peeled potatoes, drain,
shake the potatoes in a saucepan until their outer layer is broken and
fluffed-up, and roast in oil in an oven. If it weren't for the actual roasting time, this would be 'fast food'; there is very little attention to them required while cooking. If you read some of the roast potato recipes available though, you could be forgiven for thinking that they are actually very difficult to make. The trick is to create a roast potato which is soft and fluffy on the inside while golden brown and crunchy on the outside, and there are numerous recipes and suggestions on achieving this. My favourite method, after years of slavishly pre-heating oil to just the right temperature and basting individual potatoes, comes from Michael Winner, who, in turn, credits Michael Caine, although as neither have ever fully explained the entire process, it is perhaps just my minimalist approach to roasting potatoes.
All servings and portion sizes are based upon a person with an average sized appetite; you can probably halve the servings if you're feeding fat hippies. All cooking times are approximate and may need to be adjusted to suit your particular appliance. Preparation Turn the oven on, and set for a temperature of . Peel the potatoes, and slice into similar sized pieces, small or large as you prefer. Place the potatoes in a saucepan, rinse and drain the potatoes, then fill the saucepan with cold water to about 1 inch ( 2.5cm ) above the potatoes and add a little salt. Useful Tips You don't have to actually pre-heat the oven, but turning the oven on early saves time later. Cooking Bring the potatoes to the boil at the highest temperature. Allow to boil for about 5 more minutes, then drain. Place a saucepan lid on the saucepan, and ensuring you keep the lid tightly held on the saucepan, shake, rotate and generally jiggle the saucepan about roughly so the outer layer of skin of the potatoes become broken and fluffed. You may need to use an oven glove to hold the saucepan lid tight unless you have hands made of asbestos. Take a roasting tray and add a moderate amount of vegetable oil. Poor the oil from the roasting tray into the saucepan to cover the potatoes, then tip the potatoes and oil back into the tray. Tip the potatoes and oil back into the saucepan, then back into the roasting tray to ensure the potatoes are all coated with oil. Place the roasting tray and potatoes in the oven on the middle shelf. Do not bother to wash up the saucepan yet; it will soon come in handy just as it is. After about 10 minutes, use an oven glove and remove the roasting tray from the oven and tip the potatoes and oil back into the saucepan, and then back into the tray. Return the roasting tray and potatoes to the oven and continue to roast for a further 30-50 minutes at . The actual length of time for cooking depends greatly on the size of potatoes you are cooking and you may wish to turn the potatoes again during cooking. If the potatoes appear to be burning, or on the verge of it, place the roasting tray lower in the oven, or reduce the temperature to . When cooked the potatoes should be removed from the roasting tray. A convenient way to drain the roasted potatoes is to tip the entire contents of the tray onto a grill pan. Serving The traditional way is with, "Meat and two veg". Beyond that; whatever takes your fancy, although roast potatoes are usually served with meals which are appropriate with gravy. Useful Tips Squidging roast potatoes into gravy is a childish but fun thing to do. It is recommended that this is left for your guests to do, rather than being done during serving. Storage Roast potatoes should be eaten soon after cooking. Re-Heating No idea. I've never had a roast potato left for re-heating. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Roast Potatoes Recipe | © 2002-2004, The Happy Hippy |
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First published on Saturday the 15th of June, 2002 at 17:00:19
Last upload was on Wednesday the 20th of October, 2004 at 19:46:53 |
