crispy fluffy roast potatoes

I've been growing increasingly frustrated with those bagged things the missus gets nowadays, very hit and miss, and increasingly a miss over recent months, particularly since my teeth aren't the grinding machines they used to be

So when I saw this lonely already opened box in Morrissons on the Friday I considered buying it. By my Sunday visit I was a man desperately searching the shelves and there it was! still half opened and lying under a kettle which had been liberated from its box

25 quid at the till

I will never need to buy a bagged roast potatoe ever again (GW Bush spelling)

Put 6 cut potatoes basted with oil in the bottom, 3 chicken thighs on top, position everything for the maximum airflow possible, set 160- 170 degrees and set the timer for 35-40 mins

Go away to post nonsense on the model engineer site and wait for the "ping!"

A perfect xmas day fluffy roast potato every time

AND cleaning out the cooking pot is a doddle, scoop out any rubbish and wash with the dishes

aah luxury

Edited By Ady1 on 06/01/2022 11:34:47

Sure, but it'll never heat-treat EN16....

Pre cook my Potatos, carrots and parsnips for 4mins in pressure cooker on a Saturday (don't ask). Sunday, pre heated dish of oil, baste them all with a silicone brush and leave in oven for last 30mins with Roast Pig/Sheep or cow or whatever together with steamed veg. Yummy, roll on Sunday.

Regards Ian.

An internal basket would make it a perfect convenient kitchen appliance

Edited By Ady1 on 06/01/2022 11:51:27

I have a lot of land so when I moved here I started growing my own spuds - different varieties for different purposes and store in the barn for all winter. Sadly, the levels of endemic scab in my soil meant throwing almost half away and age made ridging up and then digging up too painful in bulk. But I’m with circlip - parboiled and then whack int'oven works fine with a rooster potato.

(just off to knock up some wholemeal and oat bread rolls)

pgk

Get the frier £10 cheaper here **LINK**

Best general purpose potatoes I have found are Maris Piper, they bake, boil, roast and chip but for roasting or chips I do boil them for 2 minutes before roasting or frying.

Emgee

Don't use fat in roasting potatoes but follow a recipe from a Rosemary Conley book from years ago for dry-roast potatoes.

Preheat oven to 200°C / Gas Mark 6 / 400°F

1. Peel the potatoes.
2. Boil salted water in saucepan for blanching.
3. Plunge peeled potatoes into salted boiling water, bring back to the boil.
4. Drain well and scratch the surface of potato with a fork and sprinkle lightly with salt.
5. Place potatoes on a non-stick baking tray and cook in hottest part of the oven for 1 hour.

Yeah, the bees knees them air friers, they make great chips.

Ady, Dan Quayle was the " potatoe " man, not Bush.

Right enuf, my mistake

Best general purpose potatoes I have found are Maris Piper,

+1

though Mrs B pre-cooks them in the microwave rather than boiling.

Nigel B.

Maris Piper may taste fine but they have a horrible feeling in the mouth for me. Far too floury Various named potatoes have different uses, some are best at roasting, some for mashing, some for chips. No real universal one. So you need different ones for different uses.

Maris Piper or King Edward only for me. Boil, drain, throw flour over them and shake in saucepan to fluff up and into hot olive oil. Perfect.

With a wife who served a 5 year apprenticeship in a directors luncheon club, with several other apprentices - then beat her boss into second place in a cooking comp in her final year - I have little to worry about. I cannot even cook a cheese sandwich ( She was ill once & I made her a sandwhich & it turned out I had filled it with lard !!)

The Duke of Edingburgh commented on her cooking when he visited the company, so the company chairman gave her 2 weeks bonus in cash- a whole £ 10-00

She is very selective about the type of spud she chooses for each purpose & then the preparation. But her chips rarely fail & roast spuds are a delight. Hence, I am overweight.

My mother was a "dollop" cook. A dollop of this and a dolop of that. If you asked what was for dinner the answer was always " it's nice". She rarely told us what it was, "Nice being an all embracing term for something. But you would not know what until you got it"

Edited By Sam Longley 1 on 06/01/2022 15:59:54

Sam

But what type of spuds does she use ?

KWIL

Sounds like you are boiling them for too long, I boil mine for 18 mins.
My late wife used to do them in a pressure cooker for 4 mins steaming.

Emgee

Did anyone see Jamie Oliver on TV showing one of his children how to prepare and cook roast potatoes ?

The method was peel the potatoes and I think blanche the whole potatoes.
Place a potato between 2 wooden spoon handles and slice vertically down from the top to the handles,
do this every 1/2".
Place in a shallow oiled cooking pan, prepare some pigs in blankets and lay these over the potatoes so when
cooking the fat will drain over and into the potatoes.

Haven't tried it yet but sounds like a tasty addition to a meal.
Oh BTW he also uses Maris Piper !!!!

Emgee

Interesting balance of 'follow recipe' and 'wing it'. Over Christmas dinner the pudding cook (main was done by professional chef and his mother, our hostess) mentioned she had looked at a recent TV recipe and modified it to what she had and the others agreed that was the way, but as it was random it could (sadly) never be reproduced. I had been going to post a thread relating this to Model Engineers.

Model Engineers can be like cooks.
A) the sort that insists on detailed drawings and the full build text in ME, follows to the letter and cannot adjust to available materials. Has to have a manual for their lathe to be told where the on switch is or how the levers work. As a child with Meccano followed the detailed instructions to attach trunnion a to strip b.

B) the sort that knows what the finished item looks like and only looks at the drawing to get the key dimensions. Can work out how to strip and rebuild a hobby lathe 'cos they only have half a dozen moving parts anyway and the basic operating principles are all the same. As a child with Meccano looked at the picture and made a better crane.

Yes, par boiling is the secret to perfect roast poitatoes. But don't forget the parsnips.

For a truly perfect roast, remember to put the sprouts on the compost heap before you start cooking.

Neil

remember to put the sprouts on the compost heap before you start cooking.

Ah - a fellow sprout hater !

Nigel B.

Bubble and squeak must have sprouts in it.

Mike

Next to savoy cabbage sprouts are high on my list of favourite greens.

Emgee