The humble Potato.
Posted: Fri Sep 06, 2013 2:15 pm
What follows is a basic guide to the roasting of potato's. The potato must be the King of vegetables and who would disagree that the roast potato is it's finest form.
The recipie below is one that I have developed by trial and error over many years and seems to result in a near perfect roast potato on most occasions. [two points ; I say 'near perfect' - my mother could cook a better one, but alas she took the method to the grave having died before I developed my interest in cooking. Second point - cooking as always, is a form of alchemy and sometimes it just don't play ball. Small things like variation in the potato, the oven temp, even the cooking oil all play their part and there are odd times when the dice just fall wrong. It happens in all cooking, but practicing over and over reduces these occurences to a minnimum.]
Ok - first the potato. Maris Piper white potatoes are the best. Avoid King Edward's - they have too grainy a texture inside. Choose spuds that will sit nicely in the palm of your hand [cricket-ball size?] allowing one largeish spud per person. Peel them carefully, not wasting too much and cut each potato in half. If the size is correct these two halves should make a nice portion for one person [if the size is too small they won't a) be enough and b) withstand the boiling process without falling apart.] Now wash the potatoes in cold water. Now wash them again. This removes the starch from the surface and seems to really effect the end result. Stick them in a pan of salted water with lots of space for each spud to move around [ie not crammed together] and bring to the boil. At the same time you light the gas [0r whatever] for the pan of spuds, light up the oven to gas mark 5 [about 375 f, 190 c]. Take a foil tray that is big enough for all the spuds to have plenty of room - nothing will spoil roasties quicker than cramming them in side by side - and put in about a square inch of lard for each potato [the melted fat that you put the spuds into wants to be about 0.5cm deep in the tray - too shallow or too deep will again have consequences in the final product.] Finally put a splash [half an egg-cupfull] of olive oil into the tray along with the lard and place it on the middle shelf of the heating oven.
The potatoes will take 10 or so minutes to par-boil, and you can tell when they are ready because a pointed knife will just abut slip into the surface without going in too deep; if your potatoes were cut too small they will just collapse at this point, hence the reason for keeping the spuds bigger [also they tend to absorb less fat into the deeper flesh which can make them nicer to eat {emphasis on the 'can' - there is a deeper topic here that must be reserved for the higher level potato 'adept'}]. If you wanted to, say because your foil tray was not very big, you could just put the whole peeled potato in to boil and not cut it into half at all - I've never had a problem with a potato being too large - only with them being too small. Anyway, you are happy that your potato is ready to go into the fat - and that the fat is ready to recieve the potato [it will have melted, started 'popping' and stopped again] nb the fat must be hot enough to sizzle when the spuds go in, but not smoking hot. If you think the fat is not hot enough when the spuds are par-boiled, their size will cut you some slack, so just turn them down to minimum and heat your fat a bit longer. If the fat is too hot, take it out of the oven for half a minute or so and it will soon cool down.
Now, drain your spuds fully and put them back into the saucepan. Swirl them around four or five times to fluff up the outside then add a knob of butter to the pan. Swirl again to coat with the butter and then tip them straight into the hot fat [carefull here! - armslength.] nb It's better to leave the fat in the oven untill the buttering process is done - fat looses temperature really fast out of an oven and you really want that 'sizzle' when you put the spuds into the fat. No salting of the potatoes is needed here because you have boiled them in salted water and the butter has enough salt to finish the job. Now use a spoon to coat each spud in the hot fat and position them in the tray with maximum space around each one. Into the oven on the middle shelf and leave for twenty minutes. After 20 mins take out the foil tray and turn each potato over - now back in for another twenty mins. At this stage [ie 40 mins into the roasting] take the tray out and re-turn the potatoes. You will now begin to judge how much longer your potatoes are going to need. Most likely they will take the full hour [ie another twenty mins], but some potatoes cook faster than others so be prepared to take them out after a final 10 mins - or even leave them in a bit over the hour if you think they need it. The roast potatoes will be fine for a while in a warm bowl if there is need to finish other things in the oven or whatever, but by and large you can bank on them taking about the full hour at the temps I have given. Bigger [ie uncut] potatoes may take a bit over, but rarely more than say an extra 10 minutes. And that, folks, is how it's done. All that remains now is to eat the little beauties!
The recipie below is one that I have developed by trial and error over many years and seems to result in a near perfect roast potato on most occasions. [two points ; I say 'near perfect' - my mother could cook a better one, but alas she took the method to the grave having died before I developed my interest in cooking. Second point - cooking as always, is a form of alchemy and sometimes it just don't play ball. Small things like variation in the potato, the oven temp, even the cooking oil all play their part and there are odd times when the dice just fall wrong. It happens in all cooking, but practicing over and over reduces these occurences to a minnimum.]
Ok - first the potato. Maris Piper white potatoes are the best. Avoid King Edward's - they have too grainy a texture inside. Choose spuds that will sit nicely in the palm of your hand [cricket-ball size?] allowing one largeish spud per person. Peel them carefully, not wasting too much and cut each potato in half. If the size is correct these two halves should make a nice portion for one person [if the size is too small they won't a) be enough and b) withstand the boiling process without falling apart.] Now wash the potatoes in cold water. Now wash them again. This removes the starch from the surface and seems to really effect the end result. Stick them in a pan of salted water with lots of space for each spud to move around [ie not crammed together] and bring to the boil. At the same time you light the gas [0r whatever] for the pan of spuds, light up the oven to gas mark 5 [about 375 f, 190 c]. Take a foil tray that is big enough for all the spuds to have plenty of room - nothing will spoil roasties quicker than cramming them in side by side - and put in about a square inch of lard for each potato [the melted fat that you put the spuds into wants to be about 0.5cm deep in the tray - too shallow or too deep will again have consequences in the final product.] Finally put a splash [half an egg-cupfull] of olive oil into the tray along with the lard and place it on the middle shelf of the heating oven.
The potatoes will take 10 or so minutes to par-boil, and you can tell when they are ready because a pointed knife will just abut slip into the surface without going in too deep; if your potatoes were cut too small they will just collapse at this point, hence the reason for keeping the spuds bigger [also they tend to absorb less fat into the deeper flesh which can make them nicer to eat {emphasis on the 'can' - there is a deeper topic here that must be reserved for the higher level potato 'adept'}]. If you wanted to, say because your foil tray was not very big, you could just put the whole peeled potato in to boil and not cut it into half at all - I've never had a problem with a potato being too large - only with them being too small. Anyway, you are happy that your potato is ready to go into the fat - and that the fat is ready to recieve the potato [it will have melted, started 'popping' and stopped again] nb the fat must be hot enough to sizzle when the spuds go in, but not smoking hot. If you think the fat is not hot enough when the spuds are par-boiled, their size will cut you some slack, so just turn them down to minimum and heat your fat a bit longer. If the fat is too hot, take it out of the oven for half a minute or so and it will soon cool down.
Now, drain your spuds fully and put them back into the saucepan. Swirl them around four or five times to fluff up the outside then add a knob of butter to the pan. Swirl again to coat with the butter and then tip them straight into the hot fat [carefull here! - armslength.] nb It's better to leave the fat in the oven untill the buttering process is done - fat looses temperature really fast out of an oven and you really want that 'sizzle' when you put the spuds into the fat. No salting of the potatoes is needed here because you have boiled them in salted water and the butter has enough salt to finish the job. Now use a spoon to coat each spud in the hot fat and position them in the tray with maximum space around each one. Into the oven on the middle shelf and leave for twenty minutes. After 20 mins take out the foil tray and turn each potato over - now back in for another twenty mins. At this stage [ie 40 mins into the roasting] take the tray out and re-turn the potatoes. You will now begin to judge how much longer your potatoes are going to need. Most likely they will take the full hour [ie another twenty mins], but some potatoes cook faster than others so be prepared to take them out after a final 10 mins - or even leave them in a bit over the hour if you think they need it. The roast potatoes will be fine for a while in a warm bowl if there is need to finish other things in the oven or whatever, but by and large you can bank on them taking about the full hour at the temps I have given. Bigger [ie uncut] potatoes may take a bit over, but rarely more than say an extra 10 minutes. And that, folks, is how it's done. All that remains now is to eat the little beauties!