I used to drink a lot in the East End of London and some pubs have this tradition of always providing roast potatoes on the bar as a free snack, on a Friday evening. Hot, salty, eat them with your fingers until they burn. I know it's six-thirty on a Sunday morning but I am desperate to make some.
Am I the only one who believes they are the food of the gods?
Share your techniques for making the perfect roasters, /nom/.
Aye, proper roasties are one of life's great pleasures. There was a thread here once where I laid out my method, but it seems to have vanished into distant memory now, so I suppose it bears repeating.
Heat about a 3/4 cm depth of olive oil in a roasting tray at 190C.
Take floury potatoes (I like Maris Piper), peel and cut them into pieces such that they have clean, sharp edges and are all the preferred size. Ideally you want large potatoes so that you can cut them into quarters and have lots of nice edges to get crunchy. Leave them under running water for a few minutes, then boil them in salted water until they are fully cooked and on the verge of breaking apart. If you want to be all foodie, retain the peelings, tie them up in muslin and add them to the water while boiling. Time will depend on the size of the pieces, but probably no more than 20 minutes.
If that last part was done properly, there will be no need to chuff the potatoes because cracks and fairly deep fissures will have appeared naturally and will trap the fat to get them crunchy almost through to the centre when cooked. If not, give them a good shake to rough them up as best you can. Drain and then return to the pan (heat off) to steam away and dry out a bit.
When they've dried off enough, tip them out onto a board and lightly dust with flour all over. Be really careful with them while you handle them in order not to break them apart. When dusted, get the roasting tray out and place the potatoes in the hot oil, turning them to coat. Get the tray back in the oven ASAP and cook for an hour, turning after 20 and 40 minutes. The second time you turn them, throw in a handful of rosemary stalks and garlic cloves.
Drain on kitchen paper, season well - under-salted potatoes are a crime - and nom. If you made too many and need to refresh cold ones later (or if you simply didn't get the crunch you were after) deep-fry them at 180C for 4-5 minutes.
Prepare a roasting tray with enough oil to generously cover the surface and stick it in the oven at ~190C. Cut your potatoes into chunks (a bit more than twice the volume of an oxo cube works well), bring some salty water to the boil and then add your chunks cooking them for about 5 minutes, then drain.
Sprinkle some salt and pepper on to them and shake, add more salt and shake again and repeat this step until they're good and fluffy.
Place the potatoes into the tray with a flat edge facing downwards, making sure none of the potatoes touch each other. Drizzle more oil over the potatoes and, optionally, drizzle some molten butter over them as well. Lightly salt the lot, add two whole cloves of garlic (skin and all) making sure they're well oiled, and put into the oven. They take around an hour, during which time you should baste them at least twice. Add a sprig or two of rosemary and a few sprigs of thyme about half way through. If the mood strikes you, add a hint of lemon zest or — if you're feeling a bit experimental — orange zest.
The trickiest part is getting the saltiness right: If undersalted, the crunchy part just tastes like oily starch, while oversalting masks all of the other flavours.
I don't go for those scuffed ones. I quite like them slightly burned and done so in duck or goose fat. Or, failing that, butter. Sometimes olive oil is nice with herbs I suppose.
