The only roast potato recipe you’ll ever need.
SERVES 2-4 TIME 60MINS DIFFICULTY EYES CLOSED VG. GF.
Now the art of the perfect roast potato, like many things in life, comes down to selection, preparation, timing and patience.
You will need:
- 750g Organic potatoes
- 2tbsp Organic, raw, cold-pressed coconut oil
- Salt, pepper and your chosen seasoning
Selection This is the part where you look at that bag of potatoes you just bought in Tes*o or Sainsb***s or wherever and you want to select potatoes of the most similar size first. If you find that you don’t have enough in this selection, then bring in the smaller/bigger potatoes to fill the gaps.
Preparation It’s important how you prepare. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
- Let’s start with boiling a kettle [or however you wish to boil the water]. You want enough boiling water to fill the biggest sauce pan you have. Larger pans of water retain temperatures the longest.
- This is where you want to cut the potatoes into large chunks, about the size of a babies fist. We’re talking a large gobstopper for those who have never seen a baby. You want as many random edges and corners and mis-shapes as your bag of spuds and cutting style allows.
- Great. Now you put the potatoes in a colander and give them a little rinse before adding them to an empty pan. Potatoes first means no splash back.
- Fill the pan with boiling water and crank the heat to bring up the temperature to boiling again. Sprinkle in a generous pinch of salt, pop the lid on and then leave for about 10 minutes depending on the size of your potatoes.
Timing Possibly the most important element of all cooking.
- Check the potatoes after 10 minutes, using a steel blade. Insert the knife into the biggest potato you can see and lift out of the water. Pause. If the potato falls easily back into the water, then pour them into a colander. If that potato clings, pop it back in and check every 3-5 minutes until ready.
- Now pour fresh boiling water over the potatoes, just to rinse.
- You can preheat the oven at this point, a standard 180c for fan ovens and 200 for non fan should do nicely.
Patience sure is a virtue when it comes to roasting potatoes.
- Leave the potatoes to cool [this may take a while, up to 45mins]
- Once cold, shake around the colander to fluff [this is important]. Don’t worry if a couple break.
- Insert a deep baking tray into the oven with a heaped table spoon of coconut oil.
- After a few minutes the oil should be hot enough [test with a drop of water].
- Now you can pour in your potatoes.
- Shake around the tray.
- Season generously with salt and pepper.
- You can add a mixture of your favourite herbs [maybe rosemary, thyme, oregano, marjoram, parsley]. We also like a dusting of smoked paprika.
- Now you just leave them to cook for 30 minutes before shaking again.
- Check every 5 minutes until they are as golden as you desire. We tend to leave them up to an hour as we live for the crispy edges!
TIP: Allow them time to cook without opening the oven, you lose 10degrees for every second that door is open!
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