Recipe · SIDE
Crispy Roasted Potatoes
Crispness on a roast potato is surface area, and a boiled potato does not have any. It has a smooth, sealed skin of gelatinised starch, and if you put that straight into fat you get a roast potato that is pleasant and slightly leathery.
Shaking the drained pan tears that surface open into a rough, floury layer. Those torn edges are what fat can get into and dehydrate, and each one becomes a separate small crisp thing. This is the step people skip because it feels like abuse, and it is the only step that actually produces the texture the recipe is named after.
Steam-dry first, though — two minutes in the empty hot pan, so the surface water leaves before you start roughing anything up. And get the fat properly hot in the tray before the potatoes go anywhere near it. Cold fat is absorbed; hot fat sears on contact.
Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 kg new or waxy potatoes, halved
- 1 tbsp salt, for the water
- 3 tbsp olive oil or duck fat
- 4 sprigs rosemary
- 4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
- Flaky salt
Method
- Parboil. Cover the potatoes with cold water, add the salt, bring to the boil and cook for 10 minutes, until a knife goes into the outer edge easily but the centre still resists.
- Steam dry. Drain them and leave them in the empty hot pan for 2 minutes to let the surface water evaporate.
- Rough them up. Put the lid on and shake the pan hard several times. The surfaces should tear and go floury. This is the step that makes them crisp.
- Get the fat hot first. Heat the oven to 220°C fan with the fat in a roasting tray for 5 minutes, then add the potatoes cut side down. Cold fat means they sit and absorb instead of searing.
- Roast. Roast for 30 to 35 minutes, turning once, adding the rosemary and garlic for the last 10 minutes. Finish with flaky salt.
Worth knowing
- A smooth boiled potato has nothing for the fat to crisp. All the texture comes from those torn edges, so shake harder than feels sensible.