baked taties

[Wendy]

How do you get that crispy, crackly coating on the roast potatoes?.

[Apero]

The method I use is from one of my cookbooks, no author as there in France.

Par boil for 10mns put them in an oven dish (i use the one i have for cooking chicken) put a little oil, can be goose fat, sunflower oil or whatever type is your favourite, season and shake them about a bit this will give the edges a bashing which in turn when cooked will crisp them up. Take them out the oven every so often and shake again until ready and are the colour you want, light or dark coloured. Usually ready when you can slide a sharp knife in and the tip is warm, be careful the knife tip may be hot. Not as many calories as deep fried and taste evey bit as good.[Y]  

[naps]

Pretty similar here... the only differences are that after pre-boiling I pour them into a colander and give them a good shake up, this bashing gives lots of rough edges and creates what later become the crispy bits.

Just found goose fat in the supermarket - which is supposed to be best for roast potatoes, but prior to that I just used sunflower oil.

I also pre-heat the oil before dropping the par-boiled potatoes in and season well with fine rock salt.

Oh how I wish I wasn't on Atkins at the moment!

[Viv]

Make sure the fat is really sizzling hot when you put the potatoes in. I use sunflower oil with a tad of olive oil and a know of butter and they always come out crispy.

[opas]

Arn`t baked tatties jacket potatoes?  roast tatoes are the ones that are cooked in fat.

Mrs O

[Wendy]

Thanks for your replies! I think I havent had the oil hot enough when popping them in the oven. I do the 'bashing' bit though as well.

[PeterG]

Whern doing the bashing bit, dust the potatos with a little flour and mustard powder. For me thoough it's hot beef dripping rather than sunflower oil.

[Dick Smith]

A friend of mine swears by the use of semolina for dusting; I prefer just to use goose fat/olive oil.

The variety of potato is also important, something floury like a King Edward.

[savanatbunnie]

A friend of mine does fab roasties, and she told me she uses half butter, half oil, and shakes the potatoes up in the pan before putting in the hot oil.  The butter gives a lovely flavour.