Best Roast Spuds - Ever

[Whitedog]

Got this one off the net and people rave about it.

Get your spuds, I find the cheap ones with dirt on from the shops cook the best (really)
Peel and cut into quarters or smaller if the spuds are really big
Have water on the boil and drop the spuds in for 6 1/2 minutes (sounds a bit precise I know)
After that drain the water
Put a good dollop of good quality olive oil in
Add salt to taste
Put a lid on and shake the crap out of them which smashes up the soft outside which gives the crunch later on (Go hard)
Drop onto baking tray
Bake until golden and crisp

Enjoy with roast chook or such.

[Snag]

Definitely the way to cook them.

If you want them even more lavish use duck or goose fat instead of oil. If you have to buy it get ready for the cost though. Duck fat will cost you about $15 for a standard 440gram can and goose fat will be more. But you use very little so it goes a long way.

Definitely the way to cook them.

If you want them even more lavish use duck or goose fat instead of oil. If you have to buy it get ready for the cost though. Duck fat will cost you about $15 for a standard 440gram can and goose fat will be more. But you use very little so it goes a long way.

mmm taters in duck fat....i love em.

the wife hates when i do it though, duckfat is real hard to wash off

[Trapper]

nice recipie, Personnally I use the same method that heston blumenthal does but am going to give this one a try
as for duck fat well there was a lock on the fridge that contained anything to do with duck after i started at the last restaurant i worked at, now i won't say it was me but lets just say alot of chefs got very sticky fingers when it came to duck related stuff

[Varminator]

I use a similar method, I peel the spuds and then cut em up to the size I want and use one of those steamer things in the Nuclear Furnace, then let em cool down and give em a roll around in the colander for a bit to ruff them up a bit (that's where the crunch comes from, then I put them into a hot baking dish with hot oil in it and season well and cook, checking on them regularly for a bit of a turn to get em brown all over, then when they are getting nearly done I put a good dollop of butter in and wait for that to melt then roll em all through that and that helps brown them up nicely too.

Yum!

Just a tip - if you can make sure the spuds are cold before cooking them in the fat, they tend to cook up and brown well this way (something to do with the sugars in the spuds) I generally will do what I said above and if I have time I put them in the Freezer for a bit to chill then I put them in the baking dish and they do come out nice and crunchy - well worth doing I reckon.

Cheers

P.S. you can buy small tubs of Duck Fat etc just have a bit of a look in the fridge section at the local shops they should have some there.

[Trapper]

The reason they come out crunchy when you put them int he fridge/freezer to cool first is because the air in the fridge dries them out and helps the starch recrystallize.
Blumenthal uses maris pipers for his roast potatos, i have never seen them in a store in qld tho.

[Snag]

The choice of the spud variety is a big deal.

Problem for me is most of the spuds are labelled only with a price.

I'd grow them if I had space. I still love digging them out. I'm like a kid on a treasure hunt. But spuds would have to compete with my tomatoes and that spells disaster for soil born disease.

[Snag]

I deep fired some in peanut oil the other week too. medium size so I kept them whole, steamed them for about 15 minutes then flattened them slightly with a flat blade just enough to open them up a bit.

I guess it's cheating, but they were damn good.

I deep fired some in peanut oil the other week too. medium size so I kept them whole, steamed them for about 15 minutes then flattened them slightly with a flat blade just enough to open them up a bit.

I guess it's cheating, but they were damn good.

id forgotten about cooking in peanut oil until now....there was a burger place called route 66 that used to be on hoxton park road, just outside liverpool nsw.
they ahd the best chips in town, and they were cooked in peanut oil

[Snag]

Using oil to fry food in went out of fashion in the '80s.

Facing a wave of obesity the powers to be focused on what they thought was the culprit - cooking oil. So these foods became "unhealthy". Our populations just kept getting fatter.

Now we are seeing the results of the real killer - fructose - corn syrup - it's in so many processed foods.

Just as many chefs are using different animal fats again, frying is staging a bit of a comeback. Whenever I go fishing I always shallow fry a batch of chicken legs. They are easy to eat on a boat and everyone loves them. I would guess that more fat leaves the chicken than oil gained. Anyway your body - skin/hair scalp need some oils once you get past acne.

Duck fat ey? Sounds good, definitely going to have to try it. I may have missed it but is it available from shops like Woolies?