Roast potatoes are a British staple, especially when part of a tasty Sunday roast. While there are a lot of opinions on how to make the best spuds, there seems to be a consensus between two top chefs on one key step in the process.
Chef Tommy Heaney of Heaneys, in Cardiff, mentioned the usual — parboiling the potatoes and ruffling them up for extra crunch — and then shared a golden nugget. One way to ensure the best roast potatoes is to make them cold before cooking. Explaining his process, Chef Heaney said, “Treat your roasties like triple-cooked chips.
“Parboil the potatoes, strain them, pop them back in the pot [with the] lid back on and give the pot a good shake to ruffle them up.”
He added: “Chill in the fridge until the next day. Then fry in your roasting tray with plenty of oil or fat until coloured all over.
“Add garlic and rosemary and then finish in the oven on a high heat.”
Michelin-star chef Mark Poynton, who recently opened Ancient Shepherds in Fen Ditton, Cambridge, also believes in the effectiveness of cooling down parboiled potatoes.
Chef Poynton stated that the potatoes should be parboiled in “heavily-salted water” then left to “steam dry” on a cooling rack.
Once at room temperature, the potatoes should be placed “in the freezer for 30 minutes”.
The next steps involve pre-heating a deep roasting tray drizzled in vegetable oil in the oven at 200 °C, and adding the chilled potatoes to the hot oil.
“Roast the potatoes [and] turn gently every five minutes till golden all over,” chef Poynton added.
