Roast potatoes have always been my favourite part of a Sunday roast, but they are perfect with most dinners as they are so easy to make – as long as you use a simple ingredient. I love cooking but used to find it really tricky to make roast potatoes, as no matter how many times I tried to cook them, they always come out the oven soggy, squishy and really greasy.
Earlier this year I decided to do a little more research into why my roasties were always rubbish, and I ended up stumbling across Mary Berry’s recipe which said to always add semolina to your potatoes. Semolina is a flour often used to make pasta or pizza dough, but what makes it fantastic is that it is highly absorbent, so will remove any moisture sitting on the potato skin.
Potatoes are made of a lot of water, which is why you need to be careful if you are cooking them in the oven as they tend to release a lot of steam.
Too much steam will mean the potatoes cannot roast properly, but semolina will soak up a lot of the moisture on the potatoes so they come out the oven with a perfect golden crust.
Mary Berry first recommended this simple cooking technique in her cookbook Simple Comforts, and also uses semolina to roast vegetables like carrots and parsnips.
How to make crispier and tastier roast potatoes
You will need:
- 1kg of potatoes (make sure to use Maris Piper or King Edwards, if you can)
- 50g of semolina
- Three tablespoons of sunflower oil
- Salt and pepper
- Mixed herbs (optional)
- Chives (optional)
- Garlic granules (optional)
Potatoes with a high starch content like Maris Piper or King Edwards roast better in the oven so are often the best to use. However, if you cannot find them, it usually says on the potato packaging if they are better for boiling or roasting.
Mary Berry’s recipe also calls for one kilogram of potatoes to serve six people, but I was just cooking for myself so I used significantly less. I cooked three medium-sized potatoes, but I had leftovers for the next day as well.
Method
To begin, I simply washed the potatoes, peeled them, then roughly cut them into quarters.
I then placed them in a pot of cold salted water and turned the stove on a high heat until the water was boiling. I then reduced the heat to medium and left the potatoes to cook for five minutes.
Once the potatoes were ready, I drained them in a colander and placed them back in the pot. I then put the lid back on and gently shook the pot to roughen up the potatoes, which creates more edges so they crisp up better in the oven.
In a bowl, I then added some semolina and a pinch of salt. I also added some mixed herbs, chives and some garlic pepper, but this is not in Mary Berry’s recipe so is entirely optional.
I added the semolina mixture to the pot of potatoes. Next, I poured a little oil on the roasting tray, and then put it in the oven to heat up first without the potatoes.
If the oil is hot when it hits the potatoes then they will sear, and you are more likely to get a crispier and browner skin.
I let the tray heat up for roughly five minutes, and then carefully took the hot tray out of the oven and added the potatoes. Then all I did was let them cook for 45 to 55 minutes, but made sure to turn halfway through the cooking time.
When the potatoes were ready, I took then out the oven and put them in a bowl immediately.
These potatoes had a really satisfying crunch and tasted absolutely amazing. Semolina gives them a little bit more texture, but it does not affect the taste at all and, instead, you are left with deliciously golden herby potatoes that are incredibly easy to make.