Roast Potatoes

I absolutely love roast potatoes. Ideally you wanna be eating them with roast beef and yorkshire puddings (see recipe in archives) but i also like making them with pretty much anything that doesn't really "go". They're good with fish fingers, sausages or just on their own.

I like them to come out all crispy, but with the insides really soft, almost like mashed potatoes. Of course, you need the right spud for the job, something floury like a King Edward or Maris Piper.
I'm sure my recipe is much like many out there, but i thought i would post it up anyway.

What you will need:

Potatoes
Vegetable Stock Cube
3 Cloves of Garlic
Vegetable Oil
Salt & Pepper


This is what i do:

1. Get a pan of water boiling with a vegetable stock cube in it. Turn the oven on to around 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5.
   
2. Peel your desired amount of potatoes. I like to peel mine pretty roughly, leaving some of the skin on here-and-there. The bits with skin on won't crisp up as much but the overall look and taste is more favourable in my opinion. Try and keep them all roughly the same size, cutting the bigger in 1/2 and keeping the smaller ones whole.
3. Add them to the boiling water for around 8 or 9 mins.
4. Take your roasting tray and add a small amount of vegetable oil, just a thin layer covering the bottom of the pan, with some sea salt, coarsely ground black pepper and 2 or 3 cloves of garlic that are cut in half, still with the skin on.
5. Drain the potatoes and return them to the same pan you just boiled them in. Stick the lid on and give them a good old shake to fluff up the outsides.
6. Take your tray out of the oven, discard the garlic and carefully tip the spuds in, turn them over with a slotted spoon and add more salt and pepper. Put them in the oven, on a high shelf.
   
7. Take them out after 30 mins and turn them over, return to the oven for another 20 or so mins (use your judgement and take them out when you like the look of them).

They normally turn out nice and crisp this way, however, if they don't then i find using less oil helps. Be willing to experiment a little to get them coming out the way you want. As always, cookers do vary a bit.

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