My perfect roast potatoes

Ok, the title to this recipe is a little arrogant. And my food photography needs more practice!

I have had better tasting roast potatoes than these, but those recipes all involve coating the potatoes in drippings and fat. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love the taste of drippings and fat as much as the next person, but therein lies the problem. You can roast almost any vegetable in animal fat and you will get any vegetable-hating carnivore to tell you that they have never had such delicious potatoes/carrots/pumpkins/chokos.

This is as good as it gets without resorting to meat drippings. Perhaps I should rename this recipe “My perfect roast potatoes without cheating” – perhaps too long-winded.

Ingredients

Potatoes, potatoes, and more potatoes – if you can, waxy potatoes, like Desirees are the best
Olive oil
Salt
Cracked pepper
Fresh rosemary leaves
Crushed garlic cloves, about 1 for every handful of potatoes - (with the heel of the hand push down on each clove to crush – or use the flat part of a knife)

What to do

1. Heat the oven to 220^oC and place your baking tray inside.
2. Peel the potatoes, and cut to size – I find double bite-sized the easiest.
3. Drop the potatoes into a pot of boiling water and parboil – that is, if you poke a fork into a potato and the inner is still hard but the outer is soft, it is ready.
4. Drain the potatoes out in a colander and shake dry – the shaking also breaks the outside of the potatoes.
5. Remove baking tray from oven – careful its hot! Brush oil onto pan – this is important to stop the potatoes from sticking to the tray. Some recipes say to put the heat the oil in the tray first, I don’t find this really critical, and the hot oil can splatter on contact with wet potatoes. (I forgot to brush the pan in the photo above.)
6. Spread potatoes on tray and sprinkle more olive oil, salt, pepper, rosemary leaves and garlic cloves on top. Toss the potatoes with tongs or other utensils – not your hands!
7. Roast for about 20 minutes, then give the potatoes a good shake to expose different sides to the heat/hot tray (not a critical step). Return to oven for another 20 minutes or so, keeping a careful eye on the little pretties, and remove when deliciously brown.