Roast Potatoes
This method of cooking roast potatoes allows cooking alongside most roast meats. Rather than using just potatoes I cook a combination of potatoes, pumpkin, kumara, whole onions and carrots. They always turn out beautifully.
This method of cooking roast potatoes allows cooking alongside most roast meats. Rather than using just potatoes I cook a combination of potatoes, pumpkin, kumara, whole onions and carrots. They always turn out beautifully.
- Carbohydrate 43.675 g
- Cholesterol 0 mg
- Fat 62.70625 g
- Fiber 5.50000011920929 g
- Protein 5.05 g
- Saturated Fat 15.6775 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (312g)
- Sodium 17.5 mg
- Sugar 38.1749998807907 g
- Trans Fat 3.614375 g
- Calories 745 calories
Step-by-step
- Preheat the oven to moderate (~180°C).
- Wash and peel potatoes, cut in half lengthways. Place in a saucepan of boiling salted water, simmer for 10 minutes then drain.
- Dry the potatoes on absorbent paper and roughen up the surface with a fork to assist them to crisp nicely when cooking.
- Chop the vegetable shortening and place in a shallow pan then place in the oven until the shortening melts. Remove from the oven and add in the potatoes.
- Bake in the oven 45 minutes then drain off most of the vegetable shortening. Return to the oven and bake for a further 15 to 30 minutes, turning them occasionally, until golden brown.
When working with a limited pantry that excludes animal fats, achieving a deeply golden exterior on root vegetables presents a distinct engineering puzzle. Solid white vegetable shortening provides the necessary high smoke point without introducing unwanted moisture or dairy solids that burn prematurely. Water content remains the primary enemy of crispness, which is why pre-cooking requires strict adherence to timing.
Simmering the cut tubers in salted water for exactly ten minutes gelatinizes the surface starch without collapsing the interior structure. Draining thoroughly on absorbent paper removes excess surface liquid before the crucial texturing phase. Scraping the parboiled surfaces with a fork creates micro-grooves that catch the melting shortening, vastly increasing the surface area exposed to direct heat.
Pre-heating the fat in a shallow pan inside a 180 degrees Celsius oven ensures the exterior seals immediately upon contact, preventing grease absorption. Draining the excess oil after forty-five minutes of baking allows steam to escape freely during the final fifteen to thirty minutes of high-heat browning. Rotating the pieces periodically guarantees even color development across all flat surfaces.
