Everyone loves roasties – a few tricks and flavour combos will give you a real crowd pleaser.
Ingredients
- 3-4 good large potatoes
- 3-5 tablespoons olive oil
- sea salt to taste
- 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
- optional: chopped fresh rosemary, garlic cloves
Directions
- 1Heat the oven to 190 celsius. Wash & peel your potatoes. Rinse them under cold water to remove any starch and put in a pot & cover with enough water to cover. Bring the water to a boil, and turn down the heat just enough to keep a gentle roiling boil going. Depending on the size of the potatoes, cook for 6-9 minutes, until the outer flesh is soft enough to be pierced with a fork.
- 2Drain the potatoes in a colander, and allow to cool for 3-4 minutes. Once the potatoes have settled a little, shake up the colander (ideally in the sink) to ‘chuff’ up the outsides and rough those babies up. Once the potatoes are cool enough to handle, use a knife to coarsely chop them in to 3-4 inch pieces. This can easily be done while they are still in the colander (I like to do this as it rough up the outsides when I grab each cooked piece).
- 3Transfer the chuffed & chopped potato pieces to a flat baking sheet and pour a generous few tablespoons of olive oil on them. Add about (2) tsp of salt and black pepper to taste to the tray and mix everything together directly on the pan. Add to the heated oven and cook for 30 minutes or so, tossing them once at the half way point. Your potatoes will be about 3/4 of the way cooked at this point.
- 4After 30 minutes, remove the potatoes from oven. Take a potato masher or a large fork, and gently ‘squash’ the potato pieces to sort of flatten them and increase their cooking surface area (not too much that they fall apart though). They should be soft enough to do this without totally breaking apart. Flip any pieces to the flattened side for even cooking, add more olive oil (up to 2-3 tbsp more) & drizzle 2 tbsp of red wine vinegar (or chopped rosemary & whole garlic cloves as Jamie does). Mix right on the pan and return to the oven to cook a further 40 minutes. Check them here and there to make sure all sides are evenly cooked.
