Currabinny Cooks: How to make the ultimate roast potatoes

And the best oven chips we have ever made

Crispy, crunchy, salty and golden roast potatoes with a cloud-like fluffy interior. Picture: William Murray

It has been a while since either of us got overly excited about cooking potatoes. We mostly steam them unpeeled in our large bamboo steamer to have as a side. There is something wonderful about simply steamed potatoes with a sprinkle of sea salt and a little butter. With other ingredients, we have always tried to explore new and fantastic ways to use them in our cooking, but when it came to potatoes, we definitely just settled on them being the old reliable thing to put on a plate with some meat or fish.

This isn’t to say that over the years we haven’t experimented a lot with different ways of using potato, trying to find new and exciting methods and flavour combinations. It occurred to us recently that we would do well to master some basic fundamentals apart from just steaming or mashing them. Until recently we had never made acceptable homemade chips or settled on one perfect way of making roast potatoes. We set about experimenting, testing out different recipes from our favourite and most trusted sources, combining elements until we were happy with the result. This week, we have pared it all back to these three basic recipes using potatoes. The perfect roast potatoes, oven chips and Spanish tortilla.   

Perfect Roast Potatoes 

These are James’ speciality. He probably spent every day over Christmas perfecting this method of making truly perfect roast potatoes. You want them to be crispy, crunchy, salty and golden on the outside with a cloud-like fluffy interior. James did try different iterations using olive oil, duck fat, sunflower oil and beef dripping but we came to the fast conclusion that goose fat really is the superior medium to crisp up your roasties. Do not skip the part of the recipe where you expose the parboiled potatoes to some cold air, we cannot explain why but there is some alchemy here which just makes them better and fluffier.

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 16 medium floury potatoes 
• 140g goose fat 
• Sea salt 
• A few sage leaves (optional) 
• 4-5 garlic cloves (optional) 

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Peel the potatoes and place in a large pot. Fill with cold water so that all the potatoes are just about covered. Season the water well with plenty of sea salt and bring to the boil. Place the lid on, turn down the heat a little and leave to bubble away for around 5 minutes until parboiled. 

Drain into a large colander and leave on a windowsill for a minute or two. Shake around the potatoes in the colander so that the outside becomes well roughed up. Don’t be afraid to break the potatoes.

Place the goose fat into a large roasting tin and put into the preheated oven to melt.

Toss your roughed up potatoes in the goose fat. Scatter over a few sage leaves and some cloves of garlic if you like. Place back in the oven and roast for 20 minutes or so. Take them out of the oven and using a fork, crush the semi-roasted potatoes. This is to create even more crispness.

Place back in the oven for another 40 minutes, by which time they should be dark golden, crispy and absolutely perfect. Season well with sea salt.

Homemade Chips 

Crispy and delicious homemade chips. Picture: William Murray

This is the best method I have tried for making the most perfect homemade oven chips. Do not worry that the semolina will add anything other than texture to your chips, it just makes them crisper and more delicious on the outside. You can find za’atar in most supermarkets and of course Middle Eastern and Asian stores.

Serves 6

Ingredients

• 1kg of potatoes ( Maris piper, roosters) 
• 100ml rapeseed oil  
• semolina 
• 1 heaped tablespoon of za’atar 
• Sea salt 

Method

Preheat the oven to 230°C. Peel the potatoes and cut into thick chips. Try and get them all relatively uniform in thickness.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil and salt generously. Tip the the chips in the boiling water and place the lid on the pot. Cook for seven minutes. Drain and pat the chips dry. Leave them to cool a little.

Pour the rapeseed oil into a large mixing bowl. Tip the cooked chips into the bowl and make sure they are all well covered with oil. Sprinkle over the semolina, sea salt and za’atar mixing everything around in the bowl until each chip is well coated.

Place a sheet of baking paper on a large oven tray. Arrange the chips in one layer on the oven tray and place in the oven for around 30-35 minutes. They should be lovely and golden brown by this time.   

Simple Spanish Tortilla 

A simple recipe for Spanish tortilla. Picture: William Murray

This is something we definitely do not make nearly enough. We have in fact only recently perfected our way of cooking a Spanish tortilla. The method is simple enough and doesn’t require too much toil. We tend to enjoy getting the outside nice and crispy and dark, erring on the side of burnt, but for golden-brown results just be a little more careful with the heat and checking underneath. This version isn’t the most beautiful but it is very tasty. Slicing the potatoes as thin as you can is key here as they’ll crisp up all the better on the outside, while the inside will be nice and soft. We would recommend using a mandolin if you have one at your disposal.

Serves 2

Ingredients

• olive oil 
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped 
• 2 large potatoes ( roosters are perfect ) 
• 3 large eggs 
• Sea salt and black pepper

Method

Peel the potatoes and then cut into very thin slices on a mandolin or using a very sharp knife. Pat the slices dry with a clean kitchen cloth.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan. Add the onions and cook for around 5 minutes until softened and translucent. Remove the onion to a plate or bowl from the pan and set aside.

Put a good amount of olive oil back into the pan, enough to shallow fry the potato. When is nice and hot, add the sliced potato and cook for 10 - 15 minutes, until the slices start turning slightly golden. Take off the heat and leave cool a little.

In a large bowl, beat the eggs and mix in the onion and season well with sea salt and a little black pepper.

Pour off most of the cooking oil and then slide the potatoes into the egg mixture. Mix well until everything is incorporated. You may need to add another little bit of seasoning.

Wipe out the pan and place back on a medium-high heat with a little oil. Pour the potato and egg mixture to the pan and leave to cook for around six minutes. Slide a fork underneath the tortilla to check that it is cooked well. It should be dark golden brown, don’t attempt to flip it if it is only lightly golden.

To flip the tortilla, we find the best method is to take the pan off the heat and then slide the tortilla on to a large plate (slightly larger than the pan). Drain off any excess oil from the pan and then place inverted over the plate. Using tea towels, flip the pan and plate over so that the tortilla lands back in the pan cooked side facing up. Cook for another 3 to 4 minutes or until it has completely set. Leave to cool a little in the pan for a couple of minutes.

Slide onto a serving plate or board and cut into wedges to serve.