Perfect crispy roast potatoes..and parsnips…but mostly, perfect crispy roast potatoes 😀

’tis the time of year for roast dinners and beautiful roast potatoes and vegetables, although in my house, a roast is welcome any time of year!!

When I married my husband, I promised to love and cherish him til death do us part….AND learn how to cook a perfect roast!! Maybe not quite as official as that, but it was something I knew he loved to eat and I wanted to learn to make a good roast dinner (as good as, if not better than his Mum’s!!) and now, both of my boys love nothing more than roast chicken with all the trimmings including perfect crispy roast potatoes. I remember the roast dinners of my childhood and the potatoes were always the star dish ⭐️

This weekend I made a roast for my boys and our visitors and took some photos and notes as I made the roast potatoes in case it may be of interest…

I’m sure everyone has their perfect method, this is just mine ☺️

Preheat the oven to 190C (170C fan). Peel the potatoes and place them in a large saucepan and cover with water.

Bring it to the boil and turn the heat down enough for the pot to continue to boil for a good 5 minutes, a bit longer is fine, this is just to par boil the potatoes though, not completely boil them

Then drain the potatoes and – this is the key – keeping them in the saucepan, give them a good shake and break up the outsides of the potatoes

Then leave to one side to cool in their own steam. You can leave them for as long or as short a time as you like. During this time, pour a shallow layer of vegetable oil into your roasting tin and put it into the top of the oven to heat up

When the oil is very hot, add the potatoes to the pan carefully. I do it one by one with tongs. Be careful not to splash yourself with hot oil

Then spoon oil over each potatoes

And roast in the top of the oven for 40-60 mins depending on the size of the potatoes. Yesterday these were in the oven for 50 minutes.

Halfway through, take the pan out and baste each potato with hot oil again then put back into the oven

And watch them crisp up 😀

I cooked the parsnips in exactly the same way, par boiling them, draining them and shaking them up before roasting them in hot oil

Mmmmm……yum!!!!!