Oven Roasted Potatoes

[Mad Cook]

Some people advocate par-boiling the potatoes for a few minutes before roasting.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I have started microwaving my potatoes first.

Upon reading this topic that was my first thought: just pre-nuke your potatoes. I do it all the time and it works all the time.

You can skip the pre-nuke if you are cooking for a long time like 325F for an hour+, to cohabitate with your main course. But it's just better to pre-nuke it. I haven't had any problems with over-cooked potatoes.

One of my favorite recipes, I throw the smallest potatoes I can find into a 1 pint measuring cup, add water and cover, ,nuke! then I drain the water, toss the potatoes with EVOO and fresh, finely chopped rosemary, or you can use ground, salt and pepper, then I co-cook the potatoes with my main course. (Fresh garlic optional.)

It's hard to mess up this recipe because for some reason the potatoes are very tolerant of over-cooking.

 

[CarolPa]

A restaurant I used to frequent had broasted potatoes. They would bake the potatoes, until the outside was thick and crispy, then quarter them and put them under the broiler. They would get brown all over and be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. They used some type of seasoning, but I don't know what it was.

One time we went to a restaurant and DH wanted steak fries. They said they didn't have them, but they offered to cut a baked potato in strips and drop it in the fryer, and that worked wonderfully! DH loved them.

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

One time we went to a restaurant and DH wanted steak fries. They said they didn't have them, but they offered to cut a baked potato in strips and drop it in the fryer, and that worked wonderfully! DH loved them.

I wonder how it would come out if you cut a baked potato in strips and then batter and deep fry it.

 

[Katie H]

We're having a variation on the "roasted" potato thing tonight. It's one of Glenn's favorites.

I usually allocate 1 potato per person. I use russets. Scrub thoroughly, dry and slice into about 1/4-inch slices. Pour a "film" of melted butter on the bottom of a shallow baking dish. Gently fan out the whole potatoes in the baking dish. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Lightly drizzle the rows of potatoes with more melted butter.

Now...mix equal portions of shredded Parmesan cheese and Swiss cheese. Sprinkle the shredded cheeses evenly over the potatoes and drizzle just a little more melted butter over.

Bake, uncovered, in a preheated 400F oven for about, um, 40 minutes. I just do it by eye. Test with a fork to determine when the potatoes are tender and serve. It may not take the full 40 minutes. I'm writing this from memory.

 

[Kylie1969]

Some people advocate par-boiling the potatoes for a few minutes before roasting.

That is what we do

 

[Andy M.]

I've never parboiled for oven roasted potatoes and we're happy. Clearly there's more than one way to make good oven roasted potatoes.

 

[Kylie1969]

We par boil them for about 3 minutes, we then drain them and scratch them up with a fork, get them all rough and ready and them roast them...the come out sooo crunchy and crispy, lovely texture and nice and soft and fluffy on the inside...perfect!

 

[Mad Cook]

I wonder how it would come out if you cut a baked potato in strips and then batter and deep fry it.

Are you, by any chance, Scottish by descent?

(Apologies to any Scots here present but in England there is a running joke that Scot's "cuisine" involves deep frying everything in batter - pizza, meat pies, Mars bars - it may be apocryphal, but it's said that fish and chip shops offer these as standard ...... There's even a suggestion that ice cream is fried in batter but I don't really believe that!)

 

[Mad Cook]

I've never parboiled for oven roasted potatoes and we're happy. Clearly there's more than one way to make good oven roasted potatoes.

I don't generally go in for convenience foods as a rule but my guilty secret is frozen "roasties".

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

It's within the realm of possibility that there maybe some Scottish in my blood. (That's my way of saying yes.)

 

[CarolPa]

I wonder how it would come out if you cut a baked potato in strips and then batter and deep fry it.

Dh would think he died and went to heaven!

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I've tempura fried sushi rolls (after slicing) and thought they were pretty good. I thought I had invented something original until one day I saw it on a Japanese restaurant menu. I've heard of people battering and deep frying Twinkies and other outrageous things.

There's probably nothing new in cooking, just countless recombinations and variations of the same things. Well at least not since the New World was discovered by Europeans and both continents benefited from importing many types of vegetables and food animals previously unknown. That was a huge revolution that in some cases almost completely transformed many cuisines. Consider Italian cooking without tomatoes or Thai cooking without chili peppers.

 

[Kylie1969]

I don't generally go in for convenience foods as a rule but my guilty secret is frozen "roasties".

What do the frozen ones taste like MC, I have never tried them

 

[Greg Who Cooks]

I've used Trader Joe's frozen, and they're about the same as fresh made, except more expensive and a bit less work, IMO not enough to justify the price.

Rather, get some oil and butter and salt and pepper and maybe some rosemary or other spices together, and you can easily do this better than store bought.