Roast potatoes – how do you cook yours?

I think it’s King Edwards or Maris Pipers isn’t it?

Personally I think their amusing usernames are half-baked. 😉

I wonder if the Duke of York would like to make a comment?

King Edwards used to be a strong recommendation but some would disagree. I wonder if it depends on age, which is a factor in making chips.

The age of the cook or the age of the tatty?

I wonder if the fad for “thrice cooked chips” will spread to roast potatoes?

Well, with par-boiling they’re basically twice cooked. You would get a crispier potato if you roasted them again later, but then how crispy is too crispy?

Patrick wrote: ‘The age of the cook or the age of the tatty?’

Almost certainly.

I prefer to eat them in jackets for crispness.

Beryl, one of our regular favourite teas is jacket potatoes. Rub olive oil and salt into the skin to crisp it, spoon out the potato and mix with butter and creme fraiche, put back and top with grated cheese and diced crispy bacon.

We are lucky having a potato-based diet. They are so versatile. I don’t think rice or pasta-based diets can offer anything like the variety of tastes and textures – or can they? I don’t know a potato equivalent though for rice pudding.

Yes Malcolm I always use olive oil and salt, must try the creme fraiche, cheese and crispy bacon next time. Sounds delicious! You must eat the skins though for the fibre, Rice pudding is off the menu these days I’m afraid in favour of yoghurt.

Thanks for the link, Adam. I gave up trying to grow potatoes years ago because I don’t like using pesticides and too many tubers were affected to make it worthwhile. I had some success with Desiree, which roasted well.

It’s good that supermarkets give the variety of potatoes but seeing unblemished vegetables on the shelves does make me wonder what chemical treatment they have had.

Maybe I should have another go at growing potatoes. Roast potatoes are a firm favourite but one of my early memories is the distinctive boiled potatoes that my grandmother served when I was a child. They had a wonderful floury texture and all I know about them is that they were home-grown.

I tried to grow potatoes on my windowsill in London. As expected it was a little too ambitious and didn’t quite work. I would love to be able to grow my own veg though.

Thanks for the encouragement. I will see what I can achieve.

Something I saw on the Allotment Challenge show that I thought was interesting was that as the potatoes sprout you have to put earth over the green leaves. This stops you from getting green potatoes. I hadn’t really though about that – I would’ve thought the leaves would introduce rot or they wouldn’t get enough energy from the sun to grow into nice potatoes, but it seems not. Sorry if that gives away one of the tips Adam!

Alex – Attempting to grow potatoes on a windowsill seems a bit ambitious:-). The web offers some unusual alternatives such as this one, which dates from early April last year: http://www.treehugger.com/lawn-garden/how-grow-your-own-potato-chips-home.html

But it doesn’t work with Pringles (thank heavens)!