I have to admit I’m with Nigella Lawson on Christmas dinner ― as she wrote in her inaugural 1995 Vogue column, “There is nothing worse than going out for Christmas lunch and finding someone’s done something interesting.”
I am not interested in a “fun alternative” to Christmas pudding or, God forbid, a “different twist” on roast potatoes.
Still, when chefs give good advice, I’ll listen ― I recently started par-boiling my roast potatoes the night before roasting them on professional advice, and it’s so good I’m going the same for my festive lunch.
Another such nugget of wisdom comes from executive chef Scott Davies from the Old Manse of Blair, who says a simple ingredient is key to crispy, fluffy perfection.
The secret to a “really crispy roast potato,” the chef says, is cornflour.
He boils his spuds (Maris Piper, King Edward, and my personal fave Roosters are among his top potato picks) and drains them after ten minutes.
Then he adds a “good pinch of cornflour” to the veg and shakes them up in the pan they were boiled in, lid on, over a low heat (Mary Berry likes this method too).
Scott spoons these cornflour-coated, chuffed spuds into a preheated tray of animal fat, like goose, duck, chicken, or beef tallow, which he says should be “just below smoking point.”
He suggests we baste the potatoes in the fat every 20 minutes, adding thyme and garlic after the final baste, for the perfect “golden brown and crispy” roasties.
Coating boiled potatoes in a dry, powdery starch before cooking them is a great idea for crispy roast spud lovers because it somewhat dries the outside of the spud and gets crunchy as it cooks.
But both Nigella Lawson and Mary Berry use semolina instead of cornflour for this step.
“I think dredging the potatoes — and this is a family practice, inherited through the maternal line — in semolina rather than flour after parboiling, then really rattling the pan around to make the potatoes a bit mashed on the surface so they catch more in the hot fat, is a major aid,” Nigella said.
