Craving for crispy, golden-brown roast potatoes that are fluffy on the inside? Look no further! Nigella Lawson's roast potatoes are a culinary delight, perfect for any occasion. With her signature method of parboiling and roasting, these potatoes achieve an irresistible combination of textures and flavors. This article presents three variations of Nigella's roast potatoes: the classic version with goose fat, a healthier alternative with olive oil, and a decadent option topped with garlic and rosemary. Each recipe is detailed with step-by-step instructions, cooking times, and tips for achieving the perfect roast potatoes. Whether you're a seasoned cook or a beginner in the kitchen, Nigella's roast potatoes are sure to impress your taste buds and become a staple in your culinary repertoire.
Check out the recipes below so you can choose the best recipe for yourself!
GARLIC ROAST POTATOES
Provided by Nigella Lawson : Food Network
Categories side-dish
Time 1h10m
Yield 6 servings
Number Of Ingredients 4
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- Wash and dry the potatoes, but don't bother to peel them, and cut them into about 3/4-inch dice. Toss in a large oven tray and pour over the oil, smulching around with your hands to mix well. Separate the head of garlic into cloves adding them to the tray, and roast for about 1 hour, turning once or twice during that time, until crispy and golden but still soft on the inside. When they're done, remove to a large plate and sprinkle with salt.
ROAST POUSSIN/CORNISH HEN AND SWEET POTATOES
Provided by Nigella Lawson : Food Network
Categories main-dish
Time 1h
Yield 2 servings
Number Of Ingredients 9
Steps:
- This is my almost regular as clockwork Saturday night supper. I find it enormously easy and relaxing to make since all I do is go downstairs, put everything in the oven, and then go back up to Saturday evening tv in bed until it's ready - and then, frankly, back again.
- If I cook the poussins/ Cornish hens in the same pan as the sweet potatoes, I cut a couple of slices of bread and put 1 underneath each bird in the tin, so as to absorb the juices and stop them from seeping into the sweet potatoes which, in turn, would prevent them from crisping and browning. But more often than not, I dispense with the bread (you can imagine how good it tastes later though) and just get 2 disposable foil roasting trays about the size of brownie tins each and put the poussins/ Cornish hens in one and the sweet potatoes in another and reuinite on the plate with a little watercress and a squirt of lime juice later. I must have English mustard with. I know it's a weakness, but not one I'm willing to renounce.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Put the birds into a small baking tin or foil tray pouring over 1 tablespoon of oil.
- Cut the unpeeled sweet potatoes into 2 1/2-inch cubes and put them into another smallish tin or foil tray.Pour over the other tablespoon of oil and sprinkle over the spices, and then toss everything together by shaking the tin.
- Cook both the poussins/hens and sweet potatoes in the preheated hot oven for 45 minutes.
- Put each poussin/Cornish hen on a plate, with a tangle of watercress and the sweet potatoes alongside. Sprinkle with Maldon/kosher salt, to taste, and spritz with lime juice and go to it!
PERFECT ROAST POTATOES
Needs must and all that, so I have always been an open anti-perfectionist, but in truth (and I'm sorry to repeat what I've said before) it is impossible to cook roast potatoes without needing them to be perfect, which to me means sweet and soft inside and a golden-brown carapace of crunch without. And, strangely, no matter how many tricksy things you may succeed at in cooking, no matter what techniques you may master, nothing gives quite the contented glow of achievement that cooking a good tray of roast potatoes does. There are three crucial things that I think make the difference: the first is the heat of the fat - if it's not searingly hot, you don't stand a chance, and since goose fat has a very high smoking point and tastes good, it is my annual choice here; the second is the size of your potatoes - you want them relatively small, so that the ratio of crunchy outside to fluffy interior is optimized; and, finally, 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. For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.
Provided by Nigella
Yield Serves: 10-16 as part of the feast
Number Of Ingredients 3
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 250°C/230°C Fan/gas mark 9/500°F. If you don't have a double oven, you will have to do this as soon as the turkey is out of your single oven, which, for me, is very much later than the parboiling stage. Put the fat into a large roasting tin and then into the oven to heat up, and get frighteningly hot. 20-30 minutes should do it. Peel the potatoes, and cut each one into 3 by cutting off each end at a slant so that you are left with a wedge or triangle in the middle. Put the potatoes into salted, cold water in a saucepan, and bring to a boil, letting them cook for 4 minutes. Drain the potatoes in a colander, then tip them back into the empty, dry saucepan, and sprinkle the semolina over. Shake the potatoes around to coat them well and, with the lid clamped on, give the pan a good rotate and the potatoes a proper bashing so that their edges fuzz and blur a little: this facilitates the crunch effect later. I leave them to rest at this stage. If you don't, you'll need to have preheated the oven earlier! When the fat is as hot as it can be, tip the semolina-coated potatoes carefully into it (they splutter terrifically as you put them in) and roast in the oven for an hour or until they are darkly golden and crispy, turning them over halfway through cooking. If the oven's hot enough, they may well not need more than about 25 minutes a side; but it's better to let them sit in the oven (you can always pour off most of the fat) till the very last minute. When everything else is served up, transfer the potatoes to a large (warmed if possible) serving dish and bring to the table with pride in your heart.
ROASTED DUCK LEGS AND POTATOES
This is one of those leave em' and love em' meals. For all the ease of the express-style food, there is something to be said for simply stashing something in the oven for an hour or two when stuck in too-tired-to-cook mode. True, one needs a little patience, which might make this more of a lazy weekend dinner than the answer to your everyday exhaustion issues. You don't need to serve much alongside, perhaps no more than a fennel salad dressed with a spritz or two of orange juice and a squeeze of lime, or some bitter green salad leaves. When you're in a hurry, a duck breast can seem like the solution, but the leg, cheaper yet richer, is more of a treat for those who like to eat. Of course, it's fattier than the appropriately named leaner magret: that's what makes the leg taste better. And please - enough with the supposed health concerns. I mean: it's not as though the obesity-epidemic was caused by the overconsumption of duck legs. Besides, as the late great James Beard sniffily wrote "A gourmet" - and that's him, not me, I'm just greedy - "who looks at calories is like a tart who looks at her watch."
Provided by Nigella Lawson : Food Network
Time 2h15m
Yield 2 servings
Number Of Ingredients 4
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- On the stove, heat a small roasting pan (I use one like a slightly oversized tarte tatin pan) and sear the duck legs, skin-side down over medium heat until the skin turns golden and gives out some oil.
- Turn the legs over, and take the pan off the heat while you cut the potatoes into 1-inch slices across, then cut each slice into 4. Arrange these potato pieces around the duck legs, then let a few sprigs of thyme fall over the duck and potatoes, and season with salt and pepper, before putting into the preheated oven.
- Cook for two hours, occasionally turning the potatoes, for optimal outcome, which is tender duck legs and crispy potatoes, though both will be ready to eat after 1 1/2 hours.
- Making leftovers right: If you have even a small amount of meat left, you could bag and mark it up and store it in the freezer for up to two months for future use. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator.
ROASTED SEAFOOD
Provided by Nigella Lawson : Food Network
Time 1h45m
Yield 6 servings
Number Of Ingredients 11
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Cut the potatoes, without peeling, into thick slices and each slice into quarters. Put them into a large roasting pan with the whole garlic cloves.
- Quarter the onions, peel them (I find it easier to do it this way around), then halve each quarter horizontally. Quarter the lemon and cut each quarter into 1/2-inch pieces. Add the onion and lemon to the pan with the potatoes and garlic.
- Drizzle with 2 tablespoons of the oil and roast for 1 hour.
- Meanwhile, soak the clams in a bowl of water - if any are smashed or don't close after they've soaked, throw them away. Slice the squid into rings.
- After 1 hour, take the pan out of the oven and put it over low heat on the stove top so that the pan doesn't cool while you add the seafood.
- Arrange the drained closed clams, baby squid rings, and whole raw shrimp over the potatoes, garlic, lemon pieces, and onions.
- Splash the seafood with the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil and the vermouth, then season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Put the roasting pan back in the oven for 15 minutes, by which time the clams should have opened and the shrimp have turned pink. Discard any clams that have not opened.
- Scatter with parsley and serve straight from the pan: it couldn't look more beautiful.
- Make Ahead Note: Potatoes can be prepared 1 day ahead. Submerge in a bowl of water and store in the refrigerator. Drain and pat dry before using. Onions and lemons can be cut 1 day ahead and stored in bowls tightly covered with plastic wrap in the refrigerator.
PERFECT ROAST POTATOES
Provided by Nigella Lawson : Food Network
Categories side-dish
Time 1h5m
Yield 8 servings
Number Of Ingredients 3
Steps:
- Preheat the oven to the hottest possible temperature.
- Peel the potatoes, and cut each into 3 by cutting off each end at a slant so that you are left with a wedge or triangle in the middle.
- Place the potatoes into salted cold water in a saucepan, and bring them to a boil. Boil the potatoes for 4 minutes. Drain the excess water from the potatoes using a colander and then tip the potatoes back into the empty saucepan.
- Sprinkle the semolina over the top of the potatoes. Hold a lid firmly on top of the pan and shake the potatoes around to coat them well and so that their edges disintegrate or fuzz and blur a little: this facilitates the crunch effect later.
- Place the goose fat into a large roasting tin and heat in the oven until very hot. Then carefully place the semolina-coated potatoes into the hot fat and roast the potatoes in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour or until they are darkly golden and crisp, turning them over halfway through cooking. If the oven is hot enough they probably will not need more than about 25 minutes a side; and it's better to let them sit in the oven (you can always pour off most of the fat and leave them in the tin) until the very last minute.
Tips for Making Perfect Roast Potatoes:
- Choose the right potatoes: Use a variety of potatoes that are suitable for roasting, such as Maris Piper, King Edward, or Yukon Gold. These potatoes have a fluffy texture and hold their shape well when roasted.
- Cut the potatoes evenly: Cut the potatoes into evenly sized pieces so that they cook evenly. Aim for pieces that are about 1-2 inches in size.
- Parboil the potatoes: Parboiling the potatoes before roasting helps to create a crispy exterior and a fluffy interior. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil, add the potatoes, and cook for 5-7 minutes, or until they are just tender. Drain the potatoes and allow them to steam dry.
- Season the potatoes: Toss the parboiled potatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper, and any other desired seasonings. You can also add herbs like thyme or rosemary for extra flavor.
- Roast the potatoes in a hot oven: Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C) before roasting the potatoes. This will help to create a crispy exterior. Roast the potatoes for 20-30 minutes, or until they are golden brown and crispy.
Conclusion:
Nigella Lawson's roast potatoes are a delicious and versatile side dish that can be served with a variety of main courses. By following the tips above, you can create perfect roast potatoes that are crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Enjoy!
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