Cooking expert Georgina Hartley has shared that roast potatoes turn out much crispier and more flavourful if you stop boiling them in water beforehand and use cream instead
Picture of perfectly roasted potatoes(Image: Getty)
Roast potatoes are the ultimate winter comfort food, and there’s nothing quite like dipping a crispy spud into a pool of gravy.
However, due to their high water content, potatoes often release a lot of steam while cooking, leading to a soggy and bland taste. If you’re after perfectly roasted potatoes, Georgina Hartley, a culinary expert from From The Larder, has revealed her secret method – she never boils her potatoes in water.
Instead, she opts to gently bake her potatoes in cream until they’re fork tender, resulting in a superior texture. Georgina explained: “The result is the creamiest roast potatoes that are beautifully rich with a fluffy interior but with the gorgeous golden crunch that we need from our roasties. A really luxurious way to pamper your potatoes and your guests on special occasions.”
So, how does cream improve roast potatoes? It might seem odd, but as the potatoes soften, they absorb the cream along with any garlic and herbs, allowing the flavours to deeply penetrate them, reports the Express.
This results in a much richer taste, whilst maintaining an incredibly fluffy interior. Cream behaves differently to water and helps the potatoes retain more of their structure, meaning they’re less likely to disintegrate compared to when boiled.
Once you roast the potatoes, they’ll maintain their shape, and the fats in the cream will coat the starch, encouraging them to crisp up beautifully in the oven. This method will yield perfectly crispy roast potatoes that are significantly creamier and more flavoursome than if you had prepared them with water.
How to make roast potatoes with cream
You will need:
- 1.5kg of potatoes
- 400g of double cream
- 400g of whole milk
- One tablespoon of unsalted butter
- Three cloves
- Five black peppercorns
- Three garlic cloves (crushed)
- Two bay leaves
- One sprig of thyme
- 50g of olive oil
Method:
To begin, preheat the oven to 160C (140C fan or Gas Mark 3), then peel your potatoes. Cut any small potatoes in half and any larger potatoes into quarters.
Place the potato pieces into a large casserole dish. Pour in the cream and milk, and make sure the potatoes are fully covered in the liquid.
Then, sprinkle the butter, bay leaves, cloves, garlic cloves black peppercorns, and thyme evenly over the potatoes.
Place a lid on the dish, put in the oven, and then cook for one and a half hours until the potatoes are completely soft.
Once the potatoes are fully cooked, remove them from the oven. Turn up the oven heat to 200C (180 can or Gas Mark 6).
Pour oil onto a separate roasting tray, and place in the oven to heat up for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, drain the potatoes into a colander, and give them a shake. This helps roughen up the potato edges so they crisp up more in the oven.
Next, put a tea towel over the potatoes and let them rest for 10 minutes. This helps the potatoes get rid of any excess moisture so they roast rather than steam in the oven.
When the oil is hot, take the tray out the oven and pour the potatoes into it. Place the tray back into the oven and cook for 45 minutes. If you can, turn the potatoes over every 15 minutes so each side comes out golden.
Once cooked, the potatoes should be perfectly crisp and be infused with garlicky cream to will taste so much better than any other roasted potatoes you have eaten before.
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