Roast potatoes will turn out a lot crispier if you add semolina flour before cooking them (Image: Katherine McPhillips)
Roast potatoes are perfect for late summer when it starts getting a little cloudier and rainier. When you just want some old-fashioned comfort food after months of eating lighter meals, it is easy to make roast potatoes. However, they can turn out really greasy if thrown on an oven tray without any preparation at all.
Potatoes naturally contain a lot of water. They release a lot of steam as they cook, so they may come out of the oven a soggy mess. I used to hate making roast potatoes, as no matter what I did, they would not become crispy, so I decided to do a little research to see how to make them a deep golden brown colour.
After trying countless recipes, I discovered that roasting potatoes does not require complicated techniques or lots of ingredients, as just a little semolina flour will help them crisp up properly.
Semolina flour can be found in the baking aisle of most supermarkets. It is usually used in Italian cooking to make pasta, pizza dough and even bread.
However, a lot of British recipes now use it to make roast potatoes. As it is extremely absorbent, semolina will help soak out any steam that comes out of the potatoes. This will help keep the potato skin as dry as possible so they roast better.
Semolina also contains proteins that will help caramelise the skin so they come out with a deep golden colour.
I first discovered this cooking method while flipping through one of Mary Berry’s cookbooks, but I was a little sceptical that it would make any difference.
I decided to try it out on a whim after spotting semolina flour at the shops, and I can confirm that using semolina flour to cook roast potatoes makes cooking them so much easier.
Semolina flour helps keep the potato skin dry so it turns a deep golden brown colour (Image: Katherine McPhillips)
You can use whatever cooking fat you wish but I use beef drippings (Image: Katherine McPhillips)
How to make roast potatoes even crispier
You will need:
- One bag of potatoes
- Salt and pepper
- Two tablespoons of beef drippings
- Two tablespoons of semolina flour
- Any seasonings you like (such as rosemary, thyme or garlic powder)
You can use any cooking fat you wish, but you need to make sure it has a high smoke point, which means it can withstand high temperatures without causing food to burn.
I used beef drippings, but you can also use goose fat, duck fat, vegetable oil or sunflower oil. Do not use olive oil or butter, as they cause the potatoes to come out charred.
It is also important to make sure you are using the right type of potatoes that stay dry while cooking, as other types contain too much water and will just turn out soggy.
When you are in the supermarket, look for potatoes that say they are made for roasting or varieties like Maris Piper or King Edward so your roast potatoes will turn out extremely crispy.
My roast potatoes always turn out perfect now that I follow Mary Berry’s cooking method (Image: Katherine McPhillips)
To begin, preheat the oven to 200°C and put a roasting tray inside the oven to heat up for 10 minutes.
Peel the potatoes, cut them in half and then place them in a big pot. I just halved my potatoes, but you want them to be about five centimetres in shape, so you might need to quarter them depending on the size
Fill the pot with just enough old water to cover the potatoes, add some salt and put the lid on. Place on a high heat for 10 minutes until the water begins to boil.
Once the water is boiling, take off the lid and lower the heat. Let the potatoes cook for about one or two more minutes until they are fork-tender.
When the potatoes are ready, drain the water, and place them back in the pot. Add the two tablespoons of semolina, then shake the pot to roughen the potatoes. This helps create more edges to give the potatoes texture, so they become crispier while cooking.
Using semolina flour is a simple make it make roast potatoes really crispy without mch effort (Image: Katherine McPhillips )
Next, leave the potatoes back into the pot without a lid to rest for 10 minutes. This helps get rid of most of the steam before you roast the potatoes, which will keep the skin as dry as possible during the cooking process.
Meanwhile, carefully take the hot tray out of the oven and either drizzle oil on the tray or add your cooking fat, then place it back into the oven for roughly five minutes.
Once time is up, take the tray out of the oven and add the potatoes, which should sizzle on impact. Add the potatoes individually with tongs or a spatula, as you do not want the hot oil or fat to splash onto you.
Then, all you have to do is roast the potatoes for 15 minutes, and then turn them over and cook them for 10 to 20 minutes until they look ready.
The potatoes will come out of the oven golden brown, crackling and looking perfectly crispy. Add some black pepper and any other seasonings you like, and then serve.
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