There is never a wrong moment for a roast dinner, even when the temperature continues to rise. No Sunday roast is truly complete without all the trimmings, including a hearty helping of crunchy roast potatoes.
Potato Queen and chef Poppy O'Toole recently put various cooking tricks to the test to discover which produced the best, crunchiest, and fluffiest roast potato. Among them, she experimented with a technique favoured by former MasterChef champion and chef Shelina Permaloo.
For Shelina's trick, you won't even need to boil the potatoes in boiling water. Instead, you can simply use the microwave to par-boil the spuds, reports the Express.
The Microwave Hack
This method eliminates the need for hanging around while the water boils and the potatoes par-boil. Trying the technique for the first time, Poppy soaks the spuds in water before putting them into a microwave-safe dish with a lid, or a microwave-safe lunchbox.
The spuds then par-boil in the container in the microwave for 10 minutes to let them steam. She said: "And apparently, you get these lovely crispy, fluffy potatoes."
Following 10 minutes in the microwave, the potatoes are tender in the centre. Next, you'll need to give the container a shake to chuff the potatoes. This will roughen up the edges of the potatoes and enable them to crisp up when roasted.
Air Fryer Finish
Poppy said: "Now, this is like a two-in-one hack, because the rest of the recipe, Shelina, actually does it in the air fryer. And I love me an air fryer."
Next, place the potatoes in the air fryer at 180°C for 30 minutes, drizzling over a generous amount of oil. To boost the flavour further, Poppy adds crushed cloves of garlic, a sprig of thyme, and salt.
Poppy went on to say: "Now this roast potato, from start to finish is 40 minutes. 10 minutes in the microwave; the hack is putting them in the microwave."
Sampling the finished product, she remarked: "They look good. There's a nice crisp on them, they have gone quite golden, but I am sure that the potatoes that we used, they seemed quite sugary, but that's... there's nothing I can do about it really. It is what it is..."
"Mm, they are good, they are fluffy inside. The fact that they're done in 40 minutes is a triumph, we love that. And they've got a good crunch."
"That is quite a good hack, especially like midweek meal, you know you just wanna get dinner out? The microwave hack, I was surprised, but that's a solid eight out of ten."
"It's convenient, it's easy, and does exactly what it says on the tin roast potato."
