We made our crunchy roast potato coating because it's a mix we've used at home for years. We love it and thought you all may enjoy it too. It creates the perfectly seasoned, slightly salty-garlicy-rosemary crunchy skin to all roasties.

It's almost fool-proof but just in case you were wondering our tried-and-tested method.. here goes:

1. Parboil your potatoes. Any will do, really but a more floury variety (like Desiree, King Edwards or Maris Pipers) give the best outer texture for the roastie coating to stick to. We give ours roughly 8-10 minutes but of course it all depends on how big/small your spuds are. 

2. Drain them and put them back in a big saucepan with a lid on. Shake. Shake like mad. Shaaaaaake!!! You want a really roughed-up outer texture.

3. Sit the spuds to one side. In a deep (important) baking tray, heat up your fat. We use either vegetable oil/rapeseed oil, or an animal fat like lard of duck fat. It doesn't really matter hugely. Give it 5 mins to get really hot. 

4. Take 2-4 heaped tablespoons of roastie coating and add to the spuds. With a big spoon gently toss each potato in the coating so the seasoning is nice and evenly applied to all the surfaces of the spuds. 

5. Carefully add each one to the hot oil, roll them around a bit. Get them in the oven at around 180-200c. I do them for 15 mins at a time, turning them over when the timer goes off. Depending on your oven and the spud size, they tend to take between 30-45 mins. 

Topping it off...

Hear me out, I get that there's something irresistable about cheese getting all golden on top of a cottage pie, but sometimes doing that makes me feel like a kid again and is a bit school-dinnery. But then, naked mash just seems...sad. Lonely. Sparse. I think a sprinkle of the roastie coating on a pie, gratin, or baked mash (like below) is quite a chic little detail of texture and flavour on something that could otherwise be a bit bog standard. 

This was a caluiflower-potato mash hybrid, baked with roastie coating and drizzled olive oil. It was a gorgeous winter evening dinner with a butternut flio pie and pickle-y radishes and red onions.

Ingredients:

  • Whole cauliflower, steamed or roasted in florets
  • Whole garlic bulb roasted
  • 4 medium-large sized peeled, boiled and mashed up spuds (with lumps!)
  • Butter
  • Cream, oat cream or milk
  • About 1-1.5 teaspoons of our sage, shallot and apple salt (optional but is extra comforting with it).

For the crunchy top:

  • 2 or 3 tablespoons of our crispy roast potato coating
  • 1/2 tspn of our sage, shallot and apple salt (again, optional)
  • Olive oil

Method:

1. Cook your caluiflower and potatoes. Put caluiflower to one side. Drain and mash potatoes.

2. Squeeze the garlic from it's papery skins and put in a food processor (or pan if you're usng a hand blender). Add the cauliflower.

3. Introduce butter and cream/milk and salt and pepper

4. Blitz a bit to break up the caluiflower 

5. Add the mash and blitz or stir through - I like it with some texture and not totally smooth, but this is down to personal preference really

6. Add to a ovenproof dish, pat down, leaving some peaks and troughs for the seasoning and oil to cling to

7. Sprinkle the roastie coating and salt on top then drizzle liberally with olive oil

8. Bake for about 30-40 minutes until golden and hot all the way through.

This would also be incredible with beef, lamb, stews, sausages, maybe even cod. Really, it suits anything hearty and savoury. 

While it's only just February as I type this, the spring bulbs are popping up, the evenings are lighter and it feels like the weeks are chugging past us quickly already. It feels like roastie season is nearing it's end in this household. Come the end of April, as the weather improves I take a sudden dislike to making roast dinners. It's too warm, and even when it's not, because of my yearning-for-summer-optimism, I'll often insist on SUMMERY FOOD even if it's only 10 degrees outside. So, If you're like me and have a time limit on roasties and mash-based dinners, and you haven't tried either of the above recipes then the clock is ticking! 

Buy our crunchy roastie seasoning from us in-person at Wyken Vineyard's Farmers Market on selected dates from March, or via our online shop.