At last I mastered the art of the perfect roast potato!

Peel the spuds and cut them to roughly the same size - about two to two and a half inches. Place them in a pan and cover with cold water. Bring them to the boil and take them out after 25 minutes from starting to cook them. Let the steam come off them and get them as dry as possible. Drizzle with olive oil and bake for 50 minutes at 160 degrees in a fan oven. They have to be served straight away or they will go soft.

They can be kept for a day in a fridge at the parboiled stage and then roasted later.

None of this seems intuitively right and yet it works.

I added panko breadcrumbs at the roughing up stage as suggested by Prue Leith and it did make them extra crunchy. Having said that my mum used to always roast spuds around the joint, no parboiling, and they were delicious.

This year I used the cheapest spuds that Tesco had
- them cut into 'largish chunks'
- parboiled for 5 mins
- drained and allowed steam to evaporate
- put into a roasting tin with oil that had been in a pre-heated oven
- added the 'raw quartered parsnips' after around 20 mins
- flipped the spuds in the oil
- drizzled parsnips with honey after another 20 mins
- left 'em alone for another 10 mins

Went down a blooming treat!

I buy it in a block from Tesco

I roast potatoes every Sunday, par boil, shake, use various fats, roast high for about 45 minutes.

Sometimes if short of oven space I roast them early for about 30 minutes and let them cool, then pop in for 20 minutes when needed.
When they are browning nicely I take them out and use a potato masher to press down on each one until the sides 'burst'. Back in for about 15 minutes. This gives more surface area to get crunchy. n

Sometimes use garlic from the tube.
Dgc say my roasties are the best!!

I have rolled parboiled potatoes in semolina before roasting them too. Gives them a lovely crisp outside.

yes after more years than can be counted ,i did the best roast potatoes ever. ,In the Mail on Sundays Tom Parker Bowles is a food critic and he gave the perfect recipe for our roasties ,so with trepidation i tried it ,and ,well ,it works ,they were oh so tasty ,not one left ,Maris Piper is the potato to go for ,he par boils ,till they are on the verge of being cooked ,,strains them and lets them cool in their own steam ,now he says you can even leave the cooked pots overnight in the fridge then when you are ready to roast ,he suggests goose or duck fat smoking hot ,then roast until they are the colour you like he suggested 40 mins ,but mine were ready after 30 ,oh lovely everyone remarked how good they were ,not one left

Thank you, * mumofmadboys*, I was beginning to think I’d imagined my father using semolina!

I think Nigella used semolina.

I love roast potatoes and parboil a main crop variety, drain, leave them to dry (with a tea towel over top of saucepan), shake, season with salt & pepper and put them in pre heated tray of olive oil. I cook them on a high temperature near the top of the oven. They are good. However, my son's 'Christmas' spuds were delicious - he used same method, but coated them in semolina and cooked in butter & goose fat! I'll try that next time.

Thank you, thank you, thank you everyone. Our Boxing Day roaties were superb. Soft and fluffy inside and crisp and crunchy outside and soooo tasty! Now I've mastered it we will never again suffer soggy roast spuds. I will also try the semolina coating as a neighbour of mine used to do that and said it produced nice results.

Now if someone can just tell me how to dry roast veggies I'll be a happy bunny.
You might expect that by my age I'd be a competent cook, but cooking and it's finer points has never really interested me. I just slap food on plates to feed people. But there now seems to be an expectation that grandmothers should be good cooks, so I'm trying to improve.

I have no idea where I first read the tip re. roasting potatoes, but once they are parboiled, (cheapest potatoes), just bring to boil, drain, then toss in some plain flour before putting in oven in very hot oil or fat. Ensure all parts of potato are covered in the fat. Then roast at 180 - 200 degrees. It is a good idea to add some salt to the flour before tossing the potatoes.