Roast potatoes are the best part of any roast due to their crispy skin, and there is nothing worse than digging into your Sunday lunch only for the potatoes to be soggy and lumpy.
However, it turns out there is a simple way to make sure you get the crispiest and crunchiest roast potatoes every time you cook them – as all you need is one simple ingredient
Mary Berry has shared that the best way to get tasty roasties is to coat them in semolina flour, which is mainly used to make pasta or bread.
In her cookbook ‘Love To Cook’, Mary said: “Something a bit different to traditional roast potatoes. The added semolina gives the potatoes a crispy, crunchy outside and helps to hold them together.”
I decided to try out this recipe to see if it was better to use semolina flour to enhance the crispiness of roast potatoes – and it turns out that not only does it improve the texture but the taste as well.
After looking online, I discovered that potatoes have a high moisture content, and using semolina flour absorbs excess moisture on the surface of the potatoes to prevent them from turning soggy while cooking.
Semolina flour is also high in protein so it intensifies the browning process so it will result in a crispy exterior but will remain fluffy on the inside.
For my own experiment, I decided to try and use one sweet potato as I was just cooking for myself and prefer the taste, but semolina will work on any type of potato.
You can even use it on vegetables to make sure you get a satisfying crunch on every side dish in your roast dinner.
How to make Mary Berry’s crispier roast potatoes
You will need:
- Four tablespoons of sunflower oil
- Two tablespoons of semolina
- 700g of potatoes
Method
To begin, I preheated my oven to 200C but if you have a different oven you are best setting the temperature to 220C for fan oven or Mark 7 for gas ovens.
I then placed two tablespoons of oil into a cooking tray and then placed the tray in the oven for roughly five minutes until it was extremely hot and the oil was sizzling.
I then roughly cut up the sweet potatoes into chunks, then placed them in a bowl along with two tablespoons of oil and two tablespoons of semolina flour.
I used a spoon to mix everything together to make sure the potatoes were evenly coated and then placed them in the oven.
The potatoes cooked in the oven for around 20 minutes and I waited until they were golden and crispy before taking them out of the oven.
After trying them I found the potatoes were crispy while still being fluffy on the inside, so I highly recommend giving it a try as it is a quick way to make the perfect roast potatoes.
I also discovered that adding semolina to the potatoes helped make them tastier as they had a slightly toasted nut flavour which was absolutely delicious.
