You probably don’t need to know how to do it, but some poor kid who is 23 and needs to eat something, anything, that isn’t takeout and isn’t ramen? Well, that poor kid has an Internet connection, and, shoot, I wouldn’t have minded knowing this at 23. So:
- Ingredients: red potatoes, olive oil, and salt.
- Get a pan that you can roast potatoes on.
- Cover it with tin foil.
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
- Put the olive oil and the salt in a bowl. Don’t be shy with the salt.
- Cut the potatoes into half, and then cut the halves into quarters.
- Dunk the quarter-potatoes in the olive oil. Scrunch ’em down a little to get at the salt.
- Toss the potatoes onto the pan.
- Put them in the oven to cook for 60 minutes.
- WALK AWAY.
- 45 minutes later: look at the potatoes. Are they sufficiently golden-brown for you? Yes? Forget the timer, yank those bad boys out.
- Don’t eat them yet! You’ll burn your mouth.
- Go find the butter, or whatever you’re gonna dunk these things in.
- If the timer has gone off at this point and you yanked the potatoes out at 45 minutes, they’re probably cool enough to eat.
- Yes, they’re salty and crispy. THAT WAS THE POINT.
Dead simple, you see.
Works for sweet potatoes too. And Russet. And Gold.
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So use any and all potatoes….
I may have to try this with taro root ..
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What, food allergies mean I eat weird stuff.
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Mew
Oil + salt also works for a lot of meat for a carnivorous cat.
This should be a PSA…seriously.
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Wanna killer variation? After them babies are nicely brown, yank the pan out and quickly smash each quarter of potato down to flatten it by about half (the bottom of a coffee mug works well if you don’t have a potato masher), pile cheddar or pepper jack on each piece and return to the oven until the whole thing is gooey cheesy mess o’ crispy goodness (5 minutes or so).
It’s the Irish in you, isn’t it? Masterly.
I make rosemary roasted potatoes similarly, except omit the salt and toss the potatoes with fresh chopped rosemary once they’re done. Works with Yukon Golds, too.