There's nothing better on a Sunday than sitting down to tuck into a roast dinner with your nearest and dearest, and while all parts of the meal are delicious, it's no secret that the potatoes are often the star of the show.
If you love a crispy roast potato, then you're in luck as a chef has shared her top tip for making them 'super crispy'
Poppy O'Toole, who has been dubbed the 'Potato Queen' on social media has spoken to The Mirror about her partnership with Sainsbury's to transform the humble Sunday lunch for summer and revealed some cooking secrets along the way.
As such, the expert claims the key step to making the best roasties is to use a tea towel to steam dry the potatoes before popping them in the oven.
While sharing her recipe for zingy lemon roast potatoes, Poppy said: "We've got our par-boiled potatoes, which I take a little bit further than most people as I want them to be really well cooked and then you give them a good fluff before steam drying them.
"This is one of the biggest tips I can give.
"So once you've drained them, you put a tea towel over them in the colander and let the steam just dry them out and that's going to help them get super crispy.
"You'll already want to have fat in the oven getting hot so that when you add the potatoes, you're almost initially just frying them in that hot oil.
"Then halfway through the cooking process in the oven, I like to add in a little bit of vegetable or chicken stock, some semolina, lemon juice and lemon zest."
She continued to explain: "I also add some lemon slices as well and toss that all up in there on the tray and the stock gets all nice and sticky and helps caramelise the potatoes, while the semolina adds extra crunch, and the lemon penetrates all the way through and gives this lovely, sweet, sour, citrusy taste."
And of course, the same technique can be applied to make more traditional roast potatoes without adding any lemon juice, zest, or lemon slices.
For those who want to have a go at making Poppy's lemon roasted potatoes at home, here's a look at the full recipe:
Ingredients
4-6 Maris Piper potatoes
Juice of a lemon
1 lemon sliced
2 tsp dried oregano
2 tsp fine semolina
1 cloves of garlic, minced
50ml oil
Handful of chopped parsley
Salt and pepper
Method
Peel and quarter your spuds, place them in a pan of cold salted water and cook for 15-20 minutes until tender.
Preheat the oven to 180°C and place a tray in the oven with the oil.
Drain off the spuds and leave to steam fry with a tea towel over them for 10 minutes.
Give the spuds a toss so that they break down a little on the sides.
Take the tray out of the oven and put the spuds in the tray. Give them a toss, and cook for 30 minutes.
In that time mix all the other ingredients together.
Take the spuds out of the oven and turn it up to 200°C.
Pour the lemony liquid over the potatoes, add the lemon slices, and give them a mix.
Then return them to the oven for a further 30 minutes.
Season and sprinkle with some parsley if you fancy!
Serving
For those that love the summery lemon taste you can add extra lemon zest when you serve the potatoes for a fresh flavour.
Do you have a food story to share? We want to hear all about it. Email courtney.pochin@mirror.co.uk
