Shake, shake, shake… – Crispy oven roasted potatoes

“Oven roasted potatoes? Are you serious? You want to tell us how to bake potatoes? Let me guess: You… bake… potatoes?!”
I know, I know,… but wait!

For long – actually for most of my life – the carbs of my choice always were pasta. You’ll never ever find our kitchen without a bag of penne and a can of tomatoes. My survival kit!
But lately they find a strong competitor in potatoes, especially prepared this way. In fact, since weeks they’re on heavy rotation on our dining table.

Let me first talk about the eye-opening difference of this preparation: You first parboil the potatoes. Then – still in the pot – you add spices and oil, and then: Shake! Shake until the potatoes are evenly covered and – what is most important – they have roughened. This multiplies the surface that can get crispy when baked afterwards! That’s about all – but that is life changing!
Hah, I love those simple tricks that lead to a whole new culinary experience. And I love to transform the simplest ingredients into something that is so much more than the sum of its parts!

I made this “recipe” in a lot of variations throughout the last months. Sometimes I added some curry powder to the spice blend, sometimes I replaced paprika powder with simple salt and rosemary, sometimes with a bit of thyme as well…. You see?!

Most of the time we have these potatoes as a easy weekday dinner with a big dollop of quark with fresh herbs and perhaps a fried egg. But of course they work as well as side to your sunday roast.

By concentrating on solely one central ingredient you also learn a lot about this one. I’ve basically tested myself through the various potato sorts that are offered on our farmer’s market and experienced the differences in taste and texture. I used starchy potatoes, which led to something that ressembled rösti or hash browns. I used very waxy potatoes, which isn’t ideal cause their surface doesn’t bruise that much. My favourite type though are primarily waxy potatoes… But even here there are so many sorts to choose, each of them with a slightly different outcome in texture, colour and taste (Actually the potatoes on the pictures turned out to be waxier as I thought). Fascinating!

Crispy oven roasted potatoes (2 p. as main, 4 p. as side)
inspired by this recipe

ingredients
baked potatoes: 1 kg primarily waxy potatoes (medium starchy), 1 tablespoon sweet paprika powder, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika powder, 1 tablespoon salt, 3-4 tablespoons olive oil

simple dip: 4 tablespoons of cream cheese, 2 tablespoon ketchup, 2 teaspoons sriracha sauce, ½ teaspoon salt

preparation
Peel potatoes and cut into chunks. Transfer to a medium pot with boiling water and cook for 15-20 minutes. Preheat oven to 200° C. Drain the potatoes, then return them to the pot. Add oil, salt and paprika. Put the lid on the pot and, holding it in place, give the potatoes several good shakes. Oil and spices should be distributed evenly, the surface of the potatoes should be roughened up. Scatter the potatoes (with all the mash that sticks to the pot) on a lined baking sheet. Place in the oven and bake about 30-40 minutes as a whole until the potatoes are very crisp, turning once during the baking process.

Meanwhile prepare the dip, if you like to, by simply stirring all ingredients together.
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