Home Made Frozen Low Fat Roasties and Oven Chips.
A couple of days after bonfire night on the 8th November we were in Tesco store in Maldon.
We were in the veg section looking for potatoes when I noticed 5 kg boxes of bonfire night
baking potatoes which had been reduced to just £1 each. I opened one of the boxes and inside
were approx 18 large baking potatoes the variety was Melody, so we purchased 2 boxes.
Guess what we had for dinner that night, no prizes for that one, we found that the texture and
flavour were really good, so I decided to try and make some home made low fat frozen roasties
and oven chips out of some of them.
Here's the method
Peel potatoes and cut it up into approx 4 -6 pieces (depending on size). Place them in a pan of
cold water and bring to boil, then simmer for just 3 mins, drain thoroughly and cover with a tea
towel, leave for a couple of minutes to dry. Turn out onto a tea towel or paper towel and make
sure all are completely dry, return to pan a few at a time and add a little oil (very little oil is
needed), I used just 1-2 teaspoons for about a kilo, at a time Put the lid back on and gently shake
the pan in a circular motion to lightly fluff the outside and lightly coat in oil, turn out onto a tray
and leave to cool, after about 5 mins lightly cover with cling film until cold.
Place tray in freezer and open freeze for several hours, after which bag up, leave plenty of space
in bag but draw out the air. As this was an experiment I initially only processed a few potatoes
and took a couple of them out the next day, put them in a 180 degree oven for approx 30 min and
roasted until golden.
The result was exceptional, the outsides were crisp dry and golden, whilst the insides were light
and fluffy. The next day I processed approx 7.5 kilos, 5kg of which ended up as roasties the rest I
turned into low fat oven chips.
Here's the method for the oven chips.
Place a large pan of water on the stove,bring to boil. Peel potatoes cut up into approx 1 cm thick
chips. Blanch chips in small batches until water comes back to the boil simmer for 3 minutes
minutes only. I used a large pan and the basket from a chip pan for this process. (Or remove from
heat and take out of water with a slotted spoon) .
They were then turned onto trays with paper towel on and patted dry, once completely dry turn
into a dish, sprinkle approx 1 tablespoon of oil over the chips and gently turn over and over with
your hands until all are lightly coated.
Do this in smallish batches so as not to handle them too much.
Place on trays not touching each other, (I lined mine up like soldiers), lightly cover with cling
cold open freeze until solid, bag up either into usable portions sizes or a large bag leaving
plenty of space, but draw the air out.
To cook place onto a very lightly greased roasting tray in a pre heated oven 180 deg c until
golden brown and crispy, (no need to add extra oil) approx 20-30 mins.
