Fergus's Roasted Tatties (Potatoes)

Outlander Kitchen

I've never had much luck roasting onions and potatoes together, but this recipe does it pretty successfully. The trick is to partially cook the potatoes before they go into the oven; here, it happens by parboiling them briefly. This gets the cooking process for the potatoes kickstarted, so the onions don't burn before the potatoes are cooked through.

These make a great side dish for any hearty roasted meat meal; they can share the oven! Merci for the inspiration, Fergus.

Captions

[00:00]: [Music]
[00:05]: hello and welcome to cooking the books
[00:06]: with heather today we're going to
[00:08]: continue working out of um teresa carl
[00:11]: sanders outlander kitchen cookbook
[00:14]: and we're going to be making a pretty
[00:16]: simple recipe we're going to be making
[00:19]: fergus's roasted tatties tatties are of
[00:22]: course a uh
[00:24]: slang for potatoes in scotland so
[00:27]: these are just roasted potatoes um
[00:31]: so i've got
[00:32]: most of my ingredients here definitely
[00:34]: everything i need right now to cut up
[00:36]: and all that so
[00:39]: the first thing i'm going to do
[00:41]: is to
[00:42]: cut my onion into eight
[00:45]: wedges
[00:46]: um
[00:49]: it
[00:49]: doesn't say to leave
[00:53]: any of this on so i'm going to like the
[00:56]: root so it'll probably just all fall
[00:59]: apart when we get to this part but um
[01:02]: the onion will
[01:06]: be fine cut up for however long so i'm
[01:09]: just going to cut that up first
[01:13]: peel it
[01:15]: here
[01:15]: got just a
[01:17]: bag from the grocery store that the
[01:19]: onion was in
[01:23]: so like that
[01:26]: like so these are pretty big pieces of
[01:28]: onion
[01:34]: but of course
[01:36]: onions have layers so they
[01:39]: all fall apart
[01:46]: there we go
[01:51]: now that that's dealt with
[01:53]: the potatoes that we're going to be
[01:54]: using today are russet potatoes this
[01:57]: one's got a little
[01:58]: yucky bit again so i'm going to go ahead
[01:60]: and cut that off
[02:02]: um
[02:03]: but i just bought them so there we go
[02:06]: uh and then we're going to peel them
[02:09]: and then um
[02:12]: quarter them so what i'm going to do
[02:14]: here and you probably won't see all of
[02:15]: it because it's going to take a little
[02:16]: time is i'm going to peel them i'm going
[02:18]: to rinse them i'm going to quarter them
[02:20]: and then i'm going to put them in this
[02:22]: sort of medium saucepan
[02:25]: not a huge pan but it definitely you
[02:26]: definitely want to be able to fit all
[02:28]: the potatoes in here it doesn't have to
[02:29]: be
[02:30]: doesn't have to have a lot of water
[02:32]: around it but you know enough to
[02:36]: so peel them
[02:37]: rinse them quarter them and put them in
[02:39]: there
[02:42]: and we'll talk about that
[02:43]: as soon as i'm done
[02:47]: [Music]
[02:52]: so i'm not going to quarter them first
[02:54]: i'm going to go ahead and peel all of
[02:55]: them put them in there and then quarter
[02:57]: them i think if they'll all fit
[02:60]: um this one also had a little bit of a
[03:02]: bad spot which makes me grateful that i
[03:06]: um i overestimated she she measured this
[03:10]: by weight rather than number of potatoes
[03:12]: which is great and i got a little bit
[03:15]: more than the recipe calls for which
[03:18]: means
[03:19]: i can take out bad spots and stuff and
[03:21]: also have plenty of potatoes
[03:26]: so now i'm gonna quarter my potatoes and
[03:28]: cut off any bad spots that i see
[03:33]: a little bit of a bad spot there
[03:35]: should have kept my
[03:41]: bag
[03:45]: so these are pretty big pieces
[03:48]: of potato
[03:52]: that we're going to be cooking but
[03:56]: [Music]
[04:09]: okay so that's our potatoes all
[04:12]: cut up
[04:14]: i might get a little bit of this water
[04:15]: out because it's a little too much it
[04:17]: will
[04:18]: boil over if it's that
[04:20]: uh deep
[04:22]: but
[04:23]: i'm going to do that and then i'm going
[04:25]: to salt this water
[04:28]: there are no measurements for the salt
[04:30]: in this part of the recipe so i just
[04:32]: kind of salted it heavily with i usually
[04:34]: use iodized salt
[04:37]: table salt in
[04:40]: water when i'm making potatoes or
[04:43]: pasta just because it's very cheap and
[04:46]: it provides some iodine which
[04:50]: you know most people are kind of missing
[04:52]: and it and i don't notice a difference
[04:54]: in flavor so
[04:55]: that's what i did with this we are
[04:57]: bringing it to a boil uncovered over
[05:00]: high heat
[05:02]: when it comes to a boil we're going to
[05:03]: reduce it to medium high and boil it
[05:06]: gently for five minutes so we're not
[05:08]: looking for these to be completely done
[05:10]: but we're going to boil them for a time
[05:12]: limit for five minutes so i'm not really
[05:14]: gonna show you this part
[05:16]: um in about five minutes we'll be back
[05:20]: so my potatoes have been cooking for
[05:22]: about
[05:23]: four exactly five minutes
[05:24]: boiling brought it to a boil and then
[05:26]: cook for five minutes
[05:28]: um
[05:29]: these need to be drained in a colander
[05:31]: and then you let them sit in the
[05:32]: colander to dry
[05:35]: to sort of steam dry for two minutes
[05:38]: while that is happening i'm going to
[05:42]: take whatever i have in the oven out
[05:44]: right now and heat increase the heat
[05:46]: to
[05:48]: 425 degrees so that's what we're going
[05:50]: to cook these at
[05:52]: so sadly my ham which is what was in
[05:55]: there
[05:56]: is nowhere near
[05:58]: warm enough
[06:00]: i thought it would be warm enough by
[06:02]: this time
[06:04]: so it's just going to have to cook at a
[06:05]: higher heat than than i wanted it to
[06:08]: for a little while
[06:10]: and these are going to share the oven
[06:14]: hopefully that'll work out okay we'll
[06:16]: see um
[06:20]: so i have a metal baking pan here she
[06:22]: uses a higher sided one at least from
[06:25]: the pictures
[06:26]: she doesn't say
[06:28]: that it has to be
[06:30]: a really high sided pan and i don't
[06:32]: think it really does
[06:35]: as long as it fits all of your potatoes
[06:37]: and everything in it so
[06:39]: i'm gonna bring the potatoes over here
[06:46]: now these are
[06:48]: these are pretty large
[06:50]: potato pieces but that's okay that's
[06:53]: you know what it is
[06:54]: um we're supposed to put all of the
[06:56]: onions in here
[06:60]: we have some vegetable oil my usual is
[07:04]: as i always say grape seed oil and we're
[07:07]: looking sort of for sort of a neutral
[07:09]: flavored oil that will
[07:11]: handle relatively high heat which you
[07:13]: know 4
[07:14]: 25 is pretty high
[07:19]: you wouldn't want olive oil for
[07:20]: something like this
[07:22]: we're going to put some pepper i'm not
[07:24]: going to measure this
[07:33]: there we go
[07:35]: some salt
[07:37]: which i will measure
[07:39]: because why not
[07:41]: even though the other part is not
[07:42]: measured this is just
[07:46]: plus extra
[07:47]: so this measurement plus extra for the
[07:50]: water and then we have some uh time
[07:52]: sprigs mine was getting a little woody
[07:55]: but or is coming back from the um
[07:59]: from the
[08:01]: winter where it's you know not really
[08:03]: great but it's it's doing okay but i
[08:05]: need to trim back some
[08:08]: some bits that are um not great
[08:12]: but there we go we have
[08:15]: everything sort of tossed here
[08:18]: in that quite a bit of oil
[08:21]: but i think potatoes to get nice and
[08:24]: nicely
[08:25]: crispy need some oil or some butter or
[08:28]: something all the butter
[08:30]: doesn't work very well at high
[08:32]: temperatures
[08:33]: so
[08:37]: there
[08:38]: now
[08:39]: i'm gonna have to put mine
[08:42]: on the rack underneath
[08:45]: my other my ham because it won't fit
[08:48]: otherwise
[08:50]: so we'll see if that messes with our
[08:52]: cook time
[08:54]: we're going to roast these for 30
[08:57]: minutes
[08:58]: and then we're gonna do a little
[08:59]: something more so we'll be back in about
[09:01]: 30 minutes
[09:03]: so my potatoes have been roasting for
[09:05]: about 30 minutes
[09:07]: and i'm going to just sort of toss them
[09:09]: around a little bit
[09:12]: my potatoes and onions and everything
[09:14]: else
[09:17]: but what i'm doing now is making sure
[09:19]: that these are all
[09:21]: turned over so a different side is on
[09:24]: the bottom
[09:25]: i've got this fork because we are
[09:28]: supposed to
[09:31]: smash these a little bit
[09:33]: with
[09:35]: either your spatula or a fork
[09:39]: some of them are nice and brown some of
[09:41]: them are less brown but that's all right
[09:42]: so i'm just going to kind of
[09:44]: mash well
[09:45]: [Music]
[09:46]: they aren't really
[09:49]: smashing very well so i think they might
[09:51]: need a little more time here because
[09:53]: mine are bigger so
[09:55]: um
[09:57]: see yeah these smaller ones um
[10:01]: smash a little bit better
[10:05]: so what am i gonna do here
[10:08]: all right
[10:10]: maybe i will so i'm gonna put these back
[10:12]: in the oven without smashing them for
[10:14]: another 15 minutes
[10:16]: just because i think mine were just a
[10:18]: little bit too big
[10:19]: a little bit bigger than hers
[10:21]: um
[10:22]: some of them are smashed whatever it'll
[10:23]: be fine um
[10:26]: and then we'll take them out and smash
[10:28]: them
[10:29]: at that point and we'll check our ham
[10:31]: and hopefully it'll be done but it needs
[10:33]: at least after you smash them at least
[10:35]: 15 more minutes
[10:37]: or about 15 more minutes to get all sort
[10:40]: of golden brown
[10:42]: but um
[10:44]: i guess we'll show you
[10:46]: what it looks like in 15 minutes and see
[10:48]: if they smash a little better
[10:49]: okay so these have roasted for
[10:52]: an extra 30 minutes at this point and
[10:55]: i'm hoping i've tossed them around again
[10:58]: okay
[10:59]: yeah i don't think i'm supposed to smash
[11:01]: them quite that much
[11:04]: but they definitely are more smashable
[11:06]: at this point
[11:08]: and i think
[11:09]: another 15 minutes will probably be
[11:12]: perfect
[11:16]: some of my onions got a little
[11:18]: overcooked in my opinion
[11:23]: but
[11:26]: you know i cooked them longer than she
[11:28]: said so i think it was partially because
[11:30]: my potatoes were a little bit bigger and
[11:32]: also um so they didn't cook as much in
[11:35]: the first stage or the second
[11:37]: and also um
[11:40]: because i had to share the oven with the
[11:43]: with the ham which is now done
[11:45]: so
[11:46]: these are going to go back in for about
[11:48]: 15 minutes and then they will be all
[11:50]: done and we'll show you what they look
[11:51]: like
[11:52]: and let you know what we think of them
[11:54]: in just a minute
[11:55]: [Music]
[12:03]: on this episode of cooking the books
[12:04]: with heather you watched me make
[12:06]: fergus's roasted tatties from
[12:09]: teresa carl sanders outlander kitchen
[12:11]: cookbook
[12:13]: and
[12:14]: these were really good pretty easy
[12:17]: you do sort of boil the potatoes first
[12:21]: and then roast them which helps you
[12:23]: roast them a little bit less time
[12:25]: although i think so mine took a little
[12:27]: extra long to roast
[12:30]: i think mine were a little bit bigger
[12:32]: than hers i needed
[12:35]: one less than she suggests for to make
[12:39]: up the same amount of weight so they're
[12:40]: a little bit bigger
[12:41]: um
[12:43]: and it took a while took a little bit
[12:45]: longer for me to be able to kind of to
[12:46]: smash them a little bit
[12:49]: as she says to do after they've roasted
[12:50]: for a little while so i think i could
[12:52]: have boiled them a little bit longer but
[12:53]: i was afraid of boiling them too long so
[12:56]: i ended up just roasting them longer um
[12:59]: so and that that usually
[13:01]: tends to happen for me when i'm roasting
[13:03]: potatoes for something like
[13:05]: i've done hello fresh meals and stuff
[13:07]: like that and i always i like mine brown
[13:08]: and crispy and so i tend to roast things
[13:10]: a little bit longer than they say i
[13:12]: swear
[13:13]: most recipes just
[13:15]: they're afraid of scaring you off with
[13:16]: the amount of time it takes and don't
[13:18]: want you to roast them long enough but i
[13:20]: like them brown and i like them crispy
[13:22]: so i roast them longer
[13:24]: um
[13:25]: everybody like these the onions were
[13:28]: nice and sweet
[13:30]: um
[13:30]: [Music]
[13:31]: a few of them got a little extra brown
[13:33]: around the edges which were still
[13:35]: delicious they didn't get they didn't
[13:36]: taste too burnt i may have tasted those
[13:38]: you know as i took them out to check
[13:40]: them uh sometimes so they might not have
[13:42]: been in there the entire time but uh
[13:45]: i enjoyed the onions being in there with
[13:46]: potatoes
[13:48]: i personally prefer a waxier potato when
[13:51]: i'm roasting potatoes in the oven
[13:53]: um i love russets for baked potatoes
[13:56]: where you know you want them kind of
[13:57]: fluffy and dry and you put a lot i put a
[13:60]: lot of butter and sour cream on them and
[14:02]: it's delicious
[14:03]: i love that but i think for roasted
[14:05]: potatoes i would choose a waxier potato
[14:08]: maybe even like a yukon gold which is a
[14:09]: little bit sort of in the middle um
[14:14]: but that's personal preference i just
[14:16]: felt like these were a little bit dry in
[14:18]: the middle um
[14:22]: but if you like that if you like it it's
[14:24]: fine it was it was still delicious
[14:26]: everybody enjoyed it and
[14:29]: it was it was a pretty easy side to
[14:32]: throw in when i was also
[14:34]: um
[14:36]: baking
[14:38]: something else in the oven so that's
[14:39]: what i did anyway we all enjoyed them
[14:42]: so
[14:43]: and i thought it was easy and i hope
[14:45]: that you try these and let me know what
[14:48]: you think in the comments down below
[14:50]: if you enjoyed watching me make it
[14:52]: please give me a thumbs up hit the
[14:53]: subscribe button and come back and watch
[14:55]: me make something else next week