With the wife and kids away, I had some time to create my roast dinner and show how I make the special Toby's Carvery potatoes which taste and look so good.
When I was younger, very often it was a big treat to goto a Tobys. Here they would do a Sunday roast dinner that people liked and pretty cheap too.
This was a great recipe for getting together with your mates on a Sunday and having a few beers and some grub. What was the most great thing about Tobys though was how great their roast potatoes looked.
Basically they had this ruffed up look, with a crispy edge and were nice and soft inside. With this in mind, I wanted to make them for myself at home, so told my wife and she had never had a Tobys before. I then found this tip that they give on their website, but I don't think they tell the whole truth.
I am sure they are also using some baking soda or something to make them also soft inside. I am not so keen on baking soda on my roast potatoes, so skip this part, but the rest of the advice is pretty good to help get these nice crispy, ruffed up looking roasties. This is now a cornerstone of any Sunday Roast that I do, whether with just some sweet potato or asparagus. Some crispy roast potatoes are a must.
The ingredients used today:
I first gathered the ingredients and started peeling the potatoes.
I try to take a selfie when starting to peel potatoes 😀
Peeling the potatoes is the first and main task. I generally use a knife to do this as it is fast and fun to use.
I cut them in halves roughly and put them into some boiling water that I am preparing. They will boil for around 30 mins before going in the oven.
Once all in and I haven't burn myself with the hot water, I add plenty of salt. My wife always says that I don't add enough salt, but I for sure do usually, unless I forget, I am a man 😃.
Next up is to peel the sweet potatoe that I bought. These are very cheap to buy right now, so it is always good to grab a couple I think and add to a roast or curry or random dish that you might prepare. This was around €1,50 per Kg if I remember rightly.
I then chop it up and prepare in the baking tray while the potatoes are boiling.
Next is the turn of the carrot to get peeled. This I will also boil for a while with the potatoes to soften it up for roasting.
I chop them up and then add to the boiling water with potatoes.
I then prepare the brocolli. I was quite lucky here as this is quite a big piece and it was on offer for just 99 cents. I thought that was perfect as I can use half now for my Sunday Roast and half on Monday with my chilli dish that I will make. Steamed brocolli is always a good accompaniment to a dish.
Once chopped, I put it ready for steaming. It only takes 10 mins to steam, so I leave it there until the very end to steam.
After around 30 mins, I check the potatoes if they are soft and ready to be taken out.
But first I prepare a saucepan with some olive oil to put them into.
After draining away the water. Then to make them like Tobys, I need to put the lid on and gently shake them to rough them up.
I was a little too rough here though, so make sure not to be too rough like me.
Here the potatoes have nice bits here and there and this should roast up nice and good.
I then add them to the baking tray and poor some extra olive oil on them so that they will not be so dry.
The plan is to roast them for at least 1 and a half hours.
After 30mins or so, I have prepared some more olive oil in a glass and a brush so that I can brush on more oil to the potatoes so we can get them nice and crispy.
They should look more shiney now with oil on them.
With around 10mins to go, I started steaming and brocolli and they look so vibrant after 10mins of steaming. They are ready for serving.
I should really roast for 1hr30 mins to 2hrs, but after 1hr10mins, with hunger I decide it is enough and take them out.
The final roast I add some mustard as a condiment and the potatoes are nicely done and crispy on the outside. Sometimes, I would roast them for longer as I often like potatoes well done, but it is to your taste.
Thanks for checking out my recipe.
My other recipes:
Stuffed Peppers with a Homemade Tomato Sauce and Broccoli
Zucchini with Garlic Zucchini Fried Rice
Introducing the C.L.T.
Vegan Aubergine di Parmigiana
Vegan Homemade Quesadilla with Guacamole
Vegan English Breakfast
Homemade Vegan Bigos - My First Polish Dish
Vegan Spanish Style Chilli
Vegan Cauliflower Curry
Fusilli Bolognese ala Vegan - Glutenfree Edition
A Twist on a German Classic!
Mushroom Curry made with love and leftover ingredients
Credits:
Title image created by myself in Canva with their free-to-use clipart. Above VEGAN image created by myself in Canva with inspiration from the TShirts made by Tim Schieff that you can see here.
All photos are my own.
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