Paprika Potato Wedges

A number of years ago, I had some potato wedges that were delicious. They were crispy on the outside with a spicy flavour, and soft in the middle. I don’t know exactly what the spices on the outside were, but paprika was the flavour that stood out most strongly to me. Although I’ve yet to make wedges as good as those, my latest attempt is pretty tasty, and makes a nice change if you want a bit of potato-flavoured variety in your meals! The recipe below is for four small-medium sized potatoes – just reduce or increase the quantities based on the general ratios given here according to however many potatoes you need for the number of people you’re cooking for, and the size of their appetites!

What you’ll need:

4 small-medium potatoes, washed

2 rounded dessertspoons cornflour

1 teaspoon dried oregano

3-4 teaspoons paprika

Ground chilli powder (optional, if you do add chilli powder, add however much feels right for how spicy you like your food)

4 dessertspoons extra-virgin olive oil (I justify the amount of oil needed by using some that’s supposed to be good for you!)

Salt

What to do:

1. Cut the potatoes into wedges. The easiest way to do this is to cut them in half and then cut each half into four or five wedges in the same way you would cut a tomato into wedges.

2. Add a pinch of salt to a pan of boiling water and then add the potato wedges to the water. Boil the wedges for about five minutes, then drain the potatoes.

3. Put the oven on to gas mark 7 to pre-heat. Whilst the oven is pre-heating, put the wedges into a bowl. Add the cornflour, oregano, paprika, a generous pinch of salt and the olive oil to the bowl and mix thoroughly until all the dry ingredients have mixed into the oil and all the wedges are thoroughly coated.

4. Tip the wedges into a baking tray and spread out to make sure you have only one layer of wedges – if you have wedges on top of each other they won’t cook and crisp up as well as if they are in a single layer.

5. Bake the wedges in the top half of the pre-heated oven (I used the shelf above the middle shelf) for about an hour, stirring around once or twice during that time with a spatula to make sure they cook all over. When the wedges are cooked, sprinkle them with a bit more salt. I haven’t tried it, but another sprinkling of paprika might be good at this point too. Then serve and enjoy!