Lemon potato wedges

This is definitely one of those dishes that look hugely better before cooking. Decorative lemon slices, pale yellow potatoes with a red dusting of paprika, glistening oil and the green sprigs of rosemary – pretty as a picture. After: burnt-on oil, darkened wedges interspersed awkwardly with blackened lemon; all shrivelled, twisted and shrunk.

Some dishes are never aesthetically pleasing on the eye: chili con carne for instance. Fish, especially whole fish is particularly impossible: when raw it looks all right-ish, if you go for that silvery, fishy kind of look. Once cooked, my goodness: milky dead eyes, bones poking out here and there, gills, fins, tail, the lot – pretty ghastly. Likewise grilled or roasted vegetables: vibrant peppers, purple aubergines and vivid courgettes all turn flabby and kinda grey.

Casseroles and stews are the same. Raw diced meat and vegetables – all right, maybe not appetising but these days you look and Insta instead of eating. When cooked, tasty and fit for a feast, they turn into dirty brown gruel, usually. Pies are as bad, and gratins – don’t start me off. Handsome vegetables and grated cheese turn into creamy sludge that could hide anything underneath. Good job most people like them, but have you ever seen a gratin on Instagram? Precisely.

Back to my potatoes: I’m not a millennial or an Instagram queen and I actually eat, so these are a sure winner. What’s better than another way of cooking potatoes? I came across these on NY Times Cooking, and contrary to a possible first impression, they are not Greek style lemon potatoes. Excellent, all the same.