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BySam
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I was taught how to roast potatoes perfectly when I worked in a pub kitchen in London many moons ago. We used to makecrispygoldenroast potatoes to serve with drinks at the bar. The head cook who I worked under knew what she was talking about, and I have been making potatoes like this ever since.
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Now that I have progressed somewhat downtheculinary road, I have discovered a few new things, like using duck fat instead of sunflower or canola oil. This truly makes a very big difference in terms of flavour. Duck fat can reach very high temperatures which you need to get the potatoes reallycrispy, and of course, being ananimalfat, it is laced with flavour.
I have been reading up on numerous recipes on how to make the best-ever-roast-potatoes, and there are a few similarities. Namely the use of duck fat and thetechniqueof parboilingandfluffing up the spud before roasting.
One part where there seems to be somediscrepancyis whether to heattheoil/fat up before you add the potatoes or not. In London we never did. In some recipes, thepotatoesget dusted in flour before being roasted and in others, garlic and other bits are added.
At the Woolworths Christmas range launch lunch in July, we were served duck fat roasted potatoes which wereheavenlyand I askedthechef how he made these. He never pre-heated the fat either.
I had also read about adding vinegar tothewater when you par-boilthepotatoes,somethingto do with preventing them potato from falling apart if you over-boiled it – so I used the juice of half a lemon instead, just to give it the mildest zing, although youdon’ttaste it specifically.
On the potato front, we in South Africadon’tget terribly many varieties as you do in the USA or the UK. Maris Piper is excellent for roasting (and making crispy chips). I like to useWoolworths Mediterraneanpotatoesbecausethey have a fabulous taste, but use the best that you can find that are suitable for roasting.
So armed with all this knowledge over the years, this is my version ofthe roast potatoes.
I ate mine with my Sunday roast chicken, and the recipe for this delicious succulent roast chicken can be found here.
Find a recipe for classic roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.
This is what you need – adjust according to how many you need, and my suggestion is to makewaymore than you think.
how to make the best roast potatoes
Print Recipe
Prep Time:10 minutes mins
Cook Time:1 hour hr 25 minutes mins
Total Time:1 hour hr 35 minutes mins
Ingredients
- 1 kg potatoes the best you can find that are suitable for roasting
- 2 T table salt
- juice of half a lemon optional
- 80 – 100 ml of duck fat about 3 dessert spoons
- a few sprigs of rosemary
- sea salt flakes I love Maldon
Instructions
Heat your oven to a temperature of 200 C.
Peel the potatoes and cut them into chunks -if they are large cut them into 3 pieces with as many angles as you can. It is the number of angels that create the crispness. If they are smaller cut them in half slightly diagonally.
Put the spuds in a pot with and barely cover with water, add the salt and the lemon juice, and bring this to the boil. Once it has reached a rapid boil, turn the temperature down to a simmer and cook your potatoes for 5 minutes.
Drain in a colander and then return to the pot that they were cooked in and with the lid on, holding oven gloves or a tea towel shake the potatoes about so as to ruffle up the edges. I used a fork to further rough them up.
Stir through the duck fat which will immediately melt over the potatoes, and tip them into a large baking tray, making sure you don’t overfill, there needs to be some space between the potatoes. If you add to many the steam will interfere with the browning of them. Scatter over a few sprigs of rosemary leaves, salt and pepper.
Roast for 1 1/4 hours or until they are at the desired crispy golden colour. I shook the pan around a few times and turned the spuds twice during the cooking time.
Scatter over more sea salt flakes and a few sprigs of rosemary as garnish and serve with your favourite roast.
Servings: 6 – 8
