I am sure that all of you will have your own versions of roast potatoes and if they work for you and you love them, then stick with it. I am not a huge potato fan, but my family are, so making the perfect roast potato has been the Holy Grail for keeping my family happy.
Mine are very small which means a lot of surface area that can be made crunchy. I always make more than I need because they always eat more than they should.
The benefit of making smaller pieces of potato are that they can be roasted while your meat rests. As soon as you take your roast out of the oven, crank up the heat ready for the best tatties!
EQUIPEMENT: Good quality heavy baking tray or roasting pan with at least 3cm depth. You don’t want a really deep pan. The tray needs to be big enough to hold the potatoes in a single layer.
Serves 4
800g Maris Piper or King Edward Potatoes
3 tbsp duck or goose fat
Salt
Fresh ground black pepper
Pre heat the oven to 220C Fan
Use a pan that has a lid, add water and ½ teaspoon of table salt, bring to the boil. Add the potatoes to the boiling water and parboil for 10 minutes or until they are starting to get soft
Using the lid to stop the potatoes tumbling out of the pan, drain the water and once it’s all gone, Use a tea towel to hold the lid in place so you don’t burn your hands, give the pan a really good shake. You want to rough up the outside of the potatoes. Remove the lid, tip the potatoes into a colander and ideally leave for at least 10 minutes to release the steam. At this stage, you can keep them for up to a day which is ideal when cooking a big Christmas meal.
Put your baking tray on the stove top on a high heat, add the duck or goose fat and let it get hot. Add the potatoes and coat them all over in the sizzling fat. Sprinkle with a little sea salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Put in the hot oven and roast for 20 minutes. Check after 10 minutes and give the pan a good shake
Cook until golden, different potatoes take different lengths of time to cook.
- 800 g maris piper potatoes Peeled, cut into approx 3cm pieces
- salt
- 3 tbsp duck or goose fat
- freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Pre heat the oven to 220C Fan
- Use a pan that has a lid, add water and ½ teaspoon of table salt, bring to the boil. Add the potatoes to the boiling water and parboil for 10 minutes or until they are starting to get soft
- Using the lid to stop the potatoes tumbling out of the pan, drain the water and once it’s all gone, Use a tea towel to hold the lid in place so you don’t burn your hands, give the pan a really good shake. You want to rough up the outside of the potatoes. Remove the lid, tip the potatoes into a colander and ideally leave for at least 10 minutes to release the steam. At this stage, you can keep them for up to a day which is ideal when cooking a big Christmas meal.
- Put your baking tray on the stove top on a high heat, add the duck or goose fat and let it get hot. Add the potatoes and coat them all over in the sizzling fat. Sprinkle with a little sea salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper. Put in the hot oven and roast for 20 minutes. Check after 10 minutes and give the pan a good shake
- Cook until golden, different potatoes take different lengths of time to cook.
Just when you think that you’ve tried them all (roast potato recipes). You try Jules’s and bam! Forget everything else and follow these instructions and you’ll be a roast king/queen. The fluffiness of the insides and crispness of the outsides are 100%. Made our family Christmas Day lunch and even when I tried these in the Aga. Took a bit longer than a fan oven but still amazing results.
Bam! you’ll never go back, so pleased they worked for you and it doesn’t matter what kind of oven you use as long as it’s hot.