Roast Potatoes

Something a lot of people seem to ask me is how to cook a good roast potato. Most people would say that goose or duck fat is the answer but a lot of it boils down to (excuse the pun!) the variety of the potato and preparing it in the right way. 

You can get main crop potatoes like Maris Piper and King Edward all year round but personally, I find these lack as much flavour as some of the early or late crop varieties. So if you can find the following potatoes in your supermarket or greengrocers then choose these over the regular varieties:

Rooster

Charlotte

Annabelle

Victoria

Red Duke Of York

Marfona

What you'll need:

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Cornflour or Semolina

Salt

You can substitute the oil for duck or goose fat but it's really not necessary.

Peel and cut your potatoes and put them in a large pan with cold salted water. Bring the water to the boil and allow the potatoes to parboil for 1-2 minutes.

Drain and place the potatoes on a cooling rack and leave for one hour. This is the important part- none of this putting back in the pan and shaking around business. The cooling will allow the starch to re-crystalise and will help form a crispy skin and get that inside nice and fluffy. 

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees celcius. When hot, pour a generous amount of oil into a baking tray and allow the oil to heat.

Dust the potaotes with the cornflour/semolina and put them in the tray, turning to make sure all the potatoes have had a covering of oil and season with salt (season with pepper after cooking or the pepper will burn). Cook for 40-50 minutes turning occasionally