Tried and Tested: Roasted Potatoes

In time for New Year Eve's dinner I thought I would share with you how we make traditional Roasted Potatoes. These are among the British culinary traditions we have adopted for our Christmas meal. The perfect roast potatoes are lovely and crisp on the outside whilst fluffy and soft on the inside. I normally use either Maris Piper or King Edward potatoes - both types are excellent for roasting.

Peel the potatoes and take care to ensure that larger potatoes are cut so that they are all approximately equal in size. You don't want too large potatoes as you want as much surface as possible to soak up the fat. Parboil for approx 10 mins

Discard the water and let the steam evaporate. Add 4-5 generous tablespoons of semolina to the potatoes and shake the pan with the potatoes so that they get a good coating. This will help soak up the fat and crisp up the potatoes.

Pre-heat 4-5 generous tablespoons of fat (I use goose fat) in the pan you will be roasting the potatoes in on high heat (250 degrees)

Add the potatoes to the melted/heated fat. I find it is easier to take the pan with the fat out of the oven first as the fat will be very hot - so hot that the potatoes sizzle in the pan when you add them. Turn down the heat of the oven to about 180 degrees and leave them in for about 1 hr or until done. You may wish to turn them around a couple of times to ensure the they get browned equally on all sides.
Add some nice salt to season them before serving.