Roasties for Sunday Lunch |
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Prep Time: 15 Minutes Cook Time: 1 Minutes |
Ready In: 16 Minutes Servings: 6 |
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These are the classic British roast potatoes which are a vital part of the British roast dinner. They are usually cooked in the oven with the roast meat, and will cook fine at whatever temperature you need for that - just adjust the cooking time. The cooking dish must be large enough to hold all the potatoes in a single layer. Ingredients:
1 kg potato (i prefer red potatoes, but any type is fine) |
250 ml goose fat (approx) or 250 ml duck fat (approx) |
1 teaspoon salt |
Directions:
1. Peel the potatoes and remove any blemishes. Cut large ones into two or more pieces so that they are all roughly the same size. If doing ahead, place in a pan of cold water so that they do not discolour.
2. Heat the oven to fairly hot - between gas mark 5 (375°F) and gas mark 7 (425°F). If you want to speed up cooking, use a higher temperature (if your oven does not have a fan, put the shelf at the top of the oven) and put the cooking dish in to pre-warm.
3. Warm the fat in a small pan so that it becomes liquid.
4. If they have been standing in water, dry the potatoes on a teacloth. (Don't use kitchen towel - you will get little bits of paper on your potatoes.).
5. Roll each potato in the fat until it is completely covered, then lay in the cooking dish.
6. Sprinkle the dish with salt and place in the oven.
7. Check every half hour or so and turn them over so that they brown on all sides. If you used too much fat and it is standing more than half an inch deep in the pan, pour it off (they won't brown properly if under the fat).
8. You can save the fat to reuse next time. Cool it before putting in the fridge.
9. Cooking time will depend on temperature. It is very hard to overcook roasties, so start them earlier rather than later. You can always move them to the bottom of the oven if they seem to be nearly done before you want them. I often give them 2 hours. Basically, the longer they cook, the more 'waxy' the insides become, so if you like them floury, use a shorter time. As with many recipes, practice makes perfect!
10. Some cooks like to parboil the potatoes before roasting. If you want to try this method, boil them for 5-10 minutes and reduce the roasting time by 20-30 minutes. There is another recipe on this site which tells you how to do it.
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