Perfect Roast Potatoes.

Golden crunchy roast potatoes.

“If a fellow really likes potatoes, he must be a pretty decent sort of fellow.” A.A. Milne.

One of life’s great pleasures is eating perfectly made roasted potatoes with your meal.

Most people I know like them, but far too often they are soggy, leathery, underdone, overdone, soapy or greasy.

I have worked long and hard over the years to get my roasted potatoes done to perfection and I am going to share my tips here.

The three ingredients; goose fat, potatoes and salt.

Firstly, there are three basic rules that you must stick to.

1. The type of potato used must be right.

2. You must par cook them.

3. To guarantee perfection you need to use goose fat to roast them in.

Before you begin heat the oven to 200 degrees. Put in tray on the top level with goose fat on it. Goose fat is my favourite as it imparts flavour. I don’t like using lard (pig fat) or dripping (beef fat). If you can’t get any of these olive oil is great, but use a top quality one like Willow Creek.

To begin. Firstly, the type of potato. I get the best results from Woolworths Organic. The flesh is not too wet and soapy. The texture is just right so that when they roast the contents are dry, but not too dry, and floury.

They are smallish potatoes, so I peel them and make sure the sizes are about golfball size for cooking.

You can experiment with other types, but I have found that the Woolies ones give consistently the best result.

Secondly, and this is key, you need to par cook (partially cook) them. Do this by boiling lightly salted water and, when on the boil, drop in the potatoes. Turn down the heat and let simmer for 10 minutes.

Check the potatoes by scraping a fork over the surface and if the outsides are soft they are ready. Drain the water.

Next put a lid on the saucepan and give it a good shake. This will rough up the surfaces of the potatoes and give them a little fluffy coating. This is the secret of the crispy golden coating.

Check the tray in the oven, is it smoking? If it is then so are you.

Remove it carefully and place the potatoes on the tray using a tong. Baste each potato in the fat and put the tray back into the oven, on the top shelf. There’s no need to turn the potatoes during the cooking process. Give it 40-50 minutes.

Remove, sprinkle with salt, serve and eat at once.If you don’t eat at once they will lose their crispiness and begin to get damp. If you are not ready to eat at once leave them in the oven until needed.

The result should be golden crispy potatoes on the outside, with a delicious crunch. The insides should be floury and fluffy.

Enjoy.

The food gurus of Main Ingredient, John and Lynne Ford.

Goose Fat is available from John and Lynne Ford from the Main Ingredient. Phone 021 439 5169, or 083 229 1172.

Their goose fat sells out pretty quickly so you’ll need to phone ahead to secure your supply. They can be found at the Biscuit Mill every Saturday, and other markets around Cape Town during the week.