Perfect Roast Potatoes

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg Maris Piper or King Edward potatoes
• 150 ml goose fat or vegetable oil
• 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled and bashed
• a few sprigs of rosemary
• flaky sea salt
• ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Method

1. Cut evenly

   Peel and cut the potatoes into large, similar-sized pieces. Big pieces give you a fluffy interior; small ones are all crust and no middle.

2. Parboil with bicarb

   Boil in well-salted water with the bicarbonate of soda until the edges are soft — about twelve minutes. The alkaline water breaks down the surface starch, which is where all the crunch comes from.

   12 min

3. Steam dry and rough up

   Drain and leave to steam for five minutes, then shake the colander hard until the outsides are shaggy. Dry, roughened surfaces are non-negotiable.

   5 min

4. Preheat the fat

   Get the fat smoking hot in a roasting tin in a 200°C oven before the potatoes go anywhere near it. Cold fat means they absorb it instead of frying in it.

   10 min

5. Roast

   Turn the potatoes in the hot fat until coated, spread them out so none touch, and roast for fifty minutes, turning twice. Add the garlic and rosemary for the last fifteen.

   50 min

6. Salt at the end

   Salt the moment they leave the oven, while the surface is still greasy enough to hold it.