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Roast potatoes

Aim for 2 potatoes per person.

Prep I (night before)

Peel and chop into reasonable pieces. You can do this the night before and store the potatoes in water. Any bits which are sticking out of the water may turn black. I didn't salt the water.

Prep II (morning of)

  1. Par-boil the potatoes for 10 mins in salted water.
  2. If using goose fat, just put it in a mixing bowl and and skip to step 6.
  3. Otherwise, heat a decent amount of sunflower/canola oil in a frying pan.
  4. Add in a bunch of rosemary and fry it up.
  5. Once the flavour is infused into the oil, strain it into the mixing bowl and throw away the rosemary.
  6. Salt and pepper the oil.
  7. Once the potatoes are tender (no resistance to a knife), tip them into a collander and let them steam for a second.
  8. Shake the collander until the outside of the potatoes turns to mush. If you have any small pieces, they may be completely destroyed in the process. Their sacrafice will not be in vain - they'll coat the other potatoes.
  9. Tip the potatoes into the mixing bowl and mix to coat in oil. The oil should be absorbed into the mash coating the potato chunks.

You can allegedly put baking soda into the par-boiling water to soften the potatoes more. I tried this but couldn't tell the difference.

Infusing the oil is optional, but it really does make a noticeable difference to the final potatoes. I found that infusing the oil works a lot better than using the rosemary directly during roasting. I've tried infusing the oil with other things too (garlic, chilli). I think rosemary is the best.

Roast (immediately before serving)

  1. Preheat oven to 180C fan.
  2. Into the oven for 30 mins
  3. Flip them over, then squash them with a potato masher until they "pop"
  4. Turn the tray around, then back in the over for another 10 mins to finish

These should be the last things to leave the oven - they lose their crisp after a while. Try to eat them within 15 mins of them coming out.