Talk to an Irish person living abroad and mention potatoes. They may become dewy-eyed and momentarily silent and possibly start muttering incoherently about their mother and home and the kitchen and “Oh God, I miss the spuds.” Potatoes and the love of them is in our blood, mixed up in a tangle of happy and tragic emotions. Most countries of course have good potatoes; just try to find the ones with their own native soil still attached. The potatoes here are cooked to achieve a golden brown crisp skin with a fluffy, floury interior. Bliss.
Keys to success: Peel the potatoes as close as possible to the time of cooking. Use best-quality vegetable or animal fat.
The ingredients: Buy a floury variety of unwashed potato such as golden wonder or kerr’s pink for best roast potatoes. Sante are another excellent choice for roasting. Vegetable fat as in olive oil, or animal fat as in duck, goose, pork or beef, will give the potatoes a delicious flavour and crisp skin. I like duck or goose fat best. Do not sprinkle on the sea salt until the potatoes are cooked – if you add it any earlier it may cause the skins to stick to the tray and for some this would be a disaster.
Serves 4
potatoes 8-10, depending on how much you like your potatoes
fat 2-3 tbsp olive oil, duck or goose fat, pork fat or beef dripping
sea salt flakes
Preheat the oven to 230C/gas mark 8. Peel the potatoes and, if they are unevenly sized, cut the larger ones in half to have them all approximately the same. Place them in a saucepan, cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Simmer for just a minute, then drain – if you leave them sitting in a colander they will dry off, but you need to make sure they are quite dry, so if necessary rub them lightly with a tea towel. Score the surface of each potato several times with a fork. This scoring encourages the skin to crisp. Put them into a bowl and toss in the fat of your choice. Transfer them to a heavy roasting tray in a single layer and cook in the oven for about an hour, until the potatoes are well coloured and crisp on the outside and tender in the middle. Season with sea salt and serve as soon as possible.
From Master It by Rory O’Connell (Harper Collins, £20)
