Roast potatoes are obviously a staple for christmas day- you want them to be crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside with loads of flavour. Throughout the years I have tried many different recipes, and recently I have finally made the best ones yet!! Here I will share with you tips and tricks to achieve the perfect roast potato.

Ingredients:

• 1kg potatoes (I think King edwards or Maris piper are the best for roasting as they have a ‘floury’ edge which will crisp up when roasting)
• Rapeseed oil (the type of fat you use is debatable- people go for goose fat/ butter, others go for olive oil. For me rapeseed oil is the best- I found that out after watching a programme a few years ago, where there was a taste test with using different oils for roast potatoes. Rapeseed oil provides the best yellow colour and taste in my opinion)
• 1 garlic bulb
• A handful of rosemary and other herbs (I like sage and thyme too)
• Semolina (so this is a trick I found by experimenting. It seems strange, but the semolina gives the potatoes are really nice crusting, so they remain crisp on the outside. The garlic and onion granules also achieve this texture too, with added flavour)
• Garlic granules
• Onion granules
• Salt (try to get salt crystals/ salt from a grinder instead of just table salt, for added flavour)

Method:

1. Turn the oven on to 200 degrees/ 180 fan/ gas 6. Also get a large pan of water on the boil- add some salt to this.
2. Peel the potatoes.
3. Now chop them. So you want to chop them into small to medium pieces. I usually do quarters. It is good to get a nice amount of edges on the potato so that they can crisp up whilst cooking.
4. Add the potatoes to the pan of boiling water. Keep them in for 7-8 minutes so they become soft but you don’t want them too mushy.
5. Then drain the potatoes in a colander. A key tip here is to shake them in the colander so that they get a fluffy edge.
6. Now get a large, flat tray. Make sure it is flat and big enough to allow the potatoes to sit on their own with space. You don’t want to crowd the tray or it’ll steam rather than roast the potatoes.
7. Add 3-4 drizzles of the rapeseed oil. Add the garlic cloves (with skin still on or it’ll burn), rosemary, thyme and sage.
8. Put the tray with the oil, garlic and herbs in the oven for 10 minutes. This gets the oil really nice and hot to crisp up the potatoes.
9. When out, very carefully one by one add the potatoes to the tray so that you don’t burn yourself with the hot oil.
10. Sprinkle over semolina, onion and garlic granules until it is touching all the potatoes.
11. Give it a stir then put in the oven.
12. Cook for about 45 minutes, turning every 15 minutes, until golden.
13. Finally, sprinkle with a generous amount of salt, to taste.

Enjoy!!