Best Roast Tatties

To be fair roast potatoes are pretty good no matter how you do them. Personally I'd rather have roast potatoes than boiled, steamed, or mash if serving up with some meat, veg, and gravy; or Sunday dinner.

However, many in the UK would agree that the best spud for roast tatties readily available at most supermarkets in Britain is the good old 'King Edward', roast in goose fat - but decent dripping or even lard makes a pretty damn good cheaper alternative.

There are a few variants to the way the Great British cook does them; some put them into the hot fat raw, others part-boil or part-steam them first, others almost fully boil or steam them before putting them into the fat. I think the latter method gives the best results.

So this is how I do them, and of course recommend my method in all cases.

You'll need some 'Neddies' (King Edward potatoes), and some meat fat (goose fat is best but is rather expensive, but the next best is dripping - beef, pork, or whatever you have; bacon dripping is my favourite of these - and if that fails then use lard. You could use vegetable, sunflower, olive oil, but personally I think they don't cut it, good old meat fat is the way to go.

By nearly fully cooking the potatoes first then their time in the oven will be concentrated on crisping and browning rather than cooking.

• Wash if necessary, and peel your spuds, then cut them into whatever size you're happy with.

• Chuck them in a pan with a bit of salt, then cover them in cold water.

• Bring them to the boil, then turn down the heat and let them fast simmer until they start to go rough/fluffy round the edges. Try not to overdo it or they will break up.

• Whilst the pan is boiling/simmering put the oven on 200C. Put a generous amount of the fat into a roaster. When oven has reached its temperature put the roaster of fat into the oven - we want it sizzling for when we put the potatoes into it.

• As soon as they've got to this stage then take off the heat and drain immediately (we don't want them to cook some more, so don't leave them standing in the hot water).

• Take roaster from oven and put the drained spuds into it. You may need to spread them out a bit so they are evenly spaced and hopefully not making a lot of contact with each other as this can lead to them sticking together.

• Put in oven and leave them alone for about 20 to 30 minutes.

• After this time the part of potato that's immersed in the fat should be getting nicely frazzled.
• Now take them out of the oven and get in with a slotted spoon or spatula, or whatever you've got to hand, and turn then all over so that the previously uppermost part of each spud is then immersed in the fat.

• Now put them back in the oven and give them another 20 to 30 minutes.

• When done they will be golden brown and crispy around the edges.

• Take them out of the oven and serve straight out of the sizzling fat; if you leave them to stand and cool they'll go soft and soggy and that's not what we want.

Delicious!

Enjoy!

A load of waffle about tatties

Although not British originally but brought into the UK in the middle-ages from the land now known as America, potatoes have become a staple food here in Britain; as popular in the UK as rice in Asia. Thousands of tons of potatoes (spuds, tatties) are now grown in this country to meet consumer demand.



The humble spud of many varieties

 Many traditional British recipes use potatoes as a main ingredient. some of the most popular UK meals have them: the Sunday roast, fish and chips, bangers and mash, fish pie, fish cakes, shepherd's pie, cottage pie, and Cumberland pie (what's the difference? shepherds pie uses lamb meat, cottage pie uses beef, and Cumberland pie can be either but with an extra layer of cheese or breadcrumbs - sometimes both - on top), many stews and casseroles, hot pot is a casserole made using sauted potato slices.

So looking at the above list we see that potatoes are used and cooked in a variety of ways: Chips are traditionally fried, but so are sauted potatoes, French fries, American fries, and crisps; Sunday roast usually has both roasted and boiled potatoes - the boiled potatoes often being mashed - on the subject of mashed potatoes we find that shepherd's pie, Cumberlsnd pie, cottage pie, fish pie and fish cakes all use mashed potatoes. Stews and casseroles contain boiled (but not mashed) potatoes, whereas jacket potatoes are baked in the oven with the skin left on; potato wedges are also often cooked with the skin on and are either oven baked or fried.

Any traditional savoury British meal without some form of potato is often difficult to imagine.

Not bad for something originally introduced from abroad.

Regional identity protection rant

Not long ago I read about how the good old Cornish pasty had been granted some sort of regional identity protection by the EU Eurocrats. 

So what's that all about then?

Apparently it means that it can now only be sold with the 'Cornish pasty' label if it was actually made in Corwall to a traditional Cornish recipe, and this is meant to protect its regional identity.

If it was made anywhere else other than Cornwall the label needs to be revised like so; 'pasty formerly known as Cornish', 'Cornish style pasty', 'beef, onion, potato and swede pasty' or whatever, but not 'Cornish'.

Oh and by the way, it's allowed to be cooked - or should I say baked - elsewhere as long as it was actually made - or should I say constructed - in Cornwall - to the traditional recipe of course.

Surely the fact that in the past it has been allowed to be made anywhere is what made it so popular in the first place!  Just like some other popular foods that now have similar regional identity protection.

Most of the top supermarkets in Britain - I think it best not to actually name them here, don't want to get in trouble; you'll have to look it up on the net - claim that their Cornish pasties are already made in Cornwall. 

Yeah right! 

I remember not too long ago working in a factory that made Cornish pasties - and loads of other pies and pasties - for most of the top UK supermarkets and guess where it was located?

'Lincolnshire' 

At the time it was one of the biggest UK producers - if not the biggest - of pies and pasties - including Cornish ones - for most of the leading supermarket chains.  Whether they still do or not I don't know but it was big business to them then.

I don't know!  Maybe I'm wrong, but I think that the supermarkets are not being entirely honest with us!

Pete