Recipes, Side Dish Recipes

Duck fat roast potatoes

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While a relatively simple process, making chips at home requires deep fryers and a great deal of caution. Crispy roast potatoes are a great alternative and can sit in a warm oven while you attend to the final stages of cooking and serving your meat.

Using duck fat, garlic, and rosemary gives these roasties a Gallic charm that is undeniably moreish. Blanching the potatoes to the point of being almost cooked is the key to success with these spuds. If you think they are overdone when you strain them, then they are just perfect — trust me.

For less servings, reduce the volumes of each ingredient.

Suggested cuts: Sirloin Steak, Bavette Steak, Cote de Boeuf, Toulouse Sausages, Pork Shoulder Chop.

Close-up of golden, crunchy duck fat roast potatoes.

Serves 6

Ingredients

Shop the ingredients

Directions

  1. Peel the potatoes and cut them into equal long wedges, keeping the triangular edges resulting from cutting. Rinse them well, place them in a large saucepan, cover them generously with water, and season with sea salt.
  2. Bring to a boil and then simmer gently for a brief time. A precise time cannot really be given — what you are looking for is for the outside surface of the potato to start softening and disintegrating, and for the texture of the middle, when pierced with a knife, to feel just the uncooked side of ready.
  3. Whilst the potatoes are simmering, preheat the oven to 180°C.
  4. Drain the soft potatoes into a colander and leave for five minutes.
  5. Take a large roasting pan (cast iron is our preference) and add the duck fat. Place it on the stove and warm the fat. Carefully add the potatoes (broken bits and all). Season with more sea salt and black pepper.
  6. Take the garlic bulbs and break off the cloves and add them unpeeled to the pan along with the rosemary.
  7. Using a large spoon turn the potatoes through the fat, so they are all well covered. Transfer to the oven.
  8. Every twenty minutes, turn the spuds with a large spoon. After approximately forty-five minutes to an hour, your potatoes should have achieved a golden crunchy state.
  9. Cook for longer if required. Remove from the oven and transfer to a serving dish. Consume.

Henry grew up watching his father run Le Grandgousier restaurant in Brighton, and saw him establish Harris Vintners selling digestifs and apéritifs across the south of England. Henry was captivated by the essence of French food, the type of cooking that makes people smile and restores them; and although his career has been diverse, wholesome and heartwarming cooking has remained his true passion. The accolades and recognition Henry has received for his cookery and restaurant management over the years have led to countless opportunities in retail food, consultancy, lecturing, food writing, print features, and media appearances. In 2002 Henry opened Racine, and created a London institution serving the food of Paris, Provence and the South West. The demand for sensational French cookery and top notch customer service has remained strong, and resulted in Henry’s recent launch of Bouchon Racine much to the delight of the London food scene. Bon appétit.