Jamie's Family Christmas

Christmas Roast Potatoes and Veg (1x3)

Air date: Dec 16, 2009

"We are going to do the best roast potatoes ever," promises Jamie, who has a trick up his sleeve. For Jamie the perfect roast potato is the Maris Piper, but he admits you can go three ways when it comes to the fat; olive oil, butter or goose fat. After cutting his spuds into the size of 2 squash balls and washing the starch off in cold water, Jamie then puts them in a pot of cold water, seasons them and par-boils them for 10 minutes, to give them the beginning of that 'fuffy inside'. Jamie then separates the potatoes into three different containers (one using each type of fat) and roasts them all for 30 minutes. Then comes the magic; he takes them out and gives his three trays of spuds a good squash with the masher to increase the surface area of spud on pan. "Is it a palava?" asks Jamie. "When it comes to a roast potato you don't want to muck about." He then adds a trio of herb mixes: With the olive oil potatoes: Rosemary, olive oil, vinegar and garlic. With the goose fat potatoes: Thyme, garlic, bay, olive oil and vinegar. With the butter potatoes: Sage, garlic, clementine, olive oil. Then he roasts them all again for 25-30 minutes or 'until perfect to your eye'. All three trays look and taste delicious but the Oliver household are opting for the butter. "That is the perfect roast potato," Jamie beams.