Instructions:
- Peel two Maris Piper potatoes per person and chop into quarters.
- Fill a pan with cold water and thoroughly wash the chopped potatoes to get rid of as much starch as possible.
- Drain away the starchy water and fill with fresh cold water and bring to the boil with a good tablespoon of salt (none of this ‘pinch’ nonsense!)
- Once the water is boiling vigorously, give the potatoes another 10–15mins to fully cook (or when a knife will pierce a potato without any resistance).
- Just before the potatoes start to break up and go mushy, drain them in a colander and let them steam away for 10–20 minutes. They should already have a few rough edges but if you’re feeling brave, give them a toss to rough them up! These rough bits will become crunchy bits.
- Whilst the potatoes are steaming in the colander, cover the base of a wide baking tray with a thin layer of oil (any oil will do, but I simply use veg oil or a cheap olive oil) and pop into a hot oven around 180–190C.
- When the potatoes have cooled down and had a chance to fully drain, pull the tray of hot oil out of the oven and drop in a whole bulb of garlic cloves still in their skin and stir them around the oil.
- Then carefully place the potatoes one by one into the hot tray using tongs (don’t drop them!), and turn them until covered in the garlicy oil.
- Generously salt the potatoes and pop the tray back into the oven for 15mins at 180–90C
- After 15mins take the potatoes out of the oven and give them each a turn. The bottoms should be starting to get crispy! Give them another sprinkling of salt, and pop them back in for another 15mins
- This time, as well as turning them, drop in a few sprigs of rosemary (removing any thick woody bits) and a big knob of butter — I’m talking 25g per person (or 10–15g per whole potato). Give it one last toss and whack the tray back into the oven.
- After a final 10–15mins, pull the potatoes out and stir them one last time in whatever garlicy fat is left in the bottom of the tray before serving. Some good quality sea salt flakes won’t go amiss here!
Enjoy!
