It’s been a fun vacation so far in the US, but it’s almost time for me to turn my attention back home to London. This feels especially true because as I write this it’s snowing outside and I’m unprepared for this weather. It’s freaking March, and it’s snowing. I’m not kidding, the weather is better in London right now. Get yourself together DC.

Anyway, on a cold day like this it’s always nice to have something warm and comforting… like roasted potatoes. These potatoes are a classic English style of potatoes and what you get when you have Sunday roasts. Specifically, this recipe is from my friend Sarah’s mom, who we’ll call Mrs. P. Sarah’s dad calls her mom Mrs. P, and I thought it was the cutest thing so I’m going to roll with it.

Anyway, I had Mrs. P’s potatoes when I had an amazingly beautiful mini-vacation in Dorset. The Sunday I was there, Sarah’s whole family gathered together for a big delicious roast lunch. Everything was really tasty and nothing is more comforting and satisfying than a warm lunch with family. It was wonderful to be included. And even though the meat, dessert and vegetables were all amazing – I was most intrigued with the potatoes.

What makes these potatoes awesome is they have a crunchy outer skin and a creamy buttery soft inside. It’s fantastic. Every time I’ve ever made roasted potatoes before, they just came out soft all over. What was the secret to the crunchy/soft combo?! So I asked Sarah to ask her mom – and I was worried it’d be a family recipe that couldn’t be shared. But luckily Mrs. P shared, and said I could share the recipe with all of you. So here it is, your opportunity to escape where you are and have a little taste of England.

One final note: the type of potatoes is important. Mrs. P calls for Maris Piper potatoes, and when I did some comparative research on similar recipes, everyone else called for the same kind too. So, stick with tradition if you can and try to buy Maris Piper potatoes. However, this is an Irish breed of potatoes and can be hard to find outside the UK. So, if you’re in the US and can’t find Maris Piper, my research says use Yukon Gold and then if you can’t find that try Russets.

Messy level: I find peeling potatoes fairly messy. I always think it shouldn’t be, but I end up with a big mound of peelings that take over my cutting board and fall on the floor. What’s most important to know though, is that this recipe has two cooking steps. First on the stove, then in the oven – and that’s where the dishes come in. Process wise it’s easy, but you’ll have a medium amount of dishes in the end.

Goose Fat Roasted Potatoes

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

1 hour 40 mins

Total time

1 hour 55 mins

 

Author: Mrs. P

Ingredients

• 1.5kg/ 3.3 lbs Maris Piper potatoes
• 150g/ 5oz/slightly more than ½ cup goose fat
• salt (optional)

Instructions

1. Peel the Maris Piper potatoes and cut them in half, or in quarters if especially large. Most importantly, you want the potato pieces to be about the same size so they will cook evenly.
2. Put the potatoes in a large pot and cover with cold water.
3. Bring the water to a boil and boil the potatoes for 5-10 minutes. (This is called parboiling and is done just to cook and soften them a little, not cook them all the way through.) You can season the water with salt if you like.
4. Preheat the oven to 390°F/200°C. Put the goose fat into your roasting pan, and put in the pan in the oven. You want the fat to be super hot for when you add in the potatoes.
5. Drain the potatoes. Put the lid back on your pot and swirl it around. This is to roughen up the edges of the potatoes - this is what leads to the crispy skin. I felt my potatoes were "roughed up" enough when they looked a little shredded and frizzy on the edges. (Note: if you've over boiled the potatoes, you'll end up with mash potatoes at this point)
6. Carefully remove the roasting pan from the oven, and carefully add the potatoes. If you can, try to turn the potatoes around a little bit so they get all coated in the fat. Return to the oven.
7. Cook the potatoes for 1-1½ hours. Turn the potatoes a few times during cooking (I went with turning them every 20 minutes) They are done when you can easily stick a fork into the potato.
8. Remove from the oven. If you feel they are too coated in duck fat, you can pat them dry with a paper towel. Sprinkle the potatoes with salt if you like. I didn't because I think this recipe is good as-is.
9. Serve immediately! I found these are best the day off. They are still good reheated, but the crispy skin is best when fresh.

3.2.2925

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Photo from Bullycomics

Have you ever seen Love Actually? I have. Many times.

Do you know that scene when Juliet (Kiera Knightley) goes to Mark’s (Andrew Lincoln) apartment? She goes there looking to see if he has good video footage of her wedding. When Mark opens the door, she offers him banoffee pie. “What the heck is that?” I’ve thought to myself. So I googled it, and I immediately wanted to have some. And simple as that, I decided to make this pie for myself.

Banoffee pie is banana and toffee pie. Get it? Banana+toffee=banoffe. Doesn’t that sound delicious!?! I really liked this pie. The texture is creamy and silky. It’s cool, delicious, and both indulgent and refreshing.

Also, the technique for this recipe is simple to handle – but what makes this awesome is the transformation some of the ingredients go through. That might sound stupid because all cooking is about transformation. But, I was really blown away how simple things can change. With some heavy beating, cream transforms from a liquid to a semi-solid. I knew whipped cream was cream that was whipped, but I had never made it myself before. But the best transformation was the condensed milk! With heat, it becomes something completely different. It becomes toffee! Look at the pictures below and be impressed.

This recipe is a mix from Nigella Lawson, Brooklyn Limestone, and a graham cracker crust recipe I’ve used before.

Ingredients:

Crust-

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (about 10 full cracker strips)

3 tbsp sugar

4 tbsp unsalted butter (plus more if needed)

Filing-

3 large bananas

1 14oz can of condensed milk

2 cups whipped cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 tbsp brown sugar

chocolate shavings (or chocolate bar)

Directions:

1. Remove the label from the can of condensed milk. Place the can in a large pot, cover with water, and bring to a boil. Boil for 2-2.5 hours. Make sure that the can is submerged for the entire time! If you let the water level drop your can will explode and your kitchen will be a scary mess.

2. Once the allotted time has passed, take the pot off the stove. Let the can cool. You’ve just made toffee. How easy, yet impressive, is that?!

2. Preheat oven to 350°.

3. In a food processor, blend the graham crackers until you have fine crumbs.

4. In a medium bowl mix the graham crackers and sugar.

5. Melt the butter in the microwave, then add it to the graham cracker and sugar. Mix until the graham cracker crumbs are all moistened. You want a consistency of slightly wet sand – sand that’s been wet but is drying out. If you need to, you can add more than 4 tbsp of butter.

6. Press the graham cracker crust into your pie plate – bottom, sides and edges. If you want a thick crust use all the mix. I used about 3/4 of the mixture. If you’re not using all of it, set the remainder aside in case you need to do any patchwork later.

7. Put the crust in the oven and bake until it just begins to brown, about 8 minutes.

8. Cut the bananas in slices and layer them on the bottom of the crust.

9. Open the can of toffee. Use a knife to stir the toffee until it is smooth.

10. Pour the toffee over the bananas. If need be, use the knife to smooth any uneven spots.

11. Using an electric mixer beat the whipped cream, vanilla extract, and brown sugar. Beat until the texture is thick and whipped.

12. Spread the whipped cream on top of the toffee. Sprinkle chocolate shavings over the top.

13. Put in the fridge and let set for 2 hours.

14. Slice and serve!

Messy level: For a pie, this is actually a really easy and low-mess recipe. The only part that is messy is the graham cracker crust because crumbs get everywhere during assembly. Everything else is really straightforward and there is so little baking to make such a great pie.

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