Hi. My name is Heston, I'm on the Waitrose
channel and I'm going to show you how to make roast potatoes that will be the centerpiece of any
roast. It doesn't matter if it's Christmas day, Boxing day, Sunday lunch, everything waits for
the potatoes. The meat can be cooked in advance, the fish can be cooked in advance, the veg can be
cooked in advance, when the potatoes are ready, they're ready. The ideal thing for me is to have a
very light, fluffy centre and a glass like crunchy exterior. They're amazing, they're the centerpiece
of any roast whether you eat meat or not. This is how you make roast potatoes the way I like them.
First, you have to peel them. Then the next stage is to cut them. It's important that you give
enough, enough corners because the corners are where you're going to get a lot of crunch. If
the potatoes are too small, you can cut it into four but these are going to be mostly crunchy.
I've done here, I've put a colander over a bowl, leave the water running. You see the water now,
it's cloudy, in five minutes time, that water will be clear. What's happening there is the water is
actually rinsing the starch out of the potatoes. If you keep too much starch in, you
will you won't get that lightness and that glass like crunch. Now as you can see
the water is now running a lot more clear, put the water, I don't put any salt in the water
with the potatoes, bring the water up to a light boil which is always confusing. The easiest
way to show you is about this, look at this, the water's turbulent enough to start moving
the potatoes around, they start bashing into each other and then just leave them like this
until they start to break up - but be brave! This first cooking stage is absolutely vital.
We've washed most of the starch off the potatoes, now I want to cook these until they start to
crack and all the little fissures are where the oil will go into the potatoes. There's no
kind of exact measurement for this but you have to leave the potatoes until they're just about
to fall apart but if they do fall apart then you don't get roast potatoes, you get mash...and
don't kill me if you're too brave, please! It sounds really a bit bizarre but you're
trying to evaporate the water from the potatoes which seems counterproductive when you're putting
potatoes into water. So these have been on for roughly 30/ 35 minutes. See this potato here,
it's been boiling in water but you can see how dry it's becoming. Now just carefully, I think
I might have taken these just about as far... These are going to be fantastic. You have
to be very, very careful, just put them on a tray, do not throw them onto the tray because
they will just completely and utterly break up. In the next two minutes, you will see these
potatoes will start to harden up. The last stage is the easiest stage of all, this
is where all the hard work has been done. If you're cooking this for Christmas lunch, you
can do this the day before, up to this point, completely, stick them in the fridge and
then just finish them off on Christmas day. Okay so now the potatoes are cooling
down and they're getting ready to be really beautifully crisped up. Whenever
I do roast potatoes I'd use olive oil. Because it's Christmas and because I can, I'm
gonna add some beef dripping. Beef dripping will make the potatoes go really really crispy. I know
this is not a vegan recipe but it's very simple. If you're a vegan, put it down and use more olive
oil. So because I've got beef dripping in here, I'm putting the roasting tray on the heat,
just to melt the fat. Use more fat than you need because then the potatoes with all the
cracks in will soak up the fat they need and the rest of it, you can use for something
else. So be more generous and then this is a really important thing for getting beautifully
crisp, glass like, crunchy potatoes. So now if you look at these potatoes even the bits of
potato that really delicate, they've gone harder. Give them a very, just delicate coating oil
then the most complex step of all. Pan in, door closed, ready to start my Christmas lunch, glass
of champagne. Okay so the length of time in the oven also is going to change depending on the
potatoes. It could be anywhere from between 50 minutes to an hour and a half. I would
suggest further maybe, 20 odd minutes. Okay so now this is at the point where most people
would think wow beautiful roast potatoes. So just like when cooking them in the water and you think
I must take them out they're going to fall apart, do the same thing here, take them 20 minutes
further than you would think that they need to be cooked for. So in 20 minutes time, I'm
gonna add rosemary, thyme, garlic and then boom - hopefully! Okay so now, at last good things
come to those who wait. So all I need to do now is just finish with the salt - very important.
Into the bowl. So if you look at this crust, it's juicy, it's crispy, it's
got a glass like crunch to it. At this stage I would put this into my
mouth but I think I would burn my tongue! Actually does Christmas dinner
need anything else? So for me, whatever you have in Christmas lunch it's
all about this. This is the star of the show.
