The thing that makes a perfect Christmas Dinner for me is my Mum’s roast potatoes. Although its not that difficult to get these right, so many people can’t seem to pull it off. To amaze your dinner guests with the best roast tatties of their lives, you only need to remember 3 things:

• Type of Tattie
• Par-boiling
• Boiling hot duck or goose fat

Floury potatoes are what you need, something like Desiree, King Edward or Maris Piper. These will fluff up when parboiled, allowing the fat to get into all the little floury grooves and crisp up the edges, delivering on taste and texture, but also making them look the part.

When parboiling the idea is to cook the tattie enough so that the outer starts to disintegrate, whilst the inner remains undercooked – so that when you add them to the fat, the outer fluffy bits get sealed and crisped, but the inside still has a bit of cooking time to go. Parboil for about 10mins – when draining, don’t be afraid to give them a good old shake – remember you want to fluff them up a bit. Allow to drain and cool before roasting.

Finally, boiling hot fat!  Warning, warning – time to put the kids in their cages, hot fat is dangerous, so do be careful. Preheat the roasting tray (buy decent disposable trays – these can be dumped when the job is done) with the fat.  I use about 1.5tbsp of fat per lb of potato. Get some goose fat from your supermarket, or even better use some you’ve rendered yourself – keeps for a couple of months in the fridge. Allow the tray & fat to preheat for 20mins to get really hot, this will result in super crispy outer tatties. Roast at 220C for approx 35mins checking halfway. Enjoy!