Recipe : My Perfect (Fuss Free) Roast Potatoes

(Creamy mushroom sauce in the background, in case you were wondering)

This is less of a recipe and more of a suggested method : one I have spent 26 years waiting to find. As much as I love spending time in the kitchen , there are still a few dishes that allude me : anything with yeast or gelatine sends me into a panic, the perfect roast chicken (give me pork or beef to roast and I'm fine) and until recently - the perfect roast potatoes. Thankfully I can now tick that one off the list.

I've tried par-boiling them, deep and pan frying them, shaking them and even scraping them with a fork - but nothing gave me that evenly brown and crisp outsides, and fluffy insides. So, I went back to basics.

Heat your oven to 200 degrees C. Drizzle a thin and even layer of sunflower oil on your baking tray, and place in the oven to heat. Peel your potatoes and cut them into thirds. Once your oven has heated completely, add the potatoes to the tray of hot oil (careful not to splatter yourself with hot oil). Sprinkle with salt and return to the oven. That's it. Check on them in 30 minutes, and turn them over, and return to the oven. After an 60 - 90 minutes you should have the perfect roast potatoes. As simple as that. Sometimes, returning to the basics is all it takes, I've learned.