Caramelised Garlic and Parmesan Duck Fat Roast Potatoes

This roast potato recipe is based on my crispy potatoes (my favourite way of cooking potatoes) that uses two special tricks when cooking. The first is using a lot of salt that penetrates the potatoes but once boiled the salt is washed away. The second is bicarb that helps gives the potatoes soft edges so that they crisp up better.

I wouldn't normally recommend caramelising garlic for an everyday dinner but Christmas is the specialest of occasions. Caramelising garlic brings out its sweetness and changes the flavour of garlic so I also used parmesan to bring it back to the salty realm. A massive added bonus is the parmesan crust on the potatoes.

Caramelised Garlic and Parmesan Duck Fat Roast Potatoes

An Original recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cooking time: 2 hours

Serves: 8 people

• 3 heads of garlic
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 2kgs/4.4lbs potatoes
• 5 tablespoons salt (don't worry this will mostly wash off)
• 1 teaspoon bicarb of soda
• 90g/3ozs. duck fat
• 160g/5.6ozs grated parmesan cheese

Step 1 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Slice off the tops off the garlic heads and then discard the papery layers on the outside of the garlic. Place the three heads of garlic on a large sheet of foil and drizzle oil over. Gather up the corners and make into a little sealed foiled package and roast for 1.5 hours - the garlic should be very soft and dark. You can do this 1 week ahead of time.

Step 2 - Peel the potatoes and cut into large chunks (slightly bigger than bite sized). Place a large pot of water onto boil and add the salt and bicarb. Add the potatoes and cook for 10 minutes or until starting to get tender. Drain into a colander and rinse the potatoes well.

Step 3 - Preheat oven to 220C/428F and line two large baking trays with parchment. Put the pot back on the stove add the duck fat to the pot and squeeze out the caramelised garlic from the skin and mash the garlic into the oil and heat. Add in the potatoes and toss them gently to coat with the garlicky duck fat. Then add the parmesan cheese and toss to coat. Spread out onto the baking trays in a single layer and roast for 40 minutes.