roasted beef roasties

We’ve just seen the back of national chip week for another year! That’s the excuse you needed to have chips tonight sorted then. In celebration of this auspicious occasion, Albert Bartlett sent me some Innovator potatoes to try out. They’re a floury general-purpose type so I cooked ’em a bunch of ways. My favourite were these beef dripping-soaked gold nuggets which lit up the Sunday roast.

They made some pretty mean chips too. They were made in the standard ActiFry way, tossed with a little garlic salt. As crisp yet fluffy as you’d expect.

To make these you need to set a rack over your roasting dish. Plonk a beef roasting joint over par-boiled potatoes and let it go to work. I have one of these Retro Roasters with the rack built into it which is perfect. The fats and juices from the meat drip down slowly on to the potatoes which are thirsty for flavour. You’ll get a deep crunch giving way to fudgy-textured spuds, with dark pieces of concentrated beef fat crowding the pan ripe for scooping up with slightly-scorched fingers.

If you’re not dribbling already, there’s something wrong with you. Or vegetarian, I guess. Go try.

Thanks to Albert Bartlett for the spuds to try.

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roasted beef roasties

A way to get deep, savoury flavour into your roast potatoes.

Author Gary @ BigSpud

Ingredients

• 2 kg beef joint such as silverside
• 1 kg Albert Bartlett Innovator potatoes peeled and chopped (keep the peelings)
• 1 onion sliced

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Season the beef joint all over with your favourite flavourings, I like to use salt, pepper, garlic powder and mustard powder, brought together with a little olive oil. Carefully fry the meat all over in a heavy pan, before transferring to the oven.
• Put the potato peelings in a tied up clean dishcloth. After 30 minutes parboil the potatoes in salted water along with the peelings. After 10 minutes drain thoroughly and discard the peelings.
• Remove the beef from the oven, add the potatoes and onions to the baking tray and baste well. Return the beef to the roasting dish, on top of a rack over the potatoes if you have one.
• Roast for a further 45m or until your beef is done. When it's out crank the oven up as high as it will go and continue to cook for a further 15 minutes or until the potatoes are as crisp as you like them. Serve sprinkled with sea salt.