DUCK FAT–ROASTED POTATOES WITH ONION AND ROSEMARY

OF ALL THE VEGETABLES WE ROAST, potatoes are probably the most common, and for good reason. Inexpensive, easy to prepare, and delicious as a side dish, roasted potatoes deserve to be a regular feature of your dinner table. Of course, potatoes are good cooked in any neutral oil, but cook them in animal fat and they take on a crispness and richness that vegetable oils can’t replicate. Here I recommend duck fat, but you can also use rendered chicken fat (schmaltz), pork fat, or even beef fat.

Roasting potatoes in animal fat (as opposed to vegetable oil) enhances their flavor and makes them especially crispy.

As with all vegetables, you want to use high heat for potatoes. With this recipe I introduce the very moist onion to the mix, which adds great flavor but can also diminish crispness. To prevent this from happening, it’s important to get the timing right. The potatoes need twice as much time in the high heat, so I don’t add the onions until halfway through the roasting time. I salt at this stage as well, but I don’t add the final seasoning, rosemary, until the piping-hot potatoes come out of the oven—this maximizes the release of the herb’s volatile oils.

¼ cup/60 milliliters duck fat

2 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into medium dice

½ large Spanish onion, cut into medium dice

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary

SERVES 4

  • PUT a roasting pan (preferably nonstick) or baking sheet in the oven and PREHEAT it to 425°F/220°C (use convection if you have it).
  • When the oven and roasting pan are hot, PUT the fat in the pan (allowing it to melt if it’s cold) and ADD the potatoes, stirring immediately so that they all get coated with fat. ALLOW the potatoes to roast untouched for 30 minutes. REMOVE the pan from the oven and STIR the potatoes, scraping up any that have stuck to the pan. ADD the onion and 2 four-finger pinches of salt and STIR again to distribute the onion and salt evenly. Continue roasting until the potatoes are golden brown and crispy, 20 to 30 minutes.
  • REMOVE the potatoes from the oven and GRIND pepper generously over them. SPRINKLE the rosemary over them, STIR to distribute, and SERVE immediately.

 

THE FINER POINTS

You can peel and dice the potatoes and store them in a bowl of water in the refrigerator for up to 3 days before cooking. Drain them well and pat them dry before adding them to the pan. (The more water they have on them, the more they’ll cool down the roasting pan when you add them. The water will also cool the fat and increase the likelihood of the potatoes’ sticking, so the drier they are, the better.)

Many grocery stores carry rendered chicken and duck fat. Duck fat is also readily available online from many sources, but I encourage you to roast a duck, saving excess fat and rendering it yourself by cooking it over a low flame till the fat liquefies. Other fats can be used as well—fat from rendered bacon, the fat rendered when you roast a chicken. That’s flavor—don’t throw it out!

Don’t go by time alone when roasting potatoes. They’re done when they look delicious to eat, and you know when that is. If you think they’ll be done before the rest of the meal, pull them from the oven just before they are done, then return them to the oven 5 to 10 minutes before you need them.