HARISSA & CONFIT GARLIC ROAST POTATOES

I have made this potatoes a couple of times now and we adore them! The smell of the garlic in the oven while caramelising is just amazing. This time I used butter instead of the duck fat because I wanted it to be vegetarian. It worked really well. Next time I might put half butter and half olive oil. Scrumptious. It is a recipe from the cookbook Simple by Ottolenghi.

Ingredients
2 large heads of garlic, cloves peeled (90g)
130g goose or duck fat
4 rosemary sprigs (10g)
6 thyme sprigs (15g)
2kg Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and cut into 5cm chunks
40g ground semolina
2 tsp caraway seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
2 tbsp rose harissa (or 50% more or less, depending on variety) (30g)
flaked sea salt

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C fan.
2. Place the garlic cloves in a small ovenproof pan or saucepan, for which you have a lid, with the goose fat and herbs. Cover and bake for 40 minutes, until the garlic cloves are soft and caramelised. 

Remove from the oven, then strain the fat into a large heatproof bowl and keep it. Set the garlic and herbs aside.

3. Increase the oven to 200°C fan.
4. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to the boil on a high heat. Once boiling, add the potatoes and parboil for 10 minutes, until the potatoes are half-cooked. Drain well, shaking the potatoes about a bit to fluff up the edges, and set aside in a colander to dry out for about 10 minutes.
5. Add the potatoes to the bowl of goose fat along with the semolina, caraway seeds, harissa and 2 teaspoons of flaked salt. 

Mix together well, then spread out on a large parchment-lined baking tray. Bake for 45 minutes, until golden-brown, turning the potatoes over once or twice throughout. Stir in the confit garlic and herbs and continue to roast for 10–15 minutes, until the potatoes are dark golden-brown and crispy. Sprinkle over extra salt, if you like, and serve.
Serves 6-8 as a side

Here served with Rabbit pie. 

Notes from the author

Anything with the word ‘confit’ in it is enough to put some people off but don’t be intimidated! All that it entails, in this context, is slow-cooking the garlic for so long that the oil becomes wonderfully infused and the cloves themselves become super soft. The confit garlic can be made up to 2 days in advance and the potatoes can be prepared up to the point of them going in the oven, about 6 hours in advance.