I watched a dramatisation of the life of East End lass Marie Lloyd last night. Marie Lloyd, if you don't know, was one of the greatest English music hall singers of the Victorian and Edwardian eras, whose songs were rife with double entendre, e.g. "she'd never had her ticket punched before" wink, wink!
As one of her most famous songs states "a little bit of fancy does you good", a view that I hold very true to my heart, certainly when it comes to food. And, if the recent Victorian episode of the excellent The Supersizers Go... (featuring our superb Sapphic sister Sue Perkins and honorary heterosexual hottie, Giles Coran) was anything to go by, then those Victorians certainly had a lot of what they fancied. To find out more about the era, read Tipping the Velvet, it's fabulous and
adds another dimension to eating oysters!
So I thought I would share my very fanciable recipe for roast potatoes with you, guaranteed to make you fancy more that just a little bit.
Heat up some goose or duck fat in a roasting tin in a pre-heated oven. Cut some King Edward or Heritage potatoes three ways (so each potato has three edges) and then par-boil for five minutes in hot salted water. Drain and then add a little cornmeal or dried polenta to the saucepan (1 teaspoon) along with salt and pepper and some rosemary and then shake the pan as so to loosen the edges of the potatoes. Place the potatoes one by one in the hot fat, making sure there is good space between each of them and cook for 30 - 35 minutes.
Your tatties should come out crisp and golden on the outside and delectably fluffy on the inside. Fancy that?
On another note and another era, check out the Supersizers Go Seventies. A time when we worshipped at the altar of Angel Delight and had an uncharacteristic, but definite fear of Fanny (Fanny Cradock that is)!
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