This is almost a meal in itself, but it also makes a very good accompaniment to roast game birds, poultry, venison and pork. If you’ve got the oven on at a lower temperature for your roast, put this in on a lower shelf and cook for longer.
Serves 4
1kg waxy/firm potatoes, peeled Sea salt (preferably Maldon) 100g smoked lardons or diced bacon 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves or 12 sage leaves or 2 tsp of dried herbes de Provence 2 cloves of garlic, sliced 130ml olive oil 200g chestnuts, peeled 300g chestnut mushrooms, halved if large Black pepper 1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley chopped (optional)
Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/gas mark 7. Put a large roasting tin in the oven to heat up.
Slice the potatoes no thicker than a £2 coin. Put the potato slices in a large bowl. Sprinkle well with salt, stir in the lardons, then the herbs, garlic and oil.
Gently stir in the mushrooms and chestnuts, adding plenty of freshly ground black pepper (it doesn’t matter if the chestnuts break up a bit, but you want the mushrooms intact).
Take the tin out of the oven and spread the potato mix out in it.
Bake in the oven for 30 mins. Check to see if the potatoes are done. If they’re not, stir everything around and put it back in the oven for 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven and sprinkle over the parsley, if using.
Original photo by Kate Whitaker.