When my daughter visited last week, she made patatas bravas, which she’d eaten often while studying and traveling in Spain. This dish appears on the menu in most restaurants that serve tapas, Spanish snacks similar in size to our appetizers. Tapas are usually served between the midday meal and the late dinner that most Spaniards eat--with a starting time as late as 10 pm.
Patatas bravas (literal translation: spicy potatoes) is a national dish with regional variations. The spiciness comes from the sauce added when the potatoes are served. Traditionally, patatas bravas come with a sauce of paprika and olive oil, with tomato sauce sometimes added. Garlic aioli is also common on the potatoes, providing a creamy, mellow taste to balance the spice. In the U.S. you can buy both the bravas sauce and the aioli in supermarkets, in Walmart, and on Amazon. The potatoes are yummy enough for me without the sauces.
Today I’m sharing the recipe my daughter jotted down as she prepared the potatoes. The ingredient list contains no quantities because you can make however many potatoes you need to feed a few or a crowd. The photos show potatoes for three as a side dish. With so few potatoes to fry, my daughter was able to use a small but deep saucepan for the oil.
Ingredients
Potatoes, peeled if they are large or tough-skinned, unpeeled for thin-skinned, smaller potatoes
Enough oil to deep fry the potato pieces
Salt and paprika to taste, either smoked or regular paprika
Cut the potatoes into bite-size pieces, approximately one
inch on a side.
Boil the potatoes the for five minutes. Drain, pat dry, and allow to cool.
Heat the oil at a medium setting until a thermometer reads 350-375 degrees F. Alternately, you can tell the oil is the right temperature to deep fry by inserting the handle of a wooden spoon. If bubbles form around the handle and start to float up, it's hot enough. But if the oil is bubbling a lot, it's probably too hot. Let it cool for a while and test it again.
Add the potato pieces a few at a time. Don't crowd them in the oil. Fry them until they're golden brown. Remove them carefully and put them on a paper towel to drain. Season them with salt and smoked paprika. Repeat the instructions if you have more potatoes to fry.
Top with aioli and/or spicy tomato sauce, if desired. The photo below shows the potatoes twith both sauces on a side plate.
I ate the potatoes plain. They were so good that I coaxed my daughter into making them the next night as well. Sadly, that was the last night of her visit before she returned to her teaching job in Mississippi.
Readers: What's your favorite potato dish?
A PARFAIT CRIME: Five-Ingredient Mystery #9
These sound yummy. Now I want a recipe for the spicy tomato sauce!
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting, Edith. My daughter made the aioli from scratch, but we had enough spicy tomato sauce left over after our last takeout dinner from the local tapas bar that she didn't need to make it.
DeleteThank you for the yummy recipe!
ReplyDeletePotatoes are my favorite veggie. I think because they are so versatile. Love hubby's potato soup (nothing better on a cool evening and so easy to make) and his scallop potatoes, which are more of a combination between scallop potatoes and au gratin potatoes and oh so yummy.
Honestly if potatoes are in it, I'm going to love it.
2clowns at arkansas dot net
I'm a potato fan too, Kay. Your hubby's potato soup and scallop potatoes sound delicious.
DeleteYUM! Thanks for this one, potatoes are always a winner in my book. Wonder if these would work in an air fryer. Will have to try that. Now, aioli or spicy tomato sauce, hmmm?
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting, Marcia. I've never tried air frying, but it's worth a shot and less messy that deep frying. Mostly, I make roasted potatoes.
DeleteCorrection: "that" should be "than" in the 2nd sentence.
DeleteOh my these sound good!
ReplyDeleteThey are really good, better than the patatas bravas served at our local tapas bar.
DeleteI'm delighted that you have purple potatoes mixed in here.
ReplyDeleteThis does sound like a treat.
Thanks for commenting, Libby. Purple potatoes are rare in our supermarket, but they now occasionally offer a small potatoes mixture--white, yellow, and purple.
DeleteYum! I remember eating those (as well as tortillas--aka, frittata) and mussels when I spent a month in Barcelona in my twenties. So delicious! Thanks for the recipe, Maya!
ReplyDeleteThanks for commenting, Leslie. I loved all the fish I ate in Spain decades ago, but sadly my stomach decided five years ago that it would no longer tolerate mussels. :-(
DeleteNice recipe - thank you for sharing. My favorite potato dish is always mashed potatoes. aprilbluetx at yahoo dot com
ReplyDeleteMashed potatoes were the side dish most evenings when I was growing up. Thanks for commenting, April.
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