Patatas Bravas ~ A Spanish Tapa

by Sara Hafiz on February 21, 2011

I would like to thank one of my dearest friends Laviza for this wonderful guest post! Her recipe for Patatas Bravas is fabulous! Please check out her facebook like Page, Eclectic Gourmet for more mouthwatering recipes!

♥

So, my son comes home from school and announces that he needs me to make a Spanish dish to feed 30 kids for Spanish class the next day. Ok….well, thanks for the advance notice! Meanwhile, I am a bit stressed, in the midst of cooking for my catering orders and preparing dinner for our family. I ask him if we can pick up something from the store (like all the other kids!). My son has already told the teacher that “my mom is a great cook”. He says he will get extra points for bringing in a homemade dish. He is begging. The pressure is on….

A cursory Google search for “easy Spanish recipes” is just too overwhelming.

A stat consult with OneTribeGourmet is in order! She texts me back within a few minutes - “patatas bravas, kids will all love it!” Ok, cool. Yet another Google search, and I discover that it is commonly served as a tapa in bars; sort of like a Spanish version of french fries. There are numerous recipes for patatas bravas with various methods for preparing the dish.

I get the idea of how to make the patatas, and based on the ingredients I had on hand and with my own touch, this is what I came up with. Most of the recipes do not call for the potatoes to be seasoned before they are sauteed, but I like “flava”, so I seasoned them. I was pleasantly surprised at the way the Patatas bravas came out. I definitely prefer the pan sauteed version over the baked version. The patatas must be served and eaten immediately. They did get a little limp and soggy the next day, but I was not about to fry potatoes at 6 am for my son to get a few extra points!

Thank you again, OneTribeGourmet, for a great suggestion!

RECIPE FOR PATATAS BRAVAS ~ A SPANISH TAPA

recipe adapted from Barcelona Reporter

INGREDIENTS:

(for approximately 6 tapas portions)

1½ kg of peeled potatoes
Olive oil to fry the potatoes in

For the bravas sauce:
1 onion finely chopped
1 clove of garlic also finely chopped
6 ripe tomatoes chopped – about 600g
1 teaspoon of sugar (optional)
3 dried chillis
1 or 2 teaspoon of hot paprika – depends on how spicy you like your food
1 level soup spoon of plain flour
approx. 200ml of water
1 teaspoon of sherry vinegar or wine vinegar
salt
freshly ground black pepper

METHOD:

Peel the potatoes, chop them into smallish chunks and boil them for about 5-10 minutes in salt water. Then leave them to cool.

For the bravas sauce fry the onion, garlic and the dried chillis gently in some olive oil until the onions turn transparent – this should take about 10 minutes. Then remove from the heat, add the paprika and stir this in. Add the chopped tomatoes and the sugar, return the mix to the heat and simmer gently for about 5 minutes. The sugar is added to take any bitterness out of the tomatoes – this is optional as you may find it too sweet with the sugar.

Mix the flour with some water and then stir this into the sauce, add the 200 ml of water and leave to simmer for about 15 minutes to reduce the sauce.

Now you should blend the mix either in a food blender or using a hand held blender. Once you’ve done this pass the mix through a sieve to remove the tomato skin and seeds.

You should then end up with a nice thick bravas sauce.

You may want to cut your potatoes a bit smaller into bite sized chunks if you left them a bit big when boiling. You can either deep fry them as I do or shallow fry them until they turn a lovely golden colour.
Serve them on a couple of plates with plenty of the bravas sauce on them. The sauce is probably better hot but it can also be served cold.

Notes on my method:

~ I used medium, white potatoes, and boiled them with their skins on, until they were about 3/4 done.

I let them cool off, then peeled them (which was a pain). I didn’t do a great job of scraping all the skin off, so some skin

was still on – which actually turned out to be a good thing, as it gave a nice crispy taste to the patatas.

So I would say, it’s OK to leave some skin on.

~ After the potatoes were peeled, I cut them into 1 1/2 inch chunks, and seasoned them with olive oil, kosher salt, black pepper,

paprika and cayenne. I was debating on whether to bake them or pan fry them, so I split the potatoes into 2 batches

to test each method. I baked half at 400 degrees, and pan fried the other half in some olive oil.

The pan fried method was definitely tastier – much crispier and better “crust”.

~For the bravas sauce – I used half yellow onion and half red onion, and I used 4 cloves of garlic. I did not have fresh tomatoes on hand, so I used a 16 oz. can of diced tomatoes. Since the canned tomatoes seemed to have a good amount of liquid, I did not add the water to the sauce. As I didn’t have spicy paprika, I used regular paprika and some cayenne pepper.

I did not use the dried chilis (thought it would get too spicy for the kids), nor did I add the flour to the sauce.

I used my immersion blender to blend 90 % of the sauce, but left some unblended to give a little chunkiness to the sauce.

{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }

Mariah February 21, 2011 at 5:35 am: Yes, Patatas Bravas make a great Tapas!
Kristen Baker February 21, 2011 at 5:37 am: I have been to Spain many times and I always enjoy patatas bravas… your sauce sounds delicious!
Nisrine, Dinners & Dreams February 21, 2011 at 1:03 pm: A mouthwatering tapa. I like the dipping sauce especially.
Eliana February 21, 2011 at 4:27 pm: Love the flavors in these potatoes. They look super super delicious.
Nadia February 21, 2011 at 4:58 pm: cute post, Laviza! I like your writing style-humorous!
Who doesn’t love potatoes..mmmm!
Ameena February 21, 2011 at 5:08 pm: As a mom who gets last minute food requests I totally understand this post! I love this recipe – potatoes are one of my most favorite foods.

Gorgeous photos!
Joy February 21, 2011 at 5:25 pm: Wow this looks so delicious, great post Laviza!!!
eclectic gourmet February 21, 2011 at 10:01 pm: Thank you for your kind words for my lame attempt at a blog post!
I give you gals (and guys) a lot of credit for your foodie blogs with terrific pix and posts; I am in awe of all of you, especially my dear friend Sara!
I take the easy way out, by posting on my facebook page, but one of these days, I will start a blog.

Luckily I will have the chance to try the real “patatas bravas” in Barcelona, this summer!
Soma February 21, 2011 at 11:49 pm: Of course mom is a good cook!! How wonderful he recognizes that and is proud of it Sara. The joys of being a mom.

The sauce is sounds out of the world. and yes i always like my potatoes pan fried than baked. It is faster and crisps much better as you have said.
Lani February 23, 2011 at 5:33 am: This recipe sounds delicious! I love anything that has to do with potato and so do my kids so I will definitely try this. Laviza, this was an awesome guest post, I enjoyed reading about your son and his last minute request. Kudos to you for making something homemade. I can only dream that I’d not just run to my local grocery!
Sylvie @ Gourmande in the Kitchen February 23, 2011 at 1:45 pm: Cooking for 40 kids at the last minute, wow I’m impressed! I would take these over french fries any day.
Amanda February 23, 2011 at 3:05 pm: My absolute favorite tapas!! I adore these!
Sara February 23, 2011 at 3:50 pm: Thank you everyone! Laviza did an awesome job with this post! credit goes to her!
marla {family fresh cooking} February 24, 2011 at 2:48 am: Sara, you are an awesome friend to recommend this recipe to Laviza. They sound delicious! Her son is so lucky that she sent these tapas to class. Sometimes it is hard as the “cooking moms” when the kids have class presentations. We can’t get away with just picking something up at the store. xo
Kankana February 24, 2011 at 4:39 am: First time in your blog .. am a new blogger, my second month in the blogging world I love this dish and have checked few other recipes and i love them .. beautiful space you have here !
Lora @cakeduchess February 25, 2011 at 3:54 pm: Hi Laviza-This looks delicious! You and Sara are both so creative. Nice to find you here on sweet Sara’s blog.
Hope you both have a wonderful weekend!
Rosa February 26, 2011 at 1:08 am: Those look addictive! A great treat.

Cheers,

Rosa
Faith February 27, 2011 at 6:20 pm: Great guest post, Laviza! (And Sara, thank you so much for introducing us such a talented cook!) This looks like a really flavorful and delicious dish!
tasteofbeirut February 28, 2011 at 4:17 am: This is the sauce i had been looking for, aka, basque ketchup! Love these potatoes!
Melody Fury // GourmetFury.com February 28, 2011 at 12:27 pm: I could NOT get enough of these when I was in Barcelona. Dear me These look fantastic. Definitely saving the recipe. Thanks so much for sharing!
Jamie March 2, 2011 at 11:31 am: LOL funny story! And delicious potatoes! Yum! I’d love this and hope the kids did too!

Patatas Bravas ~ A Spanish Tapa

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