Patatas Bravas

The team at Barr 44 have travelled the length and breadth of Spain to bring you this award-winning Patatas Bravas recipe. They’ve spent many hours trialling different types of potatoes and sauce recipes to get it just right. And of course, the age-old question, how to plate your patatas bravas? The team firmly believe you should enjoy your crispy patatas with both sauces, use your bravas sauce as a base, then your crispy patatas and alioli on the side.

Instructions

FOR THE POTATOES

1.  Scrub the potatoes in water until clean. Peel them or don’t, it’s up to you, the skins are equally tasty when crispy.

2.  Dice the potatoes into a medium cube (2.5cm), then rinse and soak in water for 30 minutes.

3.  Place in pot of cold salted water, bring to the boil then turn down to simmer. Cook until a fork just goes into the potato but still has a little resistance.

4.  Drain, leave to cool until dried out. Chuff the potatoes in a colander like you would a roast potato, to get fluffy edges. The more you do this, the crispier the result.

5.  If you can plan ahead, it’s great to chill them at this point, overnight if possible.

You now have two options depending on the equipment you have available in your home kitchen.

Option 1: Triple cooked method

6.  Heat mild olive oil in a deep fat fryer at 130 °C in the fryer. Fry the potatoes in this once up to temperature, until lightly coloured on the outside, for around 5-7 minutes.

7.  Cool again and refrigerate overnight.

8.  When you are ready to serve, heat the oil to 185°C, then fry the potatoes again until perfectly crispy and golden but still soft and fluffy in the middle.

9.  Drain and season in the rosemary salt.

Method 2: Oven cooked (also incredibly tasty)

6.  Heat olive oil in a baking tray/roasting tin at 200°C until smoking.

7.  Add your chilled chuffed potatoes, the rind of a lemon, a sprig each of rosemary and thyme and 3 smashed garlic cloves.

8.  Roast, turning once or twice, for around 45 minutes.

9.  Season with salt or rosemary salt and smoked paprika.

FOR THE BRAVAS SAUCE

1.  Fry the garlic in half the oil until golden, add chilli and stir.

2.  Add the herbs and sizzle.

3.  Now add the smoked paprika, onions and peppers, then cook for 30 minutes, stirring regularly as not to catch or burn.

4.  Add the wine and reduce until the alcohol is burnt off. Then add the tomatoes and simmer for at least 30 minutes or until the volume has roughly halved.

5.  Once cooled, blend until creamy and smooth, then season.

FOR THE ALIOLI

1.  Bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Blanche the wild garlic for 30 seconds and then refresh in ice cold water.

2.  Blend the wild garlic with all the oil for three minutes, until you have a vibrant rich green oil. (An option if you want to be super professional, pass this through a fine sieve)

3.  In a mixing bowl or food processor, add the egg yolks, vinegar, sherry & large pinch of sea salt. Whisk vigorously for a few minutes until emulsified. Either by hand or with a food processor.

4.  Then start adding the green wild garlic oil, a drop at a time to begin, whisking all the time to blend in and fully emulsify.

5.  Increase to a slow drizzle and then to a steady flow. Keep whisking and carry on until you have a mayonnaise consistency. Taste for seasoning and adjust accordingly.

6.  If you need to adjust acidity use vinegar.

7.  Store in the fridge

FOR THE ROSEMARY SALT

1.  Shallow fry the rosemary in a frying pan with olive oil.

2.  Remove and blot the leaves with some paper towel.

3.  Place into a blender with the salt and blend till fine.

4.  This can be kept in a small Tupperware tub for up to three months.

Tips

For the potatoes: The more effort you put in, the more you get out. Chilling the potatoes right down after boiling them and chuffing them really makes a big difference. As does the variety of potato you go for. Look out for Maris, King Edwards or Desirée.

For the bravas sauce: You can add or reduce spice levels as you want, for families you can take out the chillies. It’s a really versatile sauce also to use with pasta dishes, bakes, chicken, fish, etc.

For the alioli: It’s a good workout, but equally if you have a food processor or good mixer. You can make it that way and save your forearms some lactic acid!

Preparation Time: 30 mins
Cooking time: : 1 hour (with optional overnight chilling)
Serves: 6 as a side dish

Ingredients

FOR THE POTATOES:

• 1 x kilo Maris piper potatoes

FOR THE BRAVAS SAUCE:

• 2 x 400g tins of plum or chopped tomatoes  
  125ml olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced or chopped  
  3 red chillies, diced (seeds in tact)
• 2-3 bay leaves  
  1 sprig of thyme, leaves stripped
• 1 teaspoon dry oregano  
  1-2 large Spanish onions, diced
• 1 red pepper, diced & seeded
• 1 yellow pepper, diced & seeded
• 100ml dry white wine
• 1 teaspoon caster sugar
• 1 x tablespoon hot pimentón (smoked paprika – picante version)
• Season to taste

FOR THE ALIOLI:

• 3 good egg yolks
• Large handful of wild garlic leaves, stems removed, washed
• 125ml Extra virgin olive oil
  200ml mild olive oil
  40ml sherry vinegar
  30ml oloroso sherry (dry)
• Salt (to taste)

FOR THE ROSEMARY SALT:(optional)

• 200g Maldon sea salt
• 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary

PAIR WITH

Estrella Galicia

A traditional flavour of marked bitterness and refreshing aftertaste.
Available from: Waitrose, Majestic, Co-op and Greene King online.