People used to say that our fried potatoes were the best in Athens
ingredients for 4 servings (cost about 3 € pp)
- Salt
- 1 kg potatoes
- 2 red horn peppers
- Coarse salt
- A country sausage made of pork about 100g
- EV sunflower oil for frying
- Extra paprika for decoration
- Allioli sauce made of:
- 2 or more garlic cloves
- 1 egg yolk
- 30 ml water
- 100 ml EV olive oil
- 100 ml EV sunflower oil
- Spicy oil made of:
- 100 ml EV sunflower oil
- A bay leaf
- 2 cloves
- 4 allspice
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 2-6 red hot chili peppers
- A brunch of rosemary
I am not a friend of the fried potatoes. I consider fried potatoes clearly inferior than the roasted ones. Why? We will discuss it another moment, but I am sure that my arguments will convince you.
There is one and only exception. THE MAGNIFICENT BRAVAS POTATOES.
Bravas are the Spanish version of the fried potatoes. They are also fried as the common ones and they are accompanied with a spicy sauce.
Two different kinds of sauces are used in Spain
a) A spicy mayo-tomato based sauce (that in majority of times is INDUSTRIAL, AWFUL). This is the Madrid version
b) A combination of allioli sauce and spicy oil. This is the superior Barcelona version
Is that all?
Of course not. Bravas potatoes are a science.
I wanted to study this science, before the opening of my resto in Athens, in 2014. So I visited the best bravas (or braves in Catalan language) potato shops in Barcelona, to see, taste and analyse them. Bar Tomás at Sarrià, Bar Marin at Sant Andreu, Bar Andorra at Santa Caterina etc.
And I started building the potatoes for my restaurant.
So, after eating, re-eating and re-re-eating bravas potatoes, (I ate potatoes for about 20 days) I have decided that:
a) The best bravas potatoes are made with the combination allioli-spicy oil. The mayo-tomato sauce is a cheap fast-food solution which condemns the bravas to mediocrity.
b) Allioli sauce must be thick and made with top quality eggs (I use organic ones of course). The garlic must be present, so although some allioli sauces are made with weakened garlic (by blanching or marinating it) I don’t recommend this way.
c) The potatoes must be cut in UNEVEN pieces. Their size must be from a nail size till an apricot size. This is the most crucial point. Why? Because first of all the potatoes must not look industrial. And moreover because the uneven cutting provokes potatoes of many textures from crunchy to almost melted!!!! This way the bravas are never boring, the next one is always different than the previous!!!!
d) The large pieces of the potatoes must be very very very tender. They must be perfectly pre-boiled or pre-fried and have an almost melted interior.
e) The spicy oil must be scented with herbs and spices, which will give to the starchy potatoes an aromatic retrotaste.
There two things that I leave them to you:
a) To pre-fry or pre-boil the potatoes. Pre-frying needs more attention, more oil and also a slightly (almost invisible) better result. I prefer preboil them, as this way are easier to be made, lighter and cheaper.
b) To peel or not the potatoes. From time to time I change my mind about using peeled or unpeeled potatoes. At my resto, I used small young unpeeled potatoes but the last years I prefer the peeled ones.
I also have made two additions to the usual bravas potatoes.
a) I add, just 2 or 3 pieces, of red pepper in the potatoes. Red peppers are a magnificent visual upgrade of the dish and an extra ingredient, similar and suitable, which breaks the “monotony” of the potatoes. I use horn peppers which do not require previous peeling, as they have a very thin peel.
b) I also add a small portion of country pork sausage over the potatoes and the allioli sauce multiplying this way their umami.
Time for work. Let’s start.
First of all we prepare the oil. We mix all ingredients and we just heat the oil, having care not to burn the ingredients, some of them (as the paprika) are very sensitive to heat. We leave the ingredients for at least 12 hours. We pass the oil from a sieve and we keep it in the fridge for at least 3 weeks.
We then prepare the allioli sauce. We beat with the immersion blender the garlic cloves with a little bit of salt, the egg yolk and the water and then we start adding 100 ml of EV sunflower oil and the olive oil till, creating an think a stable emulsion.
We remove and discard the outer part of the sausage. We mince it and we subfry it for about 20 minutes. We keep aside.
In a large pot with cold salted water we add the potatoes. We bring to boil, we reduce the heat and we let the potatoes simmer till very tender. We wait to cool, we peel them and we cut them to uneven, as we said, pieces.
We preheat (190 Celsius degrees) plenty of EV sunflower heat in large pan or wok and we fry the peppers till tender. We remove them and we cut them in pieces.
We then start frying the potatoes in batches. We remove the first batch and we continue. When all the potatoes are ready we put them in the hot frying oil for a minute (to reheat them).
We pour a tbsp or two on the base of every plate, we add the potatoes and the allioli sauce, the minced sausage, coarse salt and more paprika.
