Patatas Bravas

This is adapted from yet another Moro recipe. Patatas bravas are probably my favourite of all Spanish dishes (insert obvious Irish potato joke here). On a visit to Barcelona a few years ago, with some vegetarians, the patatas bravas rule to eating out was developed, which worked along the lines that we could only go to restaurants which served them. This was in part due to one of the vegetarians then reluctance to actually consume things not made of tofu, and the fact that Spanish people do not understand or accept vegetarianism. When asking if a dish contains meat, they tend to consider whether or not there is a large slab of meat involved. Thus, a steak will be met with a yes, while, lentejas, a lentil stew flavoured with pieces of chorizo will be deemed vegetarian, because it only has small pieces of meat.

Traditionally, patatas bravas are fried, but in this recipe I roast them. This is because a) its easier to make large quantities of roast potatoes, b) it’s a little healthier and c) you get the exact same crispy coating if you parboil them before roasting as you do when frying. For the aioli, make a homemade mayonnaise with 2-3 cloves of crushed garlic stirred in, or add to some good quality bough mayonnaise.This is a great tapas dish, but I could literally eat these at a meal, and know plenty of others who have. If you have tomato sauce left over, it can make a nice pizza topping, or pasta sauce with some parmesan.

Serves 4 as a racion or 6 as a tapa

Ingredients

• 1kg of roasting potatoes
• 2 red peppers
• 2 Spanish onions
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 small glass of white wine
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 400g tub of passata
• 4 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1 fresh chilli or a teaspoon of cayenne
• Olive oil
• 1 quantity aioli

Method

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
• Peel the potatoes and parboil in salted water for five minutes.
• Remove, allow to cool and chop into medium sized chunks.
• Place the potatoes in a roasting dish, and toss in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 2 teaspoons of smoked paprika.
• Season, and roast for approximately 40 minutes to 1 hour, until they are golden and crispy.
• Finely chop the peppers and onions and sauté in a little olive oil over a medium heat for approximately 5-8 minutes, until soft and the onions are golden.
• Add the wine and sugar, and cook down until the wine has reduced to a syrup and the onions and peppers are gently caramelised.
• Meanwhile, finely chop the garlic cloves and chilli and sauté in a separate pot.
• Add the passata, paprika and a pinch of sugar and bubble gently for 10 minutes until thickened.
• Add the onion and pepper mixture and continue to cook for another 5-10 minutes until you have a nice thick coating consistency.
• When the potatoes are cooked, reheat the sauce if necessary, and pour over them.
• Top with aioli and serve.

Jamie Oliver’s Fantastic Glazed Chorizo

This is a rich, easy to make tapas dish from Jamie Oliver’s website. The sweet glaze and the salty smokey chorizo go perfectly together. Its the typical tapas dish, as in its rich, flavourful, and you definitely could not eat too much of it. The recipe is slightly adapted as I did not have red wine vinegar, and so used a mix of white wine and balsamic.I also used chestnut honey for an added kick.This is an attempt to recreate a dish I had and loved in a bar in El Born in Barcelona last year, and its pretty damn close. This serves 4 as a tapas dish or something to nibble on with a glass of wine.

Ingredients

• 250g chorizo sausage
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 tablespoon chestnut honey
• 3 tablespoons wine vinegar (I used white)
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil

Method

• Chop the chorizo into 2cm rounds, peeling off any coating skin (chorizo usually comes in with a plasticy type skin that you are not meant to eat. Learnt that one the hard way courtesy of Dutch labelling).
• Saute in olive oil until crisp and golden on both sides.
• Add two crushed garlic cloves, stir, and cook for 1-2 minutes.
• Drain off all but 1 tablespoon of the cooking oil.
• Add the honey and vinegar and stir until combined.
• Cook until the liquid has reduced to a nice syrupy consistency and serve immediately.

Montaditos (Catalan Tapas)

Montaditos are Catalan tapas (pintxos) which are essentially open faced mini sandwiches made from sliced baguette with various toppings. You can see these in many bars around Barcelona, lining the counter tops. It is a picturesque and enticing view, which generally tends to lure me in. One of the great, and terrible, things about Barcelona is the ability to spend the day grazing through tapas bars on such items. My palate is somewhat limited by my general dislike of fish and all things seafood based (with some notable exceptions) which tend to be somewhat prominent in montaditos in Barcelona. These are a very easy thing to make for a party, as all you need is a selection of toppings and you can make a diverse selection. Your creations should be held together with long toothpicks or satay sticks (traditionally counted at the end of your time in a bar to calculate your bill, though as societal trust decreases in general, so does this practice). This is my selection of toppings. With the exception of the cream cheese/honey/walnut combinations, I cannot vouch for their authenticity, but I can tell you  saw fairly similar combinations. Feel free to substitute home-made ingredients with shop bought for time purposes.This will usually be enough to make 2-3 baguettes worth (i.e. enough to feed an army).

Ingredients

• 1 tub savoury cream cheese (e.g. chives or garlic).
• Honey
• Walnuts
• 1 wedge brie
• 2 packs Sliced chorizo or lomo iberico
• 1 portion each  homemade red and green pesto (see earlier recipe for crostini)
• Sundried tomatos
• Olives
• Caramelised onions (see earlier recipe for quesadillas)
• Garlic and paprika mayonnaise (i.e. 100g of good quality mayonaise with 1 clove of garlic and 2 teaspoons paprika mixed in).

Method

• Slice the baguette at approximately a 45° to create maximum surface area of the bread, in slices around 2-3cm thick.
• Suggestions for toppings:
• Brie and caramelised onions
• Cream cheese, honey, walnuts
• Chorizo, mayonnaise and brie
• Chorizo and pesto
• Pesto and cream cheese
• Chorizo and honey

• Alternate olives or sundried tomatos scewered on the cocktails sticks to form the top of the montadito. Anchovies could also be used for this function.