papas bravas polski

This from the Guardian, another great source of recipes. This is a tapa found in Latinx countries, and is great as an app.

Papas Bravas Trinity

Papas bravas consists of three things

  • grilled potato chunks (originally spelled it “pototo” per Vice President Dan Quayle)
  • a tomato sauce on top of them
  • a good aoli drizzled over the whole thing

 

Grilled potato chunks

  • get maybe a pound (500 g) of potatoes, cut them up, dress them with olive oil, salt, and black pepper
  • grill the hell out of them (we use one of those baskets set on the grill )

Tomato sauce

The umami bringer. This is a soffrito of:

  • say one onion and some mushrooms , rouget
  • add around 8 ounces (150 ml) tomato sauce
  • add sherry vinegar to taste
  • seasonings: smoked paprika, regular paprika, Asian garlic-chili sauce

You cook all of the above on a medium-medium low heat until the tomato sauce itself starts browning slowly. Scrape it all up, add a touch of water, then slowly brown it some more. You are shooting for an intense, complex umami brightened by a bit of acid.

Aoli

We are now going to make homemade mayonnaise by hand. Don’t worry, it’s easy and you will impress the living shit out of friends and family from this day forward.

Basic handmade mayo recipe

ingredients (all at room temperature, say 23 degrees C):
  • one egg yolk
  • half a cup, say 135 ml, neutral (say canola) oil
  • a pinch of salt and pepper
  • 1.5 teaspoons (7.5 ml) white vinegar
  •  1.5 teaspoons (7.5 ml) water
  • 1/4 cup (say 65 ml) good olive oil
  • lemon juice
Prep

1. get a big bowl and a whisk. I usually use a big stainless bowl and a cheapo around 30 cm long whisk. Politely ignore all the “you can only use a copper bowl at 14.5 degrees C with the penis bone of a walrus of not more than sixteen summers” bullshit. Use what you have.

2.put the egg, vinegar, water, salt and pepper in the bowl, whisk a little

3. put a small splootch of oil into the bowl and start whisking

4. keep adding small (say 20 ml) amounts of oil and whisking like crazy. The idea is to get an emulsion going so you will see it and feel it happening. Be patient.

5. once you get it to your personal optimum of creaminess, taste it. Adjust the vinegar and salt to your liking. Add lemon juice to brighten it up.

6. There, you cook you. You just made homemade mayo. Keep it cold if you are not going to use it right away.

The aoli hack

To your just-made homemade mayo, add as much finely chopped (or microplaned) garlic as you like. Add a bit more lemon juice. Voila, aoli.  You can now speak French with a Provencal accent and sing the Marseillaise like you mean it.