Potatoes in Barcelona

Patatas brava is a classic Catalan potato dish but these days it’s transformed into a very popular tapa in Barcelona bars.  Restaurant chefs get into the act too and all sort of interpretive variations occur.  The one I had at the Florian restaurant in Barcelona at Bertrand i Serra 20 in the early 1990s was demonstrated by the chef and owner Rosa Grau and her sous-chef Enrique Martin, who encased the potatoes in allioli.  This recipe is adapted from the inspiration of Chef Sergi Arola of the Arola restaurant in the Hotel Arts in Barcelona.  The brava sauce is the tomato sauce.  In more careless versions of patatas brava the brava sauce is made 

with ketchup and mayonnaise.  

For the potatoes

4 white rose or Yukon gold potatoes (about 20 ounces in all, each about 3 inches in diameter at the widest part)

4 to 6 cups olive oil for frying

For the brava sauce

5 ripe tomatoes (about 1 pound), cut in half, seeds squeezed out, and grated against the largest holes of a standing grater down to the peel

1 large garlic clove, finely chopped

1 small dried red chile

Freshly ground black pepper

2 teaspoons sugar

½ teaspoon salt and more if desired

For the allioli

4 large garlic cloves

½ teaspoon salt and more to taste

1 large egg

1 cup sunflower seed oil

For the garnish

Finely chopped fresh parsley for garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 260 degrees F.

2. Peel the potatoes and cut in half lengthwise.  Trim each half into a cylinder about 1 ½ inches in diameter using a paring knife and peeler.  Slice the cylinders in halves.  You’ll have four 1 ½-inch segments per potato.  Hollow out the middle of each segment using a small melon baller, corer, or a paring knife and demitasse spoon.  Try not to break through the bottom.  Place the potato segments on a baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, in a skillet, simmer the tomatoes with the garlic and chile over low heat until all the water has evaporated, about 1 hour.  Transfer to a food processor and blend with the sugar and salt.  This is the brava sauce.  Clean the food processor.

4. Prepare the allioli in a mortar by mashing the garlic with ½ teaspoon salt until mushy.  Transfer to the food processor and blend with the egg for 30 seconds, then add the sunflower seed oil in a very slow stream until emulsified with the egg.  Correct the salt and refrigerate, covered, until needed.   You’ll have more allioli than you will need for this recipe. 

5. Preheat the frying oil to 360 degrees F in a deep-fryer or an 8-inch saucepan fitted with a basket insert.

6. Remove the potatoes from the oven then deep-fry the potatoes until golden, about 4 minutes.  Remove and cool for at least 30 minutes, but keep the frying oil hot.  Re-fry the potatoes for 2 to 3 minutes.  Remove and arrange on a serving platter and season with salt.  Once they are warm and not hot, spoon the brava sauce into the hollow and then cover with a spoonful of allioli.  Garnish with a sprinkle of parsley and serve.

Makes 8 tapas servings (2 per person)

[photo: Clifford A. Wright]

Romantic Andalusia as Inspiration

I have a few go-to recipes when I want to serve people a tapas-like plate or if I need to bring a dish to a party. These are the albóndigas of Andalusia. Albóndigas, the Spanish word for "meatball," derives from the Arabic al-bunduq, "hazelnut," meant to evoke their form and size. The making of albóndigas date at least back to Islamic Spain, for there are several recipes in the anonymous thirteenth-century Hispano-Muslim cookery book Kitāb al-tabīkh fī Maghrib wa'al-Āndalus. In fact, the method of frying and then poaching in the making of Albóndigas a la Andaluza, or poaching and then roasting, as found in other recipes in A MEDITERRANEAN FEAST, I believe is an Arab culinary influence because we find it employed not only in medieval Arabic texts but also in today's kitchen. There's a recipe for you here.

[Photo: Clifford A. Wright]

Tapas

Tapas can be grouped into three main categories, according to how easy they are to eat: cosas de picar, pinchos, and cazuelas. Cosas de picar (meaning “things to nibble”)

[Photo: Tapas bar in Seville]

basically refer to finger food, the most famous being the olive-the quintessential Spanish and, in fact, Mediterranean finger food. If a utensil (like banderillas, decorated toothpicks that get their name because they look like the darts used in a bullfight) is required to eat the food, the tapa is called pinchos. Cazuelas (little dishes) are tapas that usually come in sauce, for example, albóndigas (meatballs) or shrimp fried in garlic. All regions of Spain have tapas, although Catalonians have not traditionally eaten tapas and do so now only because of the unification of modern Spain. The Catalans were gastronomically closer to the French and Italians than to the Spanish. The Basques call their tapas pintxos from the Spanish word pinchar, to prick because they were once always served with toothpicks to pick them up. The Spanish proverb comiendo, comiendo el apetito se va abriendo--appetite increases with constant eating, might give you a better idea of what lies behind the culinary experience of Spain.