Patatas Bravas (Brave Spanish Potatoes)

By Addie

"This recipe was published in the Toronto Star. The potatoes are adapted from Simone and Ines Ortega's 1080 Recipes and the aioli is from Gourmet. This dish is served in restaurants near Barcelona either as a side dish or as part of tapas. This recipe calls for chili but you could substitute ancho or chipotle powder. NOTE: the aioli has raw eggs. You could just mix the garlic and lemon juice with mayonnaise if you prefer."

Ingredients

• AIOLI:
• 2 garlic cloves
• kosher salt
• 1 large egg yolks
• 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• Pepper
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• POTATOES:
• 12 small boiling potatoes, scrubbed ( about 1 lb/450 g)
• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon hot smoked paprika
• 1 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 teaspoon chili powder

Preparation

Step 1

AIOLI:.

In mortar using pestle, or on cutting board with knife, mince and mash garlic to a paste with a pinch of salt.

Whisk together yolk, lemon juice and mustard in a small bowl.

Combine 2 oils and dribble it into yolk mixture a little at a time, whisking constantly until emulsified. (If aioli separates, stop adding oil and whisk until it comes back together, then resume adding oil.).

Whisk in garlic paste. Season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate, covered, until ready to use.
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POTATOES:.

Bring large pan of salted water to boil over high heat. Add potatoes and cook until tender (about 20 to 25 minutes). Drain and cool. Peel cooled potatoes and slice into rounds. Transfer to serving plate.

In bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, paprika, garlic and chili powder. Drizzle paprika sauce and aioli over potatoes. Refrigerate any leftovers for another use.
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MY NOTES: To my mind this is NOT the kind of patatas bravas I love, with FRIED potatoes. This recipe would have to be altered a bit to suit me.

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REVIEWS:

Wow, these are super! I can understand why they made it into a best of 2009 cookbook. The other reviewers are right, the combination of both sauces is fantastic (and I am not a mayo person at ALL). I do not eat raw egg, so I used pre-made mayo with the lemon and garlic added like you suggested. I also followed another reviewer and squeezed a little more lemon over the top too. YUM!!!

Since I am paranoid about raw eggs, I mixed the mayo with lemon juice, garlic and a little mustard (not Dijon though). I used about 1/4 cup of mayo. Like Ice Cool Kitty, I thought the mix of sauces was out of this world. The smoky Spanish paprika was terrific. I too mixed it with chile powder. BF and I ate up the whole thing for dinner. Served it with roasted cauliflower. Thank you! Will definitely make this again.

This was really easy, and tasty too! I added garlic and about 2x the lemon juice to mayo to make a sort of thinnish consistency to make the lemony/garlic white sauce. The red sauce was made with smoky Spanish paprika and chili powder. The combination of the two sauces was awesome. I seasoned the potatoes with salt and pepper and squeezed a little lemon juice overall. Going into the normal rotation.

This was excellent! I made the aioli the easy way, just adding the lemon and garlic to some mayo, and used Spanish agridulce paprika and ancho chili powder in the dressing. The only potatoes I had on hand were russets, so I used those, but next time I will use small red potatoes. The dressing had a lot of flavor, all of the flavors came through and were in wonderful balance. I love the bite that the vinegar gives this dish. Give this one a try, you'll love it! Before this recipe, I wouldn't have dreamed of eating potatoes without sour cream or cheese, this changed my mind.