Small plate · Madrid, Spain
Patatas bravas
Fried potatoes under a hot tomato sauce, a Spanish bar staple.
About the dish
Patatas bravas are one of the most common tapas in Spain, associated above all with the bars of Madrid. Bravas means fierce, a reference to the spicy sauce.
The potatoes are cut into rough chunks and fried until crisp and golden outside and fluffy inside. Many cooks parboil or fry them twice: a first, gentler fry cooks them through and a second, hotter one crisps the surface. Drying the potatoes well before they go into the oil helps the crust form.
The sauce is argued over. In Madrid, salsa brava is often a smooth, spicy sauce built on pimentón, Spanish paprika that comes sweet, bittersweet or hot and is often smoked, thickened with a little flour and stock, with or without tomato. Elsewhere it is a spicy tomato sauce, and in Catalonia and Valencia the potatoes often get a garlic allioli as well. The flavor is heat and salt over the richness of the frying oil, with a little sweetness and acid from any tomato.
Written from general cooking knowledge, as background on a dish from the game’s recipe book. It is not a tested recipe.
The flavors it leans on
Patatas bravas in Night Kitchen
In the game, Patatas bravas is a small plate in the recipe book. A plate is named Patatas bravas when it holds these cards and is cooked with exactly this technique, with at most one extra ingredient.
Ingredients
- Potatoes
- Tomatoes
- Chili flakes
Technique
- Fry
How those cards taste
Cooked from just these cards for an average ticket, before tonight’s mood and quirks, it would please Lou (3 stars), Odile (2 stars) and Theo (2 stars) most.
“Fried potatoes with a fierce tomato sauce. Bravas. Brave is right.”
More small plates
- CevichePeru and the Pacific coast of Latin AmericaRaw fish firmed in lime juice, with onion and chili.
- PotstickersNorthern ChinaPork and cabbage dumplings browned on the bottom and steamed on top.
- HummusThe LevantChickpeas blended smooth with tahini and lemon.
- Garlic shrimpSpainShrimp sizzled in oil with garlic and chili, the Spanish gambas al ajillo.
- Scallion pancakesChinaFlaky pan-fried flatbreads laced with scallions.
- GravlaxScandinaviaSalmon cured under salt, sugar and dill, sliced thin.
- Smashed cucumber saladChinaCucumbers cracked open and dressed with vinegar and garlic.