Patatas Bravas -- Crispy Potatoes with Spicy Garlic & Chili Aioli

hello this is chef john from food wishes calm with patatas bravas that's right a lot of people think that means brave potatoes it doesn't it means fierce potatoes and if there's one thing I've learned hanging out with supermodels all these years is that fierce is good and speaking of good pretty much any recipe from Spain is going to be awesome and this is one of the best of all time so check it out all right step one we're going to get some water ready to boil our potatoes most people do this in just plain salted water but we're not most people so we're going to flavor the water up I'm going to add some salt some smoked paprika a little bit of cumin and two bay leaves alright we're going to bring that up to a simmer and we're going to simmer that for ten minutes to extract some of those flavors and while that's simmering for 10 minutes we will prep our potatoes and I'm using just good old-fashioned Idaho russet potatoes you're going to want to stay away from those red potatoes those are a little too waxy for this you want something nice and starchy so I'm going to cut those in half like that and then each half I'm going to cut lengthwise twice into three pieces and then those pieces I'll cut across to make like 1-inch cubes alright you know the drill pick a shape pick a size and stick with it and you can just hold those in cold water until you're ready alright by this time our seasoned liquid has simmered for ten minutes I'm of course going to drain the water from the potatoes and dump those into this mixture all right that's going to take probably three four or five minutes to come back to a simmer you can just leave it on high heat and once those start boiling again you're going to cook it for about I don't know four or five minutes approximately we want them almost tender alright they shouldn't be too firm but yet they shouldn't be falling apart tender like you're going to make mashed potatoes you want to pull them out just before they're all the way done and the easiest way to check is just with a tip of a paring knife right here I can feel mine we're a little too firm so I'll let them boil for another minute so just to give it a percentage let's say like 90 percent cooked at that point you're going to take your strainer and pull those out of that liquid and you want to transfer those onto a wire rack to cool now this is very critical you want them to air dry and cool down completely before you fry them this is what gives them that crusty crunchy texture okay so I don't care how hungry you are let these dry and cool down completely alright while we're waiting we can go ahead and make our spicy aioli top these with in a mortar I have some sliced garlic with a pinch of salt I'm also going to add some smoked paprika and a little Chipotle and I'm going to crush that into a paste and when that happens I'm going to add some mayonnaise should you make it homemade yes did I know so we're going to dump in some mayonnaise and a nice big splash of sherry vinegar you're definitely going to need some acidity here some people like lemon juice I like the sherry vinegar much better but up to you so I'm going to stir that in and then I'm going to give it a little shot of tomato paste in the middle of summer when there's lots of fresh tomatoes around I'll do a version of this that has diced fresh tomatoes in it but here just a little pace for color and acidity then you're going to taste and adjust and at this point I was like you know what I need a little more vinegar and a little bit of cayenne so stir that up and refrigerate until needed of course that can be done ahead of time and please feel free to make extra that is good on literally everything alright so that's done and then last but not least I'm going to do a little bit of a seasoning salt to put on the potatoes after they're fried and that's going to be fine salt freshly ground black pepper smoked paprika some more Chipotle which is going to give it some nice heat if you want extra heat add some cayenne but don't forget the aioli is also spicy and then I'm going to give that a mix with my freakishly small Estonian wooden spice ladle alright so give it a stir and that's done and we're ready to fry so I'm going to use a cast-iron skillet on high heat with about an inch and a half of vegetable oil in it I don't use a thermometer I just throw a potato in and when it starts bubbling viciously I know the oils hot all right so that's my little tester potato I ate that one and by the way it looks like the pan is rusty it's not that's just the remnants from some earlier frying so I am recycling this oil it was still very clean and once the oil is hot we're going to put in our now dried and cooled potatoes and they're going to fry up awesomely alright as far as time I don't know five six minutes maybe how do you know they're going to be golden brown and extremely crunchy and this is what they should sound like oh yeah and when you're ready to serve throw them in a bowl give them a toss with that seasoning salt throw them out of plates and then you eat him with a toothpick which makes it even more fun by the way listen to this that was not edited to make it sound more delicious than it really was was incredible but wait there's more don't forget to top it with your spicy aioli maybe some fresh parsley stick in some toothpicks and that is done patatas bravas this is one of the world's great potato dishes of all time crispy crunchy spicy just what's the word I'm looking for fierce that's it and not just regular fierce we're talking borderline Sasha Fierce they're that good so I really hope you give these a try head over to food wishes calm for all the ingredient amounts and more info as usual and as always enjoy you

Channel: Food Wishes

Views: 2,645,636

Rating: 4.9425855 out of 5

Keywords: Patatas, Bravas, Potatoes, Spicy, Crispy, Garlic, fried, appetizer, tapas, snack, spanish, chili, chef john, foodwishes, Food, Chef (Profession), Cooking, Kitchen, Recipe, Cooking (science), Restaurant, Recipes

Id: vzyzlkouXsM

Length: 5min 31sec (331 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 30 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/CyberTractor]

These look delicious! I'll have to make some.

[u/Kurt306]

The second I saw the thumbnail I thought that looks like a chef john video. I was not disappointed.