This recipe transports me back to the town of San Sebastian, Spain, which celebrates the feast of San Sebastian on 20th January. The city boasts a high concentration of Michelin Stars, and some of the best Pintxo (tapas) bars in all of Spain. Of course, should you ever find yourself in this glorious city, there’s no need to consult with your Zomato app to find a good place to eat….. just take a look at the ground around the Pintxo bar. If it is littered with toothpicks and Pintxo wrappings, then you’re onto a good thing.

In homage to San sabastian day next week, I will be preparing this recipe, combining delicious roasted potatoes baked in the oven wrapped in Jamon (spanish ham) and served with a  quick Patatas Bravas mayo, a perfect dish for Spanish Tapas!

We love Spain and all it has to offer when it comes to food and gastronomy, it is certainly one of my favorite tourist destinations in Europe. The Spaniards generally do not eat dinner until 10pm and tapas is a way of life and living as your hop from bar to bar, sharing tasting plates and bits and pieces of what Spain has to offer.

In Australia, we are lucky to have access to high quality produce, whether we buy locally or grow it in our own gardens. We also have easy access to imports such has cured hams, a smokey Spanish Jamon can be purchased from any good delicatessen and for this Patatas Bravas recipe, it needs to be finely sliced.

This recipe is a spin on the traditional Patatas Bravas recipe and is super tasty and easy to prepare. The Patatas Bravas with mayo sauce is a quick one to prepare in comparison to the traditional recipe, we have used organic cooked and peeled home made tomatoes, to speed up the process. The sauce is then blitzed in the Thermomix, however a bamix or blender will also do the trick!

Serves 4.

What you will need:

2 large potatoes, white variety such as Nicola or Dutch Cream.

100 grams finely sliced Jamon (Spanish ham)

Juice of 1 lemon

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

2 tbs olive oil

1 tbs sherry vinegar

Sprig oregano leaves chopped

Patatas Bravas Sauce:

300ml of precooked peeled tomatoes or one can of peeled tomatoes

2 tbs olive oil

2 tbs sherry vinegar

1 tsp raw sugar

1 tbs sweet paprika

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

1 tsp pink salt

1 cup boiled water

3 tbs whole egg mayo (optional)

To prepare your Patatas Bravas sauce:

Finely dice onions and garlic, and saute in a flat saucepan with olive oil for 2 minutes on medium-high heat.

Add sherry vinegar sweet paprika and stir through.

Add tomatoes, sugar and boiled water. Stir and cook down, stirring every  minutes on low/medium heat for 25 minutes until cooked and the sauce has reduced.

Transfer into a blender (or use a stick blender) and puree the sauce until smooth.

Set aside to cool.

**Once cool add the mayo (optional) Mix approximately 4 tbs of sauce with 3 tbs mayo.

To prepare your potatoes:

Slice your potatoes into wedges and set aside.

In a large bowl combine the olive oil, sherry vinegar, smoked paprika, pepper, lemon juice and oregano leaves and whisk until well blended.

Add potatoes and coat in the dressing. Set aside to marinate for 5 minutes. In the meantime, set your oven to heat to 180 degrees Celcius.

 

Wrap each potato wedge in a slice of Jamon. Depending on the width of the Jamon slices, you may have to slice them length ways. The Jamon should cover most of the potato. Transfer to a non stick baking pan, or a pan lined with baking paper.

Pour the remaining marinade over the potatoes.

Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, half way through the bake, turn the potatoes on their side to ensure they cook through and the Jamon goes crispy all the way around.

Serve with a drizzle of bravas sauce. Place the remaining sauce in a blwo and serve alongside the potatoes as a dipping sauce.