Patatas Bravas

Recently I've been eating and making the same food day in day out and I want to shake things up a bit so last week I set myself the challenge to make at least one new recipe a week. I started with Hugh's Patatas Bravas from the Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall River Cottage Veg Everyday cookbook . 

This recipe took a lot longer than I expected - just under and hour and a half but admittedly it was pretty relaxed cooking. The recipe is here (with some pictures along the way):

(Serves 4-6)
1kg potatoes - cut into 3cm cubes
5 tablespoons olive or rapeseed oil
Flaky sea salt
A handful of parsley

For the sauce:
2 tablespoons olive or rapeseed oil
1 onion - finely chopped
A handful of thyme sprigs - leaves only, chopped
3 garlic cloves - finely chopped
1 small red chilli - finely chopped 
400g tin plum tomatoes - chopped
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
A pinch of sugar

First - make the sauce. Heat the oil over a medium/low heat and add the onion and thyme. Sweat the onions down until softened (about 10 mins). Add the garlic and chilli and cook whilst stirring for a minute. 

Add the tomatoes with their juice, paprika, sugar and some salt and pepper. Leave this to simmer for 10 minutes, stirring and breaking up the tomatoes to make a lovely, rich, tomatoey sauce. 

Boil the potatoes for 5 - 8 minutes until firm (make sure they're not too tender). Leave to steam in a colander for few minutes and tip onto a tea towel and pat dry.

Warm 5 tablespoons in a frying pan over a medium/high heat and saute the potatoes for 10-15 minutes, until crisp and golden. Drain on some kitchen paper and tip into a dish. Check the consistency of the tomato sauce (thin with some hot water if necessary). 

Pour the sauce over the potatoes, scatter with chopped parsley and enjoy warm. 

We served it up with pan-fried chilli sardines, rocket and a nice glass of wine - perfect!