Of course, that’s a terrible translation of the original Spanish name, “patatas a la importancia” (roughly, “potatoes, the important way” or somesuch). But sounds so much better!
I love potatoes. I love fried potatoes. I specifically love fried potatoes the way my mom does them which, to be honest, doesn’t seem like a big deal when you see them, but she just has the touch to make them infinitely tasty. However, other kinds of potatoes work too, and here’s one of them. It’s not too complicated, it’s original, it’s cheap, it’s quite a dish, and turns the humble potatoe into the queen of the table – for a short while, before it’s savagely devoured. Say, imagine that you have this:
For the text-only record:
- Some potatoes.
- An onion.
- A couple of eggs.
- Garlic.
- Parsley (fresh would be better, but I have a pot of dried rubbed parsley always handy).
- Olive oil.
- Some wine.
- Flour.
So! The whole thing about these potatoes is to give them a wrap of batter, fry them, then make them into a stew. Sounds like a lot of torture for that poor potatoe, does it not? It’s not so bad, pay attention!
Peel and slice those potatoes. Slice them more or less thickly (everyone will suggest a different thickness, use your own imagination, and your own criteria – not all potatoes cook in the same time!). Don’t let them sit there for too long tho, as soon as they are sliced, while they’re fresh and moist, you want to pass them over the flour to give them a nice floury coat outside. Like this:
Now, grab a couple of eggs and beat them thoroughly. The more thorougly and “fluffy” they are, the better. If you are skilled enough at egg-beating (hi mom! Thanks for teaching me!), beat the whites first with the yokes to one side, and when they start looking fluffy, mix in the yokes. Fluffy is good! After they are beaten, you want to pass the floured potatoes through the egg so that they get a nice eggy coat. Do not underestimate the amount of egg a potato slice covered in flour can take, and make doubly sure they are thoroughly coated with egg! You don’t want any open spots with just flour, as the coat will fall apart easily later on if there’re holes.
After this you want to fry them in abundant hot oil – I use sunflower, canola or corn would be good too. What I do is, after I have all the potatoes nicely floured, I put the frying pan with the oil on the stove, and when it’s hot enough I start passing the slices through egg and putting them directly in the pan. By the time you put the last slice in the pan, the first one will be ready to be flipped over.
Take them out as they fry and put them on a separate plate, you will be saving them for later. If you want, you can put some absorbant paper on the plate to get rid of some of the fat.
Now, chop up the onion, and throw it in a deep pot with two or three spoonfuls of oil. Fry it slowly, and while it fries (stir often), put two or three cloves of garlic in a mortar with some salt, and crush it thoroughly. Add the parsley afterwards (you’re still stirring the onion, aren’t you? Just checking…), mix well, and when the onion is starting to get transparent and a bit soft, add the parsley-garlic mix. Stir a bit, add a spoonful of flour, stir some more, and quickly add a glass of water (so that the flour doesn’t burn).
Put the potatoes in the pot, top up with another glass of water and a glass of wine – if you want. For the amount shown above I used 2 1/2 (admittedly not too big) glasses of water and 1 of wine. One thing some people recommend is to add a bit of saffron too, for taste and colour. In my opinion, that’s adding a silly extravagantly expensive element to what is a cheap and already tasty dish. I add a bit of paprika powder – different taste, nice colour. you can skip the saffron, the paprika, or the wine if you want to.
If you want some extra salt, this is your last chance! When the water starts boiling, put on med/low, cover (tip the lid a bit so that the water reduces a bit), then let it sit for about 20 minutes. If it looks too dry for your taste, add a bit more water during the 20 minutes.
You have some time to kill, go do the dishes. No, really, you have used 2 or 3 plates and the chopping board for this – at least -, as well as some tools. You have enough time, may as well get it out of the way!
When the potatoes are soft, the dish is ready. You may need more (or less!) time depending on your local potato variety. You will notice that the sauce is quite thick – you added battered stuff and a spoonful of flour, what were you expecting? Serve with care, making sure the batter doesn’t come off. If it does too easily, you need to practice more with the flouring/egging step, that’s the key for a consistent and solid batter that will last through the whole cooking.
A simple dish with simple ingredients, and a wonderful treat to eat. This is by no means a light meal, it’s great in Winter to warm your belly. You can serve it straight from the pot you used to cook!
And I made enough to hav leftovers to take to the office tomorrow, as you can see.
