Patatas

Broken Eggs (Huevos Rotos)

We’re back with a simple recipe, one of those everyone knows how to make, but that we wanted to share with you for two simple reasons: first and most important, it’s a really easy dish that you usually eat when you’re out for drinks but not at home (this is our way of encouraging you to make it yourself), and second because we’ve got a little tip about how to fry the potatoes. Want to know what it is? You’ll have to read the rest of the recipe.

What do we need?

Good quality cured ham
3 large potatoes
2 farm-fresh eggs
Olive oil
Salt

How do we make it?

While we heat the oil in a pan (preferably a deep one), we separate or cut up the ham.
Peel the potatoes and cut them into irregular bite-sized pieces.
Once the oil is nice and hot, lower it to medium heat and add the potatoes. Let them cook more than fry.
When they’re soft, take them out and set aside on a plate. Turn the heat back up.
Fry the eggs and set them aside.
Now with the heat high, put the potatoes back in to brown them. This way they’ll be crispy on the outside and soft on the inside.
After draining them on a paper towel, arrange them on a plate or platter, add the ham and eggs, and enjoy.

[English version] HUEVOS ROTOS (FRENCH FRIES WITH EGGS AND SPANISH HAM)* *Ingredients:

Spanish cured ham
3 potatoes
2 free-range eggs
Olive oil
Salt

Heat the olive oil in a deep saucepan. In the meanwhile, cut the ham into medium size pieces and the potatoes in irregular pieces the size of a mouthful.
*When olive oil is very hot, reduce heat into medium and put the potatoes. Let them simmer. *
*When the potatoes are cooked (soft but white), take them out of the pan. Increase heat again. *
Fry the eggs and set aside.
When the heat is high again, fry again the potatoes until golden brown. They will be soft in the inside and crusty in the outside.
*Take them out into a plate with kitchen paper to remove the extra oil. Place the potatoes into a large plate, the eggs and ham over them and enjoy! *

Ají de Gallina

This dish is a classic of Peruvian cuisine. I’m not claiming this recipe is the authentic or one true version — it’s simply the one my mother and her family have made all their lives. They brought this recipe with them from Peru and honestly, I love it. I’ve tried ají de gallina at several Peruvian restaurants and the recipe isn’t even the same in all of them. So, as the saying goes, “to each their own,” and here I’m offering you a finger-licking-good Peruvian ají de gallina.

What do we need?

1 chicken
4 onions
4 slices of sandwich bread
A splash of milk
Turmeric
Ground ají paste (Peruvian hot pepper)
4 potatoes
4 eggs
Salt

How do we make it?

First, cook the chicken in a large pot with plenty of water and a bit of salt. Cook it until it’s nice and tender (you’ll know it’s done when the meat falls off the bone easily).
Take the chicken out, strain the broth, and set it aside.
Once the chicken has cooled down a bit, remove the skin and bones and shred it. Set the shredded chicken aside.
Boil the potatoes and eggs and set aside.
Meanwhile, crumble the slices of sandwich bread and soak them in milk.
Chop the onions very finely and toss them into a pan with olive oil to sweat them down. Cook them over medium-low heat slowly so they soften without browning. We want them really soft, almost like a yellow paste.
Once the onion is ready, add the milk-soaked bread and stir well.
Slowly add the chicken broth bit by bit, stirring continuously so it all comes together.
Add a couple of teaspoons of turmeric, which will give it that signature yellow color.
Add the shredded chicken and stir again. If it looks too thick, add a bit more chicken broth. The texture shouldn’t be like mashed potatoes, but not like soup either — somewhere in between.
Adjust the salt and add a bit of heat (ground ají paste).
On the side, peel the potatoes and cut them into thick slices. Peel the eggs and cut them into quarters.
And there you have it — your ají de gallina. All that’s left is to serve it alongside the boiled potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. Now dig in, nomás!

Tips:

A whole chicken makes a pretty generous amount of ají de gallina, so if you’d like, you can use half of the cooked chicken for this recipe and save the other half for a delicious chicken and pineapple salad, for example. :-)
At some restaurants I’ve had this dish served with white rice instead of boiled potatoes.

Stuffed Potatoes

I have to admit we’re a bit like sponges — anything we see and like, we try to make at home. That’s exactly what happened with today’s recipe. A few years ago we went with friends to spend Easter week in Camposancos, a lovely little village in Pontevedra, and there Ana (with Germán’s help) made us some delicious stuffed potatoes that could have fed a regiment (well, maybe we weren’t quite that many…). The thing is, we loved the idea and ever since it’s been part of our recipe book.

What do we need?

4 medium potatoes
5 slices of bacon
1 onion
Cheese
Salt
Pepper

How do we make it?

Bake the potatoes in the oven. (You can check here if you’re not sure how to do it.)
Meanwhile, chop the bacon and onion and sauté them in a pan with a little olive oil.
When the potatoes are ready — you can check by poking them with a kitchen skewer — take them out of the oven and cut them in half.
Carefully, with the help of a spoon, scoop out the halves, leaving the skin with a thin layer of potato.
Mix the scooped-out potato with the sautéed bacon and onion. Season with salt and pepper.
Fill the potato halves with the mixture, add a bit of cheese on top, and put them in the oven to broil.

Tips:

Any kind of cheese works. We like it with Emmental (elementary, my dear Watson).
If you don’t feel like baking the potatoes, you can boil them instead, but we recommend at least broiling them with the cheese in the oven.
This is just our take on the filling. Feel free to adapt it to your taste.

German-Style Salad

Taking advantage of the fact that it’s not too cold yet, though it’s clearly true that Winter is Coming, here’s a simple recipe you can put together for any family gathering, get-together with friends, or just an everyday meal — you can even make it the day before.

What do we need?

(serves 4-6)

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  2-3 large potatoes
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  3-4 sausages
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  1 onion
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  2 tomatoes
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  3-4 pickles
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How do we make it?

Boil the potatoes with the skin on, washed.
Poke the potatoes with a “pincho catador” (a fork or any utensil that lets you check if the potatoes are done). Once they’re ready, take them out, peel, chop into pieces and set aside.
In a frying pan with a splash of oil, cook the sausages and then cut them into chunks. Set aside once done.
Meanwhile, slice an onion into strips and dice the tomatoes.
Mix everything in a large salad bowl and add the mostanesa sauce (mayonnaise and mustard in a 4-to-1 ratio).
Finally, let it chill in the fridge.

Tips:

Palstelera loves sweet-and-sour pickles, so the tip is obvious — go with sweet-and-sour pickles.
The mayo-to-mustard ratio is just a guideline. It depends on the kind of mustard you’re using and whether you like the flavor milder or with more kick.

San Isidro Casserole

This very traditional Spanish name is just a family nickname for a delicious pork roast served with potatoes, onions, and apples. The tradition behind this dish calls for preparing it in a clay pot bought at the Pradera de San Isidro to celebrate Madrid’s patron saint day. Either way, with or without a clay pot, with or without the saint involved, the result is a super easy dish that’s perfect for a meal with several guests.

What do we need?

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  1 pork shoulder (bone-in is better)
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  4 apples
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  6 onions
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  8 potatoes
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  300 ml (1.25 cups) beer or white wine

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  Salt and pepper
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How do we make it?

Preheat the oven to 200°C (390°F)
Place the pork shoulder on an oven tray or, preferably, in a deep clay dish. Season the whole piece with salt and pepper on both sides.
Put the dish in the oven. Leave it for about 30 minutes so it browns at high heat, then flip the meat over. From this point on, whenever the meat looks too dry, we’ll baste it with beer or white wine.
Meanwhile, take the chance to peel the onions and potatoes. Cut the onions in half and the potatoes into large chunks.
Finally, add the potatoes, onions, and whole apples to the dish with the meat and lower the oven to 180°C (355°F) so it cooks slowly for about another hour and a half.

Tips:

Every oven is its own world, so temperature and time can vary from one to another. We recommend keeping an eye on it, especially at the beginning, so the temperature stays high but doesn’t burn the meat.
The amount of liquid you’ll need to add depends on how fast it evaporates and how much the shoulder absorbs.
To serve, we recommend slicing the roasted meat and plating it alongside the rest of the ingredients.

[English version] ROAST PORK WITH ONIONS, POTATOES AND APPLES **Ingredients:- Pork shoulder arm roast

4 apples
6 onions
8 potatoes
300 ml (1.25 cups) beer or white wine
Salt and pepper
Preheat oven at 200°C (390°F)
Put the piece of meat in a deep oven plate. Salt and pepper evenly the piece of meat
Enter the plate in the oven and leave for 30 minutes approximately until it golden brown. Then turn upside the piece of meat. From now, start adding some white wine or beer when the meat seems to be too dry.
Meanwhile, peal and cut the potatoes and onions. Cut half the onions and leave the potatoes in big portions.
Finally, add potatoes, onions and apples to the oven plate with the meat and decrease the oven temperature (180°C / 355°F). Leave it baking slowly for 1h30 more approximately.
Tips:- Every oven is different, so temperature and baking time may differ from some to others. We advice you to watch it carefully, especially at the beginning because high temperature is needed but not so much to have it burnt.
The amount of liquid will depend on how fast it will be absorbed by the meat or evaporated.
For serving, we recommend you to slice the meet and serve with the rest of ingredients.