Smashed Potatoes Bravas
Looks Pretty Unassuming
I’m always open to try a new potato recipe
Time: 1 hour
Difficulty: 1/5
Ingredient Availability: 5/5
There are so many ways to make potatoes and they very rarely tun out horrible. This recipe from Joshua Weissman’s An Unapologetic Cookbook kinda reminds me of making fries in some ways. You boil the potatoes to start then use another cooking method to finish them. With fries, you would finish them by frying, obviously. This recipe finished the potatoes by smashing and baking them. There’s also a tomato based sauce to accompany the baby potatoes when they’re done. Let’s see if this method is one worth adopting.
Key Ingredients and Omissions:
Very Slim Ingredients List
The ingredients for this recipe are super simple and easily available. The one thing that’s a little difficult to find is sweet paprika, which I’ve never been able to find. I just used Hungarian paprika along with the smoked paprika.
Tools:
Immersion blender
Flat bottomed cup or other smashing device
Cooking Review:
Prep: 15 minutes
The prep for this recipe included chopping the onion and garlic as well as boiling the water for the potatoes.
Boil potatoes: 13 minutes
After the water came to a boil, I added the potatoes along with some salt. Once they were fork tender, I drained them and put them onto a baking sheet to dry out before using the bottom of a glass to smash them slightly.
Making Sauce: 25 minutes (started while potatoes boiled)
To make the sauce, I added the olive oil, onions, and paprika to a sauce pan, cooking until the onions softened. Once they were softened, I added the garlic, sugar, and crushed tomatoes. The sauce was then reduced before being blended until smooth using an immersion blender.
Baking Potatoes: 25 minutes
After I let the potatoes dry and I smashed them, I drizzled them with olive oil, sprinkled them with salt, and baked them for 25 minutes. Once done, I served them with the braves sauce and mayo.
Analysis:
The texture of these potatoes turned out pretty interesting. There is a vey nice crunch to the exterior of the potatoes with a nice soft interior. As far as flavor goes, the potatoes themselves taste like lightly seasoned potatoes (pretty good). The sauce is pretty flavorful with a slight spice. It has a nice tomato flavor with some added sweetness and onion flavor. If you mix the sauce with the mayo, it’s even better, adding some light creaminess (flavor not texture) and tang. The recipe says the mayo adds texture, but I don’t really see it that way. Overall, this recipe is mostly about the sauce. The potatoes are good, but nothing all that special. It is a unique way to cook potatoes, but it doesn’t do much else to elevate the potatoes by themself. I’d give this recipe a 8/10. You’ll probably end up with a bunch of left over sauce when you’re done with the potatoes, so you might need to get creative to use the rest of it (unless you just make more potatoes).
