Dinner March
Chef Sara Moulton has a recipe to celebrate the season’s yield of potatoes.
Spanish Style Crispy Potatoes with Garlicky Red Pepper Sauce is a streamlined take on a Spanish classic called patatas bravas — deepfried chunks of potato with a spicy tomato sauce and/or aioli — sort of like the Spanish equivalent of french fries. But given that most folks aren’t keen on firing up a big vat of boiling oil, I’ve engineered a baked version. It’s not quite as crispy as the fried, but it comes close.
How to make crispy potatoes without frying? Here are a few tricks: First, partially cook the potato slices in simmering water with a bit of baking soda, which makes the exteriors of the potatoes slightly mushy and releases their starch and sugar. Then toss the hot potatoes in a bowl with oil and salt, which encourages a starchy film to accumulate on the potatoes’ exterior. When the potatoes are roasted, all of that starch and sugar on the outside helps to form a crispy brown crust.
As for the lip-smacking sauce — a mix of pureed red peppers, smoky paprika and garlic mayo — you can drizzle it on top of the potatoes or set it on the side as a dip.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Sara Moulton is host of public television’s “Sara’s Weeknight Meals.” She was executive chef at Gourmet magazine for nearly 25 years and spent a decade hosting several Food Network shows including “Cooking Live.” Her latest cookbook is “HomeCooking 101.”