Spanish Entree
PATATAS BRAVAS
(spicy potatoes)
INGREDIENTS
3 garlic cloves
½ onion
2 Roma tomatoes
1 tablespoon flour
½ cup water
5 medium russet potatoes
½ teaspoon pepper
½ teaspoon salt
2 ½ tablespoons olive oil (½ cup more later)
¾ teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons Spanish paprika (or paprika)
¼ teaspoon thyme
½ teaspoon sugar
½ cup olive oil
½ tablespoon parsley
PREPARATION
Mince garlic cloves, onion, and tomatoes. Add flour to ½ cup water. Stir until flour dissolves. Put potatoes in large pot and cover them with water. Bring to boil using high heat. Reduce heat to medium and cook for 20 minutes or until potatoes are soft. Carefully remove potatoes and let them cool. Cut potatoes into 1″ cubes. Add potato cubes, pepper, and salt to mixing bowl. Turn potato cubes until they are coated with pepper and salt.
Add 2½ tablespoons olive oil and garlic, onion, and cayenne pepper to pan. Sauté at medium-high heat for 5 minutes or until onion softens and garlic browns. Stir frequently. Reduce heat to low. Add tomato, paprika, thyme, sugar, and dissolved flour. Simmer on low heat for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
While tomato/garlic/onion/spice mix simmers, add ½ cup olive oil and potato cubes to second pan. Sauté on high heat for 5-to-10 minutes or until potatoes turn golden brown. Stir constantly Remove potato cubes and place them on paper towels to remove excess oil. Put potatoes in bowls and top with tomato sauce. Garnish with parsley.
TIDBITS
1) Gerona, Spain has a dating agency for pets. Happy Animals caters to lovelorn dogs, cats and birds. The mind boggles.
2) You are more likely to be robbed in Spain than anywhere else.
3) Sure, with all those cash-strapped Spaniards needing to pony up big Euros for their animals’ social lives.
4) However, Spain started paying women around a thousand dollars for each baby they have. If they want, the señoras can spend their money at Happy Animals. Maybe with all that extra cash, the robbery rate will fall.
5) If robbery rates fall, people can spend the money they would have spent on alarm systems for their homes on romantic dinners.
6) If Spanish couples have enough romantic dinners, they will have more babies.
7) It costs money to raise babies. A lot more than $1,000. The money to pay for these kids will have to come from somewhere.
9) From cutting out Doggy Dating Centers or taking up robbery. Tough choice.
10) Most Spanish women will curtail their dogs’ love lives.
11) But not all. Home burglaries will soar. Spanish families will have to spend more money on home security. Where will they get the money for all these alarms?
16) From robbing people’s homes. Spaniards will spend ever more money protecting their abode.
17) This will spiral out of control. Lawlessness will stalk the land.
18) The Spanish government will have to step in. The army will have to patrol every home on every street to keep order.
19) But not for long. Spanish families will have no money to pay their taxes. They will have spent it all on burglar alarms. The Spanish government won’t be able to pay its army. Mutinies will break out among the soldiers. This will occur in small units at first. Nothing will coordinated. But the trend will be unmistakable.
20) Where will the authorities get the money to pay its fighting men?
21) From saffron. Saffron costs seven dollars a gram. It’s far more expensive than oil.
22) How will the Spanish get enough saffron to pay its army?
23) By invading Iran. Iran is a huge producer of saffron. Won’t Iran fight back? Yes, it will.
24) And that’s bad. Iran could very well develop nuclear weapons in the near future. Iran also has lots of enemies who will inevitably be drawn into the Spanish-Iranian War. The war will spread until it becomes global. We will have Armageddon.
25) That’s bad. So, let your pets find their own soul mates. It’ll be character building experience for them and save the world as well. Remember, the culinary arts will the first to go after the apocalypse.
– Paul De Lancey, The Comic Chef
My cookbook, Following Good Food Around the World, with its 180 wonderful recipes, my newest novel, Do Lutheran Hunks Eat Mushrooms, a hilarious apocalyptic thriller, and all my other books, are available on amazon.com.
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