Challenge me: What type of cuisine or food should I try next?
This is an A to Z challenge review…but first—food:
It was a weekday, and my friend Margaret and I were lamenting this statistical majority after work by drinking sangria, eating patatas bravas at our local Spanish tapas bar called Andaluz, and puzzling out the ingredients in the dish’s spice mix.
Side note: If you go to your friend and say, “Ugh! I’m having such a bad Tuesday! Let’s go to the tapas bar and get a drink.” And they agree (albeit hesitantly), only to give a heavy sigh of relief upon arrival, exclaiming, “Oh thank god...tapas!!! I thought you said topless!” Friendship Law dictates you buy said friend a glass of sangria.
I’ve since eaten at several Spanish tapas bars after moving to CA, and have had enough versions of this dish that I can venture to say our Oregonian España might not be super authentic… but… this dish no less tasty.
Patatas Bravas (Spice Mix)
Special Ingredients: smoked paprika
- 5 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 2 tsp Cumin powder
- 1 tsp Garlic powder
- 1 tsp Onion powder
- 1 tso ground Black Pepper
- 1 tsp Salt (and more to taste)
Note: Use a mortar and pestle to crush the salt into a fine powder, this will help it blend with the other spices better. - 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
Mix and add toss on lightly-oiled roasted potato wedges. Or, on a particularly lazy day, add all the spice to frozen tater tots by shaking violently in a ziploc bag until well coated, cook per instructions. OR…make your own tator tots.
Serve with roasted garlic aioli, or…ranch, because you’re from Oregon and ranch is the ketchup of the West.
