Tapas, From Scratch

This weeks From Scratch Weekends meal started to take shape when we received this bucket from our next door neighbor.  His wife insisted he wash them first, but we were outside and so he wanted to make sure we received them.

Not a problem!  Ryan was more than happy to do some scrubbing.  Better him than me because I fell earlier in the day and managed to sprain my ankle.  I am feeling much better know, which is a good thing.  I could barely sit still which made it hurt more and hard to have it actually heal.  

Enough of that, back to the potatoes.  All cleaned up and looking good!

Look at all the dirt that came off these.  No, this is not my kitchen sink.  Well, it's my kitchen sink, but not the one we use inside.  This is in our outdoor kitchen.  It was nice to see how fresh and freshly picked these potatoes were.

Since we had all these fresh potatoes, we knew that our From Scratch meal HAD to have potatoes.  Now, we just had to decide what to make.  After some thinking, we decided on some tapas since some of the most popular tapas involve potatoes.

If you are not familiar with tapas, these are small plate appetizers served all over Spain.  Menus usually include hot and cold versions and come in finger food sizes which are great for sharing.

These were the recipes we selected:

Starting with the stuffed tomatoes, we had to boil the eggs first for the filling.

Ryan made the tomato holders for the egg filling.

I made the egg salad.

We also had some major potato prepping to do.  Two of these recipes called for potatoes.  Which was of course what we were going for with so many potatoes now in our possession.

First up is the Tortilla Espanola.  All this really means is a potato and onion omelette.  This is super popular in Spain.  I ate it all the time when I was there.  Often this is served cold, and often it comes on bread.  We planned to eat it still on the warm side.  For this recipe, the potatoes needed to be thinly sliced.  Thank goodness for the cheese slicer/grater.

The onions had to be finely chopped.  I lasted for a bit, but then my eyes were just gushing with tears.

The recipe called for 3 large eggs, but I decided to do 4 instead because my eggs looked small.

Ryan was in charge of the act of omeletting.

It smelled so good at this point.

Then the eggs were added.

Ryan was going to flip it sans pan, but I encouraged him to use the pan.  While I have lots of faith in his flipping skills, you can see above it was majorly runny and I wanted to avoid all unnecessary messes at all costs.

He did an awesome job flipping.

Yum!

Next up, potato chunks for the Patatas Bravas.  This is also very popular and consists of a spicy sauce on these fried potatoes.  I think I order these every time I am at a tapas bar.

The sauce was fairly easy.  Heck, even I could make it.  

Minced and onions and garlic were sauteed in oil, then removed from the heat and paprika, thyme and 

hot sauce were then added.

Ok, here is where it gets gross.  The above mixture was then added to mayo and ketchup.  Two of my least favorite items (too much fat and sugar, respectively) but I was just following directions, so in it all went.  I will say, it tasted very good and I really do not like mayo.  I guess the other flavors helped it a ton.

Ryan fried up the potatoes.

Not too crispy despite frying, but we think it has to do with the type of potatoes we used.  These were then coated in the brava sauce.

At last, dinner was served!  Now, the only thing missing from the authentic Spanish tapas meal was sangria.  We improvised and stayed within the Spanish speaking family of beverages, and instead made some margaritas.

So, here you have it:

Stuffed tomatoes...

Patatas bravas...

and Tortilla Espanola...

Look at my beautiful, from scratch and super local dinner.

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever eaten at a tapas restaurant?  Tapas in Spain?  What is your favorite way to eat potatoes?