Jersey Royals patatas bravas-ish
Do you hear that crackling sound? That’ll be your shoulders searing under the sun while you wrestle through a seventh round of Uno, Fanta Limón warming beside you, a plate of patatas bravas on the horizon.
- 1kg Jersey Royal potatoes, scrubbed clean
- Salt
- Olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 chilli, finely chopped
- 2 tsp smoked paprika
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
- 1 tsp honey
- Salt
- 200g crème fraîche
- 2 cloves garlic, finely grated
- Juice of ½ lemon
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- Salt
- Guindilla chillies
- Place the Jersey Royals in a pan of cold, salted water. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 15–20 minutes until tender. Drain, toss with a little olive oil.
- While the potatoes cook, heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, chilli and smoked paprika and cook for 10 minutes, until soft and fragrant. Stir in the chopped tomatoes, sherry vinegar, honey and a good pinch of salt. Simmer for 20 minutes until thickened and reduced, adding a splash of water if it starts to catch.
- In a bowl, mix the crème fraîche with the garlic, lemon juice, dijon mustard and a pinch of salt until smooth. Set aside.
- To serve, arrange the potatoes on a platter. Spoon over the spiced tomato sauce and dot with garlic crème fraîche. Serve with a pile of guindilla chillies.
These days, summer lands with a more local thud. But I find the spirit of longer, warmer days can still be evoked with a generous plate of sauce-slicked spuds eaten outside with a cold beer (and sometimes a brolly). This recipe is my English homage to the Spanish classic – less Madrid bar and more windy picnic spot in Zone Four – but it makes the most of Jersey’s finest export: the Jersey Royal potato. Grown close to the sea in light, well-drained soils using seaweed harvested from Jersey beaches as a natural fertiliser (locally known as vraic), these potatoes have a delicate, saline flavour and buttery texture that doesn’t need much culinary intervention. Harvested from the end of March through to July, this is the perfect time to grab yourself a bag of muddy spuds, give them a scrub and lace up your apron.
Unlike traditional patatas bravas, these potatoes aren’t fried but boiled in well-salted water (starting cold, so they don’t turn to mush), then tossed in olive oil. The tomato sauce is thick, smoky and paprika-laced – it should cling rather than pour. Instead of faffing about with an aioli that might split at the eleventh hour, I go for a garlic-spiked crème fraîche. Lighter, pleasingly sour, and far less needy. These make the perfect summer barbecue side, but they’re just as happy topped with fried eggs or served with a few slices of ham for a full, vaguely continental meal.
