Spanish comfort food (my mom's style)

 

Comfort food is something that I crave during cold winter days. To get a nice bowl of some hot and comforting food is one of the best feelings in the world. And that feeling is complete when I come back to one of our family's recipes for such days.

All my mom's family is from a tiny village in the mountains of Burgos (North of Spain), Riocabado de la Sierra. This tiny village survived with the crops the land produced (not a long season, since the weather gets really nasty in fall and spring arrives late), and mostly sheep herds. As in most of the north in Spain, the main carbs source were potatoes: easy to store during wintertime and extremely versatile, they were a clear winner. Also as in most part of my country, during November/December all the families would kill one or more of their pigs to prepare their meats for the long winter season. This originated the famous pork preserves from Spain: jamon, chorizo, lomo and more.

In my mother's family it was very normal to prepare something with potatoes and some pork product as chorizo or jamon then, as my grandmother used to say: "mainly potatoes, the pork is just to give some flavor hint!".

This recipe is proof that comfort food does not have to be unhealthy or time consuming. It can be prepared quickly, and even with a couple of tricks (in the notes below), you can speed up the process for busy week nights.

Patatas al estilo de mi madre - Potatoes (my mom's style)

Ingredients

• Potatoes: 4 large
• Green pepper: 1 (see notes)
• Garlic: 2-3 cloves 
• Spanish paprika (see notes)
• White rice (optional): 1/2 cup 
• Spanish chorizo: 100 grams (see notes)
• Bay: 1 leaf
• Olive oil
• Salt

Preparation

Peel the garlic cloves and cut them in slices. Clean the pepper, getting the veins and seeds out, cut it in small cubes. Peel the potatoes and cut them in chunks. Here is a big trick to achieve a way better broth at the end: instead of slicing them all the way through, try cutting only half of the chunk, then tear apart the rest of it. This way of cutting the potatoes is called "chascar" in Spanish, for the sound that the potato flesh makes when you tear them. This will promote the starch of the potato to get into the broth, so instead of having a clear soup, you'll end up with a way tastier stew-like result.  

Heat 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil in a dutch oven, and when it's hot fry the garlic and pepper over medium heat fire until it is tender, 3-4 minutes approx. Toss the chorizo cut in small pieces (or substitute - see notes), and fry it for 1 minute extra. Add the potatoes and toss around to cover them in the mix, 1 minute. Add 1 teaspoon of Spanish paprika and toss quickly to avoid the paprika to get burnt. If you are adding rice, add it now.

Cover the potatoes with water (water level should be just under the potatoes, add a little bit more if you add rice and control the water level while cooking). Add salt to the taste and bay leaf.

Leave it simmer until the potatoes are tender, 15 to 20 minutes. You can eat it directly or let it sit for 1 hour or so (and reheat slowly after), it will be really better!

Enjoy!

Notes:

Potatoes

For this dish, I like Yukon potatoes, since they give a lot of flavor to the dish, and they remind me of the ones my grandma or mom would use. In any case, avoid the red potatoes, they don't release as much starch as needed for this recipe.

Green pepper

In Spain we mostly use Italian green pepper for cooking (rather than bell pepper), so for this recipe I prefer to use Cubanelle or Poblano peppers (the first one if I go for the sweetness, the second if I look for a hint of spice).

Spanish paprika

This paprika is not as the one you can find in non-Spanish supermarkets under the 'paprika' label. It differs in having a very distinctive smoky flavor: if you even have tried the chorizo from Spain, you'll know what I'm referring to. In US I have found it in some specialty spice shops (as this one), or in the uber ubiquitous Amazon (as this one).

Chorizo
My mom uses mostly chorizo or panceta (similar to the Italian pancetta) for this recipe. The idea is to add a little bit for flavor, but not to overwhelm it with meat. You can even try to do it with good bacon, just avoid flavored bacon since it will add different taste to the final result.
And be careful, you are not looking for Mexican chorizo (not cured), but Spanish chorizo, cooking type. I like the one of Palacios brand (imported), and I find it in my local supermarket. You can find it in Amazon too (here).
If you don't eat meat or pork, just go without. I have made it many times and it's really good! The key for the flavor is on the veggies and paprika, not in the meat...

Tricks for weeknight dinner

One of my mom's tricks to accelerate this recipe is to prepare in advance a medium/large batch of the veggies/meat part. Just cook the garlic+pepper, add meat and cook it together. If you let it get cold, you can freeze it in small batches, and then just take them out when needed and defrost it in the dutch oven directly. Once it's ready, continue adding the potatoes. It will cut down the prep time!

How to store it
This recipe does not freeze well, since it was potatoes. But you can eat it later during the day or even the day after with very good results: the flavor profile will get more complex as the time goes on. Just be careful with storing it in the fridge, since the potatoes can get stale in the cold.