Papas Arragudas

Wrinkled Potatoes
(Papas Arragudas)

2 1/2 lb. small gold potatoes unpeeled (2-3" diameter)
3 1/2 oz. Sea salt
1) Wash the potatoes. Because they are in their 'jackets' you must wash
them well.
2) Put salt in a large saucepan
3) Add water to a depth of about 1 1/2"
3) Add potatoes (they do not have to be immersed in the water)
4) Cover the potatoes (not the pan) with a small diameter pot lid
5) Boil slowly for about 20 minutes.
6) Drain and steam dry over low heat. (a white salt layer should form on
the potatoes and they should be slightly wrinkled)
When finished, coat potatoes with a layer of mojo sauce and you have
Canarian "Papas con Mojo"

Mojo Sauce
Peel and section two whole, cloves of garlic
With a mortar a pestle add:
1 TB of cumin powder
1 TB of Hot Paprika
1/2 TB of sea-salt (optional)
Add a very little olive-oil and grind all of it into a paste
(make sure you grind out all the lumps of garlic!)
Scrape the mixture into a food processor and
add two whole Bell Red peppers, halved.
Pulse until a fairly thick consistency is reached.
add more olive oil to dilute as required or leave it as above for nice and spicey.
If too thin, add one slice of stale bread and pulse

Jim,

These recipes look like winners! My experience with papas arrugadas is that it's all in the potatoes. If you don't use good boiling taters, they won't wrinkle up no matter what you do to them. I'm going to get some peppers tomorrow and give these dishes a try. Thanks for posting a couple of recipes that I've never seen in print but have been trying to duplicate for quite some time.

Mr S.

Mr.S
They serve these in the Canary Islands as bar appetizers.
I liked them. Just have to be careful of the high salt content. Small potatoes are the key here, finger food.

Jim

These sound absolutely delicious, Jim. I can't wait to try them.
Are they served warm or at room temperature?
Would small red potatoes wrinkle as well? I was thinking of the small red creamer potatoes that are available in the Publix grocery stores here. They'd be the perfect size.
Rita

Rita,
I am not absolutely sure what creamer potatoes are. I have used small, baby red potatoes and they worked. I serve them warm, with a room temperature sauce. I think the pototes should really be warm or hot, but the suace can go either way.

Jim

Rita,

They can be eaten warm or at room temperature. I made some today using some small white potatoes that had been sitting in my pantry for quite a while and that were starting to look pretty funky. They were a bit soft to the touch and I had to break off some sprouts that were growing out of them. I had noticed last week when I was boiling some of them to make a potato salad that they wrinkled with ease, and they did so again today using Jim's technique. I wonder if letting them sit in the pantry for a couple of weeks might be a trick for getting them to wrinkle. Anyway, the papas were great, and I think that Jim's method of using a smaller diameter pot lid and just an inch and a half of salty water is the way to go.

I also made some mojo pic?n . I followed Jim's recipe, but I used whole cumin instead of the powder, which I pulverized in the mortar before adding the other ingredients, using coarse salt as a grinding medium. I increased the garlic to six cloves to help thicken the sauce and to give it some extra kick, and I added about a teaspoon of oregano and about a quarter cup of wine vinegar and about a half cup of extra virgin olive oil. The sweet red peppers we get here are better if they are first roasted and peeled, so I did that. I highly recommend this mojo to anyone who wants to try something new. It was delicious as a dipping sauce for the potatoes and slathered on our pulled pork sandwiches.

Buen provecho,

Mr S.

Jim -- The red creamers are a low-starch, high moisture potato, essentially the same as the regular red potatoes, just smaller, about 2 inches in diameter. If it worked on the reds, it'll work on the smaller ones, a good 1- or 2-bite size.

Mr. S -- Did you use smoked paprika in your mojo?

I'm getting my grocery list together now!
Rita

Rita,

Yes, I used the smoked Spanish piment?n . I used the sweet variety as I didn?t have any of the hot. I added a dash of cayenne to compensate.

Cheers,

Mr S.

Mr. S.
Have you made any attempts, at smoking your own paprika?

Jim