Patatas Bravas Madrilenas

Patatas bravas are Madrid's bar potatoes: rough cubes fried until the edges crackle under the fork, then crowned with salsa brava, a red sauce built from pimenton, stock, vinegar, and heat. What makes them bravas is not a sweet tomato sauce and not a stripe of mayonnaise. The sauce should bite cleanly, the potatoes should stay crisp where the sauce hits, and the plate should disappear fast.

The sauce is the argument here. Cook the onion slowly first, a little sofrito, the slow onion base, until it turns dark gold and soft. Then the pimenton goes in gently, off fierce heat, because scorched pimenton turns bitter in seconds. Flour thickens it, hot stock loosens it, vinegar wakes it up. That is the small thing that decides whether the sauce tastes round and sharp, or raw and dusty.

No hace falta haber pisado Espana. If you can't find pimenton de la Vera, use a good smoked paprika with a pinch of cayenne; it won't have the same deep smoke, but it will carry the dish honestly. For the potatoes, Agria is lovely, Kennebec is good, Yukon Gold or Maris Piper work well far from Madrid. Pésalo, no lo adivines. The Margin in my notebook says only this: no ketchup. Dry advice, but useful.

Fry the potatoes once low to cook them through, then again hot to crisp them. Sauce at the last moment, not half an hour before, unless you like brave potatoes turned tired. Siempre sale, si lo sigues.