Patatas a lo pobre

Fried potatoes with green peppers

This could roughly be translated as "Poor man’s potatoes" and is a simple dish of slowly fried potatoes, green peppers and onions. A more substantial version is called "Plato Alpujarreño" (named after the Alpujarra mountains just south of Granada where it is traditionally served) Pieces of Spanish spicy chorizo sausage and black pudding are added at the end along with a couple of fried eggs. The recipe below is for the simple version: Here in Andalucia this is a typical dish which is served in a "venta". A "venta" is a small simple restaurant in the country where city dwellers go out with their family or friends to eat in the country usually on a Sunday and normally in the open air.

INGREDIENTS:

4 large potatoes, thinly sliced (leave in water for about 20 minutes to get rid of the starch and then drain)
1 green pepper, either roughly chopped or cut into thick strips

1 onion, roughly chopped

about ½ litre olive oil

salt

RECIPE:
Heat the olive oil in a large, deep frying pan. Add the potatoes and season with salt. Fry on a high heat for 5 minutes, turning the potatoes over, and then turn the heat right down. Put a lid on the pan and gently fry for 10 minutes. Add the green pepper and onion and give everything a good stir. Cover the pan and leave to fry gently for another 10 minutes. Check from time to time to make sure that they are not sticking too much to the bottom of the pan.

At the end of this time look to see whether the potatoes are cooked and taste for salt, adding more if necessary. The idea is for the potatoes to be soft but with some of them a bit crispier to add to the flavour. If the potatoes are not cooked, put the lid back on and leave for another 5 minutes or so. Remove the potatoes from the pan with a slatted spoon and serve.