Patatas a lo rico

I spent a lot of my childhood holidays on the Costa del Sol, soaking up the Andalucian atmosphere. When I went to secondary school I chose Spanish as my second language (French was compulsory!), and ever since then Spain has been in my blood. I love the culture, and the food, although not their obsession with all things pork. As an adult I even spent a week living with a Spanish family, a holiday filled with memorable meals. They were worried I would be fussy, but the only thing I turned down was squid cooked in its own ink.

‘Patatas a lo pobre’ (Poor Man’s Potatoes) is a traditional rustic Spanish dish of potato slices slowly fried on olive oil with sliced onion and sweet peppers. It’s a common dish out in the countryside, where all of the ingredients would be home-grown – even to the glass of red wine that accompanies it. But although it may be frugal, it’s not short on flavour.

‘Patatas a lo rico’ (Rich Man’s Potatoes) is my ‘upgraded’ version, with chorizo.

Ingredients (serves 4)

200g cooking chorizo, sliced. 4 large potatoes (or a suitable number of smaller ones) 2 onions 1 large sweet pepper 2 cloves garlic A slug of olive oil 1 tsp paprika (pimentón in Spanish, optional)

Method Peel and slice the potatoes. You don’t want wafer-thin slices; about the thickness of a pound coin is fine. The rustic nature of the dish means that wonky slices are perfectly acceptable! Roughly chop the onion. De-seed the pepper and cut it into chunks. Peel and slice the garlic.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. When it’s hot enough to sizzle, throw everything in and fry slowly until the potatoes are cooked through and the onion is golden brown. If you have a lid for your frying pan then that will speed up the cooking process and save energy,