'Estofado' or 'Patatas Guisadas'

Today I'm going to tell you about El Estofado (stew) or Patatas Guisadas (essentially stewed potatoes).

I think there is a difference between the two, apart from the name of course, but in the South they call Patatas Guisadas 'Guiso de Carne' or meat stew. It's usually made with beef and chicken, with potatoes and other vegetables (its all about preference). I don't think it's very common outside of Andalucía to call it Patatas Guisadas, I think it sounds better as 'Patatas Cocidas' but it doesn't have anything to do with it so when we are speaking with someone from another part of Spain and they don't understand Patatas Guisadas we usually say "Estofado? (stew)" and then they know roughly what we're talking about.

It's a delicious recipe that's easy to do and has a bit of everything. You must get the seasoning right, especially as potatoes are the main ingredient so there is definitely that risk. Also, it's cheap to make and you can even leave out the beef and just put in chicken, it's still really good. It's a typical recipe for the Winter, something you'll find being made in every Andalusian kitchen.

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Ingredients

• 1 small or medium onion, or 1/2 a large one.
• 1 green pepper.
• 1 or 2 tomatoes, depending on the size.
• 1 carrot.
• Bay leaves.
• Salt and Pepper.
• Chopped parsley.
• 2 cloves of garlic.
• Food Colouring (you can find it in any supermarket but it's not completely necessary because it doesn't add to the flavour but it does add something special to the dish and makes it more like the real thing. Don't worry, it's all natural as well). You could also use saffron that not only adds colour but lots of flavour too. It's more expensive too, it's known as 'the gold spice' but is typically Spanish too (more specifically, I'd firstly like to add that true saffron is only found in Spain, in Castile - La Mancha.
• 1 large bottle of white wine.
• Just under 1kg of potatoes, more or less 4 or 5 of medium size.
• 1/4 of chicken
• 1/4 of stewing beef (you'll find it easily in any supermarket, just ask for "stewing beef" or something along those lines, and if not they are missing out, it's very common here).

Method

1. Cut up the onion and put it in the pan with some oil leaving them to sweat out. When they are done, add the green pepper you should have already chopped up, and then after 5 or so minutes add the tomato, carrot and the garlic. This will be what we call 'el sofrito' in the kitchen (it should already start to smell amazing, making you want to eat it without adding anything else). With all the vegetables, they should of course have already been chopped up finely before adding them to the pan.
2. Prepare and then add the meat. When it has colour you can add the wine and all of the spices (parsley, pepper, bay leaves). Reduce down the wine until it becomes thick and creamy (it's easy to tell, the liquid starts to thicken and you don't have to know how to cook to notice it, so don't worry). At this point, add the potatoes; beforehand cut them up into an uneven, but fairly big, size. Straight away add the water until it covers everything in the pan, about a finger and a half the way up (basically, enough water as to cover everything).
3. Once it starts to boil, lower it to a medium-low heat, make sure it's not the lowest, until the potatoes are soft (between 15 and 25 minutes depending on how you prepared the potatoes. Keep testing until your knife or fork goes through easily).

Tips

• Add the colouring with the water. The potatoes should sit in a little broth, not something watery, although some people prefer it with no liquid whatsoever/very thick sauce. The sauce needs to be pretty thick anyway, with no liquid whatsoever, as it tastes better like this.
• You can't freeze this dish as the potatoes keep cooking and eventually become tasteless. You can however pop it in the fridge for dinner later on, or even the next day. Another way to stop it from going to waste is to mash it up and turn it into a puree. It's delicious!
• Of course you can always make it vegan/vegetarian (but without any meat it won't taste of much), just skip the step about adding meat. Also, the more vegetables the better! A lot of people put in artichoke, another typical ingredient, but I don't like it so I didn't include it in this recipe.

Enjoy!

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