Spanish original Brava Sauce
Brava sauce (salsa brava), is one of the most famous sauces of Spanish cuisine. Cooked in many various ways in several regions or even in different restaurants from the same place, it is an essential component of a tapas evening with friends. Besides preparing it alongside the traditional potatoes, it is a sauce that goes amazingly well with both fish and meat.
Brava sauce
For our version of this renowned brava sauce, the protagonist is undoubtedly the pimentón (Spanish paprika) and there’s no need for a tomato sauce. It is a very simple method that will only take you around 15 minutes. We suggest serving with some boiled fried potatoes, but prepare them the way you want.With this recipe, you will get a flavourful sauce that family and friends will adore. Give it a go.
Ingredients
- 1 white onion
- 4-6 medium potatoes
- 1 teaspoon white pepper
- 4 tablespoons Spanish pimentón (ideally a mixture of spicy and mild, if you can’t find pimentón use regular paprika although it will not be the same)
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 300 mL chicken stock (vegetable stock to make it vegan)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Roughly cut the onion. You don’t need to do this very thoroughly since we will use a blender at the end.In a pan with olive oil at medium heat, add the onion and a pinch of salt.
- Once the onion is translucent and soft, we add the flour and mix everything very well with the oil.
- After two minutes of cooking, we incorporate the white pepper and pimentón.
- Mix very well so that the flour is well-cooked but making sure the pimento does not get burnt.Do this for 2-3 minutes.
- Now is the moment to start adding the stock very slowly.
- Firstly, the flour will absorb all the liquid very quickly and will acquire a consistency quite dense. This is completely normal.
- We simply have to continue adding the stock progressively and it will become more fluid.
- So, once we have used all the stock, the sauce in the pan should have a fairly liquid consistency. If that is not the case we can add some water.Once this is achieved, it is just a matter of letting the sauce reduce to your desired density.Then, remove the pan from the heat and transfer the content to a tall recipient for hand-blending.
- Use the blender to fully incorporate the onion to the sauce, make sure it is homogeneous and taste to see if it needs more salt.Now the sauce is ready.
- Now it is just a matter to serving it with some potatoes, meat, fish…And… that’s it!
Notes
– We really love serving this amazing sauce with potatoes that are boiled first and then fried. That way the interior is soft and the exterior crispy.
– You can also just fry some potatoes, use frozen ones…whatever you prefer.
Love it! it reminds me of my time a few years ago in a tapas place in Seville with some friends.
The only reason I give it 4 starts instead of five is because it’s difficult to find Spanish paprika
Martha, thank you for your kind comment. We agree sometimes getting pimentón is quite difficult, that’s why we suggest using paprika instead if you can’t find it.
However, we understand it is not the same 🙂