Patatas a la Riojana (p. 331)

Last night was Supper Club, and the theme this time around was root vegetables. People kept recommending I do a beet dish, but sadly, my cookbook only has one, and I have already made it. Flipping through the cookbook, I was looking for something that wouldn't need too much cooking time and I wouldn't have to buy a ton of ingredients for.

Patatas a la Riojano, or Potatoes Simmered in a Spicy Stew, became the clear winner. Once I got home from work last night, I started the onions sautéing in olive oil, leaving time to begin peeling and chopping the potatoes. The potatoes are cut into pretty thick slices and added to the onions (which at this point are smelling pretty divine) until they began to brown around the edges.

While the potatoes were browning, I removed the casing from the chorizo and cut it into chunks to add to the pot. After throwing a couple of cups of water in to the mixture, the potatoes began to soften up and slowly absorb all of the liquid. The flavors were rounded out with green pepper, parsley, paprika, and the pulp of several dried red New Mexico chilies.

I brought the steaming pot over to Supper Club where I heated it up for another 10 or so minutes before serving. I really enjoyed this dish; the spices seem very different from other items that I've prepared from the cookbook so far, and the chorizo was flavorful and delicious.

(And yes, I once again forgot to take a picture until it didn't look as yummy as it could have.)

Everything that we ate last night was great -- my supper club mates brought a beet salad, a potato and onion dish, pasta salad with veggies, ribs with a ginger root sauce, a delicious corn salad, and sweet potato dumplings for dessert.

potatoes -- $1.65 (with 3 left for some other dish)

chiles -- $1.99 (with about 6 chilies left)

green pepper -- $1.29

chorizo -- $9.99 (I'm sure I could have found this cheaper somewhere else, and I'll need to look in the future for a better option)

Total Cost of Patatas a la Riojana: $14.92