Basics: Panaderas Potatoes

Every cuisine has their “basic” necessities. From mother sauces to spice blends, there are just some basic recipes and fundamentals that are foundation of a dish. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned working at The Harvest Vine is the importance of knowing the basics before going on and trying to create your own dish. There is a reason that certain dishes have become what we know it as today and to know the foundation of that dish will help you understand how and why that dish was created. This now opens up a whole new world of possibilities because since you know how the dish works, you are able to put your own twist on them, making it your own while keeping it true to the original.

This post is about Panaderas potatoes. Panaderas is something that we always have on deck in our walk-in because we use it for a countless amount of ways. Essentially, Panaderas are round, thinly sliced (about 1/4″) potatoes that are sauteed in a good amount of oil until they are golden and soft. At my work, since we use it so often, we have found a good way to make a large batch by slowly confit the potatoes so we can use it whenever we need it.

My Panaderas Kit! (Pototatoes, Onions, Oil)

Using a mandolin (very carefully!), we thinly slice whole, peeled russet potatoes at about 1/4″. We then also do the same with onions and julienne them to the same thickness. And then layer the potatoes and onions in a half hotel pan until 3/4th filled. Then pour on olive oil to cover.

Layers of potatoes and onions create layers of flavor!

Pouring on that liquid gold!

The next step is to take a piece of parchment paper and to put a cartouche (Oh! Vocab word!), or to put it over the potatoes, onions, and oil to help ensure that steam doesn’t escape to help preserve the color of the potatoes and onions. This helps keep the potatoes and onions from carmelizing and turing brown. We then cover them with foil and place them into an oven set at 325F  to confit for about an hour until potatoes are tender.


When the potatoes are all the way tender, we take them out of the oil making sure we strain and SAVE all the oil for future panaderas making! We let them cool and then they are ready for use!!

MMM... Potatoes!

Ready to cool down then use!

Now we can heat up some panaderas and throw it in some whisked eggs to make a tortilla espanola  or we use it as the perfect side dish with some Grilled Fresh Cut from the Iberican Black Footed Pig. All we do is saute some garlic with these panaderas potatoes and then just season with salt and parley so we don’t take away from the focus of the greatest piece of pork you’ll ever have, but compliment it in only the best ways!

Tortilla Espanola Extravaganza!

2 thoughts on “Basics: Panaderas Potatoes

  1. Pingback: Beef Tongue: The Better Roast Beef | JustinCLegaspi

  2. Pingback: All About Eggs!: Tortilla Española | JustinCLegaspi

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