Microwave Patatas a Lo Pobre (Poor Man's Potatoes)

You took a quick coffee at 7 o'clock in the morning. You had a small 5 minute break at your workplace, enough to wait in the line for the coffee machine, search a lonely corner, put off your facemask and take a quick dip of the hot beverage. When you arrive home at 4 o'clock you feel hungry. Should you cook some instant noodles? Maybe a can of baked beans?

Here is a solution: "Patatas a lo pobre", a Spanish recipe for a simple potato meal, adapted to microwave.

Edibles:

• Some potatoes (I use one per person).
• Olive oil (If it is too expensive in your country, replace with sunflower oil).
• Either Onion or garlic (If you use onion, you can use your baked potatoes to make a Spanish potato omelet).
• Salt

Tools:

• Microwave (traditional recipe uses oven but lasts hours).
• Chopping knife.
• Peeler (you can replace it with peeling knife if you are skilled).
• Cutting board
• A microwave-safe container with a lid. I use either a tempered-glass bowl with lid or a silicone pot with lid.

Wash the potato to remove excess dirt from its skin.

Peel it using the peeler.

Wash the peeled potato.

Cut your potato into thin slices. Don't make them too thin. About 3 or 4 mm is right (see photo).

We don't want crispy potatoes. We just want some texture. Which is why we will not rinse slices into water: we'll keep the starch.

Chop some onion and add it to the potatoes. The photo shows half an onion, but I only used about an eight of it (half the half of the quantity in the photo). I just find easier to chop half an onion at once and freeze the remaining for later use.

Add some olive oil. About a teaspoon of it. You just want to make sure all the potatoes are dipped in the oil.

Add some salt.

Optional: put the lid in your container and shake it to mix all ingredients.

Put the lid on your bowl.

Put the bowl in your microwave oven.

Set the microwave oven for 6 minutes at max power (800W-1000W). Actual power is different from microwave to microwave, so it is a matter of trial and error.

This is the final result. These potatoes have a texture a bit softer if you compare with those used as garnish in roasted lamb/pig, but a bit harder compared with boiled potatoes. Personally, I like that texture.

Serving suggestions:

• You can use these potatoes as garnish with a fried egg or a steak.
• The cooked potatoes you get with this recipe can be used as the starting point for a Spanish potato omelette if you add them to a bown of whipped egg, let dip for 5 minutes, and then cook the mix in a saucepan. The tricky point of making a potato omelette is turning the omelette, and I am not very skilled at it.