Bravas Sauce & Leek Tortilla Pinchos, An Altogether Different Sort of BLT

This month's Creative Culinary Crew challenge, hosted as ever by the lovely and talented Joan of Foodalogue and Lazaro of Lazaro Cooks, was deceptively simple: Come up with a new version of the classic BLT sandwich. The catch? Participants were forbidden to use bacon, lettuce, or tomato to fulfill the BLT requirement.

Right, then. That's as easy as plugging in any old foodstuff that begins with a B, an L, and a T, yes? Ah, but there's the rub: such a random approach would not only (in my opinion) lead to an uninspired kitchen-sink mess of a sandwich (barnacles, liver, & turmeric, anyone?) it would result in a dish completely lacking in context.

And so the trick with this challenge was to come up with a sandwich that both makes culinary sense in its own right, but also happens to contain the correct ingredients which allow it to be dubbed a "BLT."

I found my solution to this conundrum in my recent trip to Madrid, where I devoured my weight in pinchos, essentially open-faced tapas-style sandwiches, and tapas of all stripes.

Spicy bravas sauce is most commonly found in a potato dish alongside garlicky mayo (and, potato freak that I am,  I enjoyed this dish many, many times in a number of different iterations) but it also makes an appearance on that classic Spanish tapa, the tortilla. The Madrileno version typically contains potatoes and onions, but I needed an "L," so mine has leeks. To keep things light, I omitted the potatoes.

Pretty little pinchos, all in a row!

I wanted to recreate the flavor of a particular bravas sauce that I had, so rather than make it tomato-based, I did a Catalonian version based on red peppers. I make no claims to authenticity, but this did taste very much like what I had in Madrid.

This is definitely a taste-as-you-go kind of deal, but here's the general idea: Combine 3 roasted red peppers, 2 cloves of garlic, a splash of sherry vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon smoked hot Spanish paprika, a pinch of Cayenne, salt, and a glug of olive oil. Puree, adding enough olive oil to create a pourable consistency, and add salt to taste.

For the tortilla: In an  8 inch non stick skillet, saute 3 chopped leek in olive oil, along with a pinch of salt,  until soft. Remove and wipe the pan. Gently fold the leeks and some chopped chives into 5 whipped eggs. Get the pan good and hot, and pour in the eggs. Reduce heat to medium-high and cook for 5 minutes. Now - don't be scared! - flip the tortilla onto a plate (it will still be a bit wiggly and runny) with, as Julia Child would say, the courage of your convictions. Slide it back into the pan and cook for an additional few minutes. Done!

If you don't feel like making sandwiches, you can always serve the tortilla on its own, with or without the sauce. Before I cut it up and turned it into pinchos, it looked like this:

 But this is a BLT sandwich challenge after all, so I suggest you do this:

And make sure to wash them down with - what else? - a lovely Spanish wine.

To check out a whole world of BLT creations, make sure to visit Lazaro Cooks when he posts the round up on April 29!