Sunburned Gypsy's Arm

We saw a few seconds in a video "I'll Have What Phil's Having: Barcelona" of a rolled, stuffed potato thing (start at 20:45; by the way, Suculent is an excellent restaurant!). They called it "Gypsy's Arm". It looked like mashed potatoes topped with various brightly flavored vegetables, some tasty Spanish tuna (their canned stuff is amazing), the rolled up. It was then topped with aioli. I don't know why we were so attracted to it, but we were both determined to try and make it.

We searched the name and concentrated on the potato version rather than the Swiss Roll dessert version. Most of the searches ended up with people referring to Anya von Bremzen's book The New Spanish Table, but we couldn't "look inside the book" so we just winged it. The funny thing is that all the images we found on the web were garishly garnished, like 1950's American interpretations of overwrought French dishes.

We weren't enthusiastic about the colorful toppings so we decided to paint the finished roll with aioli -- as most recipes suggest -- but then brown it under the broiler to add some color, instead of the uniform golden sauce.

(Before we begin, I will apologize for the photos. I must have had the white-balance set very badly, the pictures came back unnaturally orange/yellow. Oddly, the videos came out properly tinted. The food looks much more appetising than these images suggest. Also, no: I do not know why Google's Blogger refuses to play the videos I've included here, from Google's own Photos application -- the arrow shows but it doesn't play the video, sorry.)

We cooked and riced potatoes, added a bit of milk to give it enough softness that it wouldn't crumble, then pressed them out on plastic film until it was mostly even.

We then topped it with a variety of flavorful vegetables including home grown padron peppers, marinated artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes in oil, chopped brined black olives, capers, and more. We then anointed it with a bit of home made sherry vinegar for brightness.

Now the hard part: rolling it up.  This is why I assembled it on the cling film. I brought the long edges up and over, trying to shape it with my hands as I lifted the sides -- I needed two more hands, but it eventually came together.

I then worked around the roll, tightening and evening it up, until it was a tolerable roll. I pinched and patted the ends closed and smoothed it out.

Irene had whipped up a garlic mayo -- aioli -- so I just painted it over the entire roll with a silicon pastfy brush, then sprinkled some pimenton (smoked paprika) on top.

A quick blast under the broiler -- really quick, the fat in the oil brows fast -- and we're done.

We served it with the potato still warm from the oven, with some endive.

The taste was very appealing: bright vegetables, filling tuna. The flavor profiles in fact remind me of a Salad Nicoise -- potatoes, green vegetables, tuna, briny olives and capers -- but this is inside out.

We had the rest of it the next day, cool from the fridge. The texture of the potatoes was better, more firm than the creamy mashed potato texture when it was warm. 

I'd definitely do this again (with better photos!): it's a great warm weather dish, perfect for sitting outside in the sun. I'll probably skip the browning step, but need some way to give the aioli some color without devolving to a 1950's technicolor look.