Spanish Tortilla

Version española

One classic: tortilla de patatas (Spanish potato omelet). I hope all non Spanish fans of the blog will enjoy this recipe ... if you ever try to do a tortilla following my recipe, add a comment to the blog telling us how it went! You could even send us a photo of the result ... we would really love it :D

I must warn you: each Spanish home has its own tortilla recipe. They are all pretty similar to mine (my mom's in fact) but not exactly the same. Some people add pepper or chorizo ... others do not use onions (which I personally adore in this recipe!). So just tell you that you can innovate and change the recipe and it will still be a typical Spanish tortilla! :)

Before we start:

• Difficulty: easy-medium
  
• Preparation time: 20 min
• Cooking time: 20-30 min
  
• Cost: very cheap
• Origin: Spain
  
• Recipe obtained from: my mom
  

Ingredients (serves 2):

1. 4 big potatoes
2. 2 eggs
3. 1 onion
4. A lot of olive oil
5. Salt

Preparation:

• Cut the onion in half and then thinly slices. Now peel the potatoes using a potato peeler, cut it in halves and slice each half them into thin half-rounds. When they are sliced, rub them in a clean tea cloth to get them dry. If the potatoes are going to wait a bit until you cook them, you can keep them in water.

• Next, fill half the frying pan with olive oil and heat it. When hot, add the potatoes and onions (the potatoes need to be submerged in the oil).
  
• Toss them around in the oil to get a good coating, then turn the heat down to its medium-low setting, put a lid on the frying pan and let the onions and potatoes cook gently for 20 minutes, or until tender.
  
• Turn them over halfway through and shake the pan from time to time, as they should not brown, but just gently stew in the oil.

• When the onions and potatoes are cooked (test them with a knife to see if they are tender), get them out of the frying pan and put them on a sieve over 10 min to get rid of as much oil as possible. Meanwhile, whisk the eggs into a large bowl.
  
• Then transfer the potatoes to the eggs in the bowl, mix thoroughly and add salt as desired. Taste the mix to verify the salt.
  
• Put the olive oil that is left on a bowl (it is still useful for cooking tortillas any other day!)
  

• Put the frying pan back on the heat, add the rest of the oil and turn the heat up to medium. When the frying pan is hot, pour the potatoes-eggs mix into the frying pan. It needs to cook for over 5-7 minutes.
  

• When the edge of the omelette is golden and it does not stick to the pan, draw the edge in gently with a palette knife. Turn it over to cook the other side.

• And how do we do that?
  

• Give it about 4 minutes more. It should then be cooked through but still moist in the centre. Serve hot or cold, cut in wedges, with a tomato salad and a glass of Spanish red wine!

Comments:

Carefully choose your pan to do the tortilla. It needs to be smaller than the plate you are going to use to turn the tortilla over ... if it is not the case you will have potatoes and eggs all over the kitchen :)
Ideally the pan with a base measurement of 20 cm is perfect (even smaller). If it is too big, it will be hard to turn it over because of the weight.
Try not to use a pan with "open borders" (like the one in the photograph) since it will prevent the edge of the tortilla to get gold and it will make it more difficult for you to turn the mix over.