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Tortilla Espanola

Source of Recipe

World Wide Recipes


Recipe Introduction

I got this recipe from WWRecipe e-zine - I'm sorry I don't have the person who submitted it, but I have copied it here just as she wrote it. It's a very good "tortilla."

Recipe Link: www.wwrecipes.com/

List of Ingredients

1 medium onion(optional) -- sliced
several cloves of garlic -- chopped
4 potatoes -- cut into smallishpieces (home-fries size, that is,thinnish slices no more than 4 cm. in diameter)
6 eggs, beaten with splash of water
salt
olive oil (no substitute)




Recipe

Slice onion and garlic, set in a bowl. Put sliced potatoes in another bowl. Set eggs in yet another bowl. Do not add salt before cooking, as salt toughens eggs. Use a heavy skillet about 12 inches (35 cm) in diameter. Heat it over a medium flame and pour in enough olive oil to fill the skillet to 1/2 inch or 1.5 cm deep. Add potatoes and cook a few minutes. Before they are entirely tender, add onion and garlic. Cook until onion is translucent but not browned and everything is tender and well mixed. Use a slotted spoon to drain and set mixture aside in a bowl. Salt generously to taste and mix well again.
Combine eggs with potato mixture. Pour off oil in skillet; wipe clean with a paper towel; return to heat; add fresh oil. Pour in potato mixture and shake skillet rapidly back and forth across burner to prevent the egg from sticking and burning. When the tortilla slides easily back and forth in the pan, lift it slightly with a spatula to make sure it is just nicely browned.

Slide omelette onto a plate. Wipe skillet and add a bit more oil. Quickly flip plate over skillet so raw side of tortilla is now turned over in the pan. Again, shake back and forth rapidly to prevent sticking and burning. When the bottom is nicely browned, slide it out onto a round serving platter. You can eat it hot or room temperature. Slice it into wedges like a pie.

For a meal, it could be the first course, followed by a second course of a grilled veal filete and some mixed green salad, or it could be the second course. In this case, the first course might be soup and the tortilla might be accompanied by the salad with some flaked, canned tuna added (no mayo!). Fresh fruit is always served for dessert. Try a lovely Valencia orange. And drink a good dry red Spanish wine such as Sangre de Toro, a Rioja from Torres. Your salad should be dressed simply with extra-virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar with a bit of salt and pepper. Forget the gooey stuff so beloved in the US if you want your tortilla meal to be authentic.

To take on a picnic, put it on a melamine plate and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap or foil. For a brown bag snack or lunch, slice open a long sandwich roll and put a wedge inside.



NOTES : Tortilla espanola is a tortilla de patatas--potato omelette. It is sold in every corner bar. You can have a wedge of it in a French-type roll, sliced open--this is a bocadillo de tortilla, or omelette sandwich. It is as ubiquitous in Spain as the grilled cheese sandwich is in the US. One may get a few small squares of it to accompany a glass of red wine. People make it at home for supper, or as a first course for dinner (the main meal is served at 2:00 P.M.) The tortilla also appears at endless picnics in parks, at the beach and in the mountains.