SPANISH OMELET - TORTILLA DE PATATAS

Spanish Omelet –Tortilla de patatas -  is probably one of our most famous dishes. It is pretty easy to cook, however it is true that it takes a while to prepare.

The ingredients are very simple: potatoes, eggs, onion, olive oil and salt. However adding onions or not it is up to you.

First of all you need to peel the potatoes. How many? Well, that is a very good question. I normally play by ear and if I have peeled too many then I will just cook more tortillas. But you can take as reference about two potatoes per person.

We need to cut the potatoes in small pieces. If it is easier for you it can small dices or just little chunks.

Cut one or two onions (depending on the amount of potatoes) as well in very small pieces.

Salt the potatoes before you cook them.

In a deep frying pan put enough olive oil to cover the potatoes. It is very important than you don’t preheat the oil, as if you do the potatoes will be overcooked in the outside but raw inside. Therefore we will start the stove once we put the potatoes inside the pan covered in oil.

At the same time that you put the potatoes you can add the onions, however I normally add it just a bit later as the potatoes take a lot longer to cook than the onions. But don’t wait too long or the onion won’t be cooked totally either.

We carefull and keep moving the potatoes and the onion while they fry so they don’t get stick into the pan or between them.

Once the potatoes are fried they will acquire a golden colour. There is no need to put them first on the oven or microwave, they will cook just fine in the pan.

In order to avoid the tortilla to be too oily I always remove the potatoes from the pan once they are finished.

In a separate bowl whisk some eggs. I normally make my tortillas of 4 eggs each, however my sister in law makes 8 eggs tortillas, it is really up to you.

Regarding if you should salt the eggs or not, try the potatoes, and if they are salty enough you don’t really need to add more salt.

Once the eggs are whisked you need to add the potatoes with the onions to the eggs. The quantity will depend, put enough potatoes so they are covered by the eggs, no more or the tortilla will be overstuffed and dry nor less or you will cook something but won’t be tortilla.

Don’t leave the potatoes inside the eggs for too long before cooking as they will be hot and the eggs will start to cook, and we don’t want that.

Choose a pan that it is enough to hold your tortilla, and one that you are sure can be covered by a plate so you can turn the tortilla over later on.

Put  a very small amount of olive oil in the pan, and make sure that all the pan has some oil in it. Switch on the stove and once the oil is hot please get rid of the extra oil.

Put your mixture of eggs, potatoes and onions in the hot pan. As explained in a previous post, make sure that the eggs don’t get stuck in the pan by moving the tortilla, but not with a wooden spoon or anything like that, just move the pan. And with a fork you can make sure the edges of the pan are not stick to the egg.

You will see that the colour of the eggs starts to change, that means that you need to turn the tortilla over.

Take the plate, cover the pan with it and hold the plate with one hand and the handle with the other. Place yourself on top of the sink, just in case. Firmly and quickly turn over the pan, so now the plate is underneath.

Put the pan back in the stove, if needed you can add a bit olive oil so the tortilla doesn’t get stuck to the pan.

Place the tortilla back in the pan, the part already cooked facing up.

You can turn the tortilla over as many times as you need, with your first attempts you might need to do it a couple of times. After a while you get used to the feel of the tortilla and the colour that should have once is cooked, so you won’t need it.

Once the tortilla is cooked just place it in a clean plate and it will be ready to enjoy!