Spanish Potato Tortilla or Omelet


This is one of my wife’s favorite Tapas (or can be eaten as a side dish). It is pretty universally available in Spain, and we enjoyed several varieties while in Barcelona. Here are two basic recipes from the web. I’ll mention a few things below that you can play around with, and a few caveats to the cooking from my experience.

http://spanishfood.about.com/od/tapas/r/tortilla.htm

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/spanish_potato_tortilla.aspx

First: Yukon gold potatoes are GREAT! for this recipe, so I highly recommend them. When we visited our friends in Barcelona (Thanks Pato and Santi!) we had some of these (or something very like them) that I made garlic mashed potatoes with.

Be sure you use a Non-Stick frying pan if you have one – I didn’t once, and it didn’t flip very well. If you don’t, then use an oil that doesn’t stick as readily (olive oil tends to stick), Canola oil works better.

On cooking the potatoes – a bit easier method than pre-frying them , and then frying the omelet (lots of frying and oil!) – is to par-boil the sliced potatoes. Make sure if you do this that they are not really soft – get them out when just barely cooked through and drain thoroughly, pat dry. Then you can skip to the tortilla or omelet part after you lightly sauté the onions (and optional garlic).

Have fun playing with this recipe. There are lots of possible variations:

Adding sautéed peppers

I added some sautéed edible pod peas once

Some grated parmesan or other hard cheese is nice mixed in.

Or you can add some melted cheese atop at the end.

In moderation you can add a variety of vegetables to make it healthier.

You can also probably cut down a bit on the eggs if that is a concern. Experiment and see how it holds together with one or two less.

Make sure the omelet is well-browned underneath before trying to flip. You can brown it even more if you like a crispy texture for the bottom.

This dish goes well with just about anything, so enjoy.



If you don’t want to look up one of these recipes, here are the basics:

2-3-4 potatoes peeled and sliced in quarter inch slices (depends on size of pan and size of potatoes).

1 onion sliced

Garlic chopped (optional)

4-5-6 eggs mixed

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook the potatoes (either fry in lots of oil, or parboil as mentioned above), Do Not Brown at this stage. You just want them barely cooked through. Saute onions (and garlic, and other veggies if desired). Add potatoes and onion mixture to Non-stick pan on medium-high heat with a generous coating of oil (you definitely don’t want this to stick. Mix eggs and pour all around potatoes and onion. Turn down heat almost immediately to Medium low and cook until bottom of tortilla is browned (to your taste), but should be well-cooked. Center of tortilla on top may still be a bit runny. Make sure tortilla is completely loose in pan before flipping. Flip (place a plate on top of the skillet and turn over), reheat skillet to medium high, slide omelet in and finish cooking on medium-low heat (again to desired degree of doneness). Serve in wedges.

Best,

Joe Koob