Live life with fine Spanish wines

If you don’t live in Spain, you may be surprised to hear that the so-called Spanish Omelettes served in all major hotels as a breakfast item is not a dish eaten in Spanish homes or restaurants at all. The real Spanish Omelette (called Tortilla Española or Tortilla de Patatas in Spanish) is made mainly from potatoes and eggs. It looks like a quiche or a pie.

I didn’t bother to learn how to make a Potato Omelette for the longest time. It is available in almost every single bar in Spain. Its popularity and availability is equivalent to a hamburger in the US. Most Spanish will tell you a Potato Omelette is very easy to make but I never believed them. I have seen it made a few times, and it looked like quite a bit of work to me. Now that I live in Malta, I get an occasional craving for a Potato Omelette, so after experimenting with making it for a few times, I finally made a decent looking but great tasting one the other day. It was not very difficult, but cooking the potatoes took quite a bit of time.

Here’s the recipe:

1. Peel and slice two big potatoes. The slices should be about 7-8mm thick.
2. Dice a white onion and sauté it in plenty of olive oil on medium heat until fragrant.
3. Put the potatoes in the oil and continue to cook over medium heat until they are cooked to the point that they are soft on the outside, but still a little bit hard in the middle. (Note: the more health conscious people will boil the potatoes instead but it will not taste as good obviously.)
4. Remove the potatoes and onion and drain with a sieve.
5. Beat 5 medium eggs with a fork very lightly (just to mix) on the side.
6. Once the potatoes are cool enough to touch, add the eggs to the potatoes.
7. Add salt to the mixture to taste.
8. Heat a non-stick (very important!) frying pan on medium heat, add a few drops of olive oil, and add the above mixture to the pan. (Note: It is important to choose the right sized frying pan. The omelette should be about 3cm thick when it is set.)
9. Here comes the trickiest part of the whole procedure. When the eggs are cooked almost all the way to the top, but still runny on the top, cover the frying pan with a bigger plate with the down side up. Remove the frying pan and flip it over so the omelette falls out on the plate (now you will appreciate a REAL non-stick frying pan). Put the frying pan back on the heat, and slide the half-cooked omelette back to the frying pan.
10. It should take not more than five minutes for the omelette to set completely.
11. When it is done, you can flip it over to the serving plate and cut it like a pie. Don’t cut it while it is still hot, or it will crumble.

I am one of those people who do not believe in universal food pairing with wine. But that night we opened a bottle of Cantiga 2006, a red Spanish wine from the D.O.Ca. Rioja, and it went down so well with my warm Potato Omelette.

sandy

P.S. I have come to the realization that I will never make it as a food photographer.

Tags: Rioja, spanish food

This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 4:55 pm and is filed under Food and Wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.