You, Too, Can Whip Up A Spanish Tortilla

Our  friends from Spain, Jorge and Iratxe, left for La Paz last night while we’re staying in Sucre for another two weeks to study at the Sucre Spanish School. In honor of them and their future travels, here’s a do-it-yourself post that was written a few days ago and dedicated to the Spanish tortilla (a.k.a. omelette), courtesy of Chef Jorge himself.

Waking up this morning to a breakfast of Jorge’s 12-hour homemade tortilla is pretty luxurious. Contrary to popular belief, it’s actually even tastier than it was for dinner the night before. Who knew? For your viewing (and eating) pleasure, here’s a step-by-step “How To” for the most delicious dinner-breakfast-party snack-pub gnosh this side of the Equator, courtesy of the other side. Introducing the Spanish tortilla!

Prep time: 30 minutes (approx.)
Cooking time: 45 minutes – 1 hour (approx.)
Waiting time: 2 hours – 12 hours (!)

Ingredients per tortilla:

3 or 4 large potatoes
3 or 4 medium-sized onions
4 eggs
salt
pepper
olive or sunflower oil (enough for frying)
1 green or red pepper (optional)

Supplies:

2 large frying pans
1 spatula
1 large plate
1 whisk
1 chopping knife & cutting board
1 mixing bowl

1. First, do all the prep work: peel and chop potatoes into bite-size bits; julienne onions. Set aside.

2. In large frying pan, fry potatoes and onions and peppers (if you’re using them) together on high heat until translucent but not brown (onions) and soft but not mushy (potatoes), stirring occasionally so as not to burn.This step took us 30 minutes or so, but we were using a Coleman dual-burner and a hand-me-down frying pan.

3. A few minutes before the frying goodness is done, whip (and I mean whip!) up the eggs into a froth.

4. Remove potato mixture from heat and pour into the whipped-up eggs.

5. In frying pan #2 (you can use the same frying pan if you only have one, just make sure to scrape out all the fried residue from the previous step), pour egg& potato mixture and let sit on medium heat for approx. five minutes, or until the underside of the omelette is brown but obviously not burned.

Now, here’s the tricky part.

6. Take a plate (MUST be bigger than the frying pan or you’ll lose half your omelette in the sink!) and place on top of the pan. When you feel confident enough, flip the half-cooked tortilla onto the plate while making sure to allow for excess oil drainage. (If the underside isn’t cooked to your liking, it’s OK to flip it back over and let it cook some more.) Put fresh oil in the pan and slide the flipped-omelette back in so that the other side can cook. Wait another five minutes.

7. When the top of the tortilla is sufficiently brown, bubbly, and gooey, slide onto a plate and let it sit. I repeat: ignore your American upbringing to eat it right away and let it sit. For two to twelve hours.

We started the process at 7 p.m. and dug into the tortilla at 10. The second tortilla we ate this morning for breakfast was even better than the one last night. And the one we’ll eat for lunch, Jorge assures us, will be the best. Can’t wait to see. Mmmmm. Tor-tee-ya.

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