Tortilla Espanola in the Alpujarra
In the middle of the Alpujarra and with the mighty Sierra Nevada in the background, Wijnand shows how you can bring this classic Spanish Tortilla Espanola to a successful conclusion in a pan-turn.
Dishes with only a handful of ingredients can be insidious. They often only succeed if you strictly adhere to a number of rules. The Tortilla Espanola is such a dish. Fortunately, Wijnand has been able to look over shoulders in several households in Spain. Every family does it a little differently, but there are a number of things that no Spaniard will smuggle with: the potatoes and onion are "cooked" in a good amount of olive oil and there is more salt on the potatoes than in the eggs!
Buen provecho!
Ingredients
5 firm cooking potatoes
1 onion
6 or 7 eggs
300 ml mild olive oil
Salt
A good non-stick pan (22-24 cm. in diameter)
A lid without a border or a plate that is just a bit larger than the pan you bake in
Method
Peel the potatoes and cut them in half. Cut each half into slices of about 3 millimeters. Heat the oil over a medium heat in the pan and add the potato slices. Peel the onion and cut it in half through the crown. Cut the onion lengthwise into thin slices and add it to the potatoes.
If the potatoes still have a little bite but are done, remove everything from the pan with a skimmer and sprinkle with a good amount of salt. You can save the oil for the next tortilla.
Beat the eggs together, without whisking them too much. Add the potato and onion mixture to this. Add another pinch of salt and mix well. Let stand for a while so that the eggs can reach the same temperature as the potatoes.
Heat a tablespoon of oil in the pan over medium heat and add the egg mixture. Stir the mixture with a wooden spatula for a minute, until the egg starts to solidify (as you would with a scrambled egg). Reduce the heat a little and let the tortilla bake until it is two-thirds done and separates from the pan. This takes about five minutes.
Take a plate or a lid without a border and place it on the pan. Turn around and put the pan on the fire again. Carefully slide the tortilla back into the pan, raw side down.
Bake for another minute or four until the bottom also has a color. But not too long, the perfect tortilla Espanola is creamy on the inside or even a little liquid if you like.
I always turn it in the pan again to see which side has the nicest color. That side must of course come up when serving.
