Dinner Tonight: Spanish Potato Omelet
I once had an actual Spanish man teach me how to make this dish. This version isn’t quite right, but it is a tad easier. The original recipe fries the potatoes in olive oil to soften them up and then fries them again in some more oil with the eggs. It’s a beautiful thing but slightly exhausting. You have use a lot of oil to fry that many potatoes, and then you have literally wring them out. It takes time. It was nice when the Spanish man did it for me.
This version comes from One Potato Two Potato, hopefully a book with a few things to know about the tuber. Instead of deep-frying the potatoes, it layers them in a baking dish with some onions. It’s not quite the same but still delicious. This recipe takes a good hour, and requires some serious plate flipping skills, but the ingredients are surprisingly few and the end result worth it. The fiancée and I had a dinner out of this—and a few more breakfasts. Not bad for a few eggs and potatoes.
Spanish Potato Omelet
- serves 4 to 6 -
Ingredients
6 tablespoons olive
1 pound russet potatoes, peeled and sliced
1 small onion, sliced thinly
5 eggs
Salt
Procedure
1. Preheat the oven to 350. Pour a tiny bit of the oil into a baking dish. Place one layer of the sliced potatoes down and then sprinkle with some salt. The layer some of the onion on top. Continue the stacking process, until you’ve used about 3 tablespoons of the olive oil and all of the potatoes and onions.
2. Bake for 30 minutes. Flip, and then cook for another 15 minutes.
3. Crack the eggs into a very large bowl and add a pinch of salt. Beat lightly. Then toss in the egg mixture and stir until combined.
4. Pour two tablespoons of the olive oil into a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. When it’s nice and hot, and almost smoking, dump the egg and potato mixture in. Cook, shaking the pan to make sure nothing sticks to the bottom, for 5 minutes.
5. Now comes the fun part. Place an inverted plate atop the skillet and, very carefully, flip omelet onto the plate. The cooked side should be facing up. Pour the remaining tablespoon of oil into the skillet, and slide the egg and potato mixture on. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes.
6. Remove the Spanish omelet and let rest for 5 minutes or so. Then slice up like a pizza and serve.
View other entries from Dinner Tonight.
Add a comment:
Previewing your comment:
HTML Hints
Some HTML is OK: <a href="URL">link</a>, <strong>strong</strong>, <em>em</em>
Comment Guidelines
Post whatever you want, just keep it seriously about eats, seriously. We reserve the right to delete off-topic or inflammatory comments. Learn more at our Comment Policy page.
If you see something not so nice, please, report an inappropriate comment.
9 Comments:
We used to have these for dinner all the time when I was growing up (with the fried potatoes), at the time I didn't sufficiently appreciate the dish (a kid's palate and all) but seeing this article sure made me want one. Aside from the potatoes, the onion really makes it work.
redfish at 4:34PM on 12/03/07
This would be extra good with thin, crispy strips of Canadian bacon.
Christina at 5:04PM on 12/03/07
I just returned from Spain, where we ate so many of these. They often serve slices of it in a baguette, like a sandwich. And they call it a Tortilla Española. No, not Tortilla Español. Tortilla Española.
Blake Royer at 5:17PM on 12/03/07
I only knew how to order this in spain (i swear it was called bocadillos or something) and I ate it every day during my vacation. Becasue I didn't know how to order any thing else. Delicious though! (I like the sandwich version too.)
NYminknit at 5:36PM on 12/03/07
An easier way to flip the tortilla is to slide it onto a plate from the pan, then flip it onto another plate, then slide it back. I'm always terrified I will forget the pan is hot and stick my hand on the bottom of it to flip or something similarly stupid, using two plates solves this nicely! (And I'd rather have to wash an extra plate than drop the tortilla on the floor/burn myself etc).
joker at 6:18PM on 12/03/07
I lived in Spain for a short while and the Mama I lived with taught me how to make Tortilla Espanol the traditional way. She showed me how to fry the potatoes and drain them. I think it is fairly simple and probably takes a similar amount of time. My recipe uses far more onions which add a different texture to the dish.
izzy's mama at 9:27AM on 12/04/07
Another variation that works well
jcherry at 3:40PM on 12/05/07
hmm. there was supposed to be a link in there...
http://eieo.blogspot.com/2006/05/recipe-simple-frittata-for-small.html
jcherry at 3:44PM on 12/05/07
I'd recommend adding a teaspoon or so of crushed dried rosemary, and ideally some Manchego cheese as well.
elleon0 at 12:40PM on 12/06/07