A fridge omelette - not a work of art
"Here at last was a tortilla with a difference: deep-baked in a special sloping-sided pan, its outside crisp, and as golden as the light in a Zuberon painting, it's inside soft and moist and highly flavoured - a brilliant combination of the world's simplest ingredients: potatoes, onions and eggs. A tortilla to end all tortillas. Just look at the picture." Robert Carrier
I doubt you can find this particular tortilla today even if you are lucky enough to be in Cordoba. Robert Carrier wrote the above in his beautiful book, Great Dishes of Spain, in 1999. He has a whole chapter on the tortilla. But if you are in Cordoba, the restaurant was called El Churrasco. It seems to still exist, according to Trip Advisor anyway, but their website is inaccessible and none of the photos on the Trip Advisor page showed any tortillas. But that's an aside. I just included this to show you what at least one person thinks the perfect tortilla española should look like.
For this is the thing about tortilla española - as every other 'classic' dish - one man's idea of perfection is not the same as another's. Here is Felicity Cloake's 'perfect tortilla for example (on the left), next to the one we ate in Ballarat recently at the Meigas restaurant:
In some ways it's pretty similar really - perhaps not quite as moist on the inside and not quite as crisp on the outside as Robert Carrier's.
I also have a book called Spanish and Mexican Cooking and their version looks quite a bit thinner. But crispy.
And Claudia Roden's looks positively soggy (on the right), but maybe it had cooled down. Because it can be eaten cold too of course. I have found that, like soufflés it comes out of the oven puffy and glistening and very quickly sinks and loses it's crispness. Still good though.
As to the thickness - well it looks as if the standard is pretty thick, but then again there are obviously those who go for thin. Mostly cake thick though and cut into wedges.
All of which demonstrates very clearly that take the same ingredients, the same general idea and you get a huge variety of results from three (or two) ingredients.
I say the same ingredients but apparently the biggest argument is over onions. Do you add onions or not? I will not go into this - suffice to say that one town in Spain has made itself an important tortilla española town by having an annual competition that insists that onions are not included. And even if you have onions - how many, and do you brown them? And how do you cut them? The general opinion seems to be no you don't brown them, nor the potatoes - just softened and juicy. And, of course, there is argument over whether the potatoes should be crisp or soft as well.
Potatoes - well the questions are numerous. Waxy or floury? Sliced or diced? If sliced how thick - as thin as possible using a mandolin, or pretty thick? If diced, how big? Then do you add the eggs to the potatoes (and possibly onions) or do you add the potatoes to the eggs? And if you do that, do you then cook the mixture immediately or leave it to stand?
Should there be garlic? I will say no more on that one. And what kind of oil? Well you would think olive oil - but again, some prefer various other vegetable oils.
And then you have the thing, that I think is the most unique part of the whole thing. The thing that makes it impossible for the ordinary cook. Turning the omelette out on to a plate when one side is brown, and then sliding it back into the pan to cook the other side. I have never been able to do this. I agree with Claudia Roden when she says she is not strong enough:
"In trying to make a large one, I failed twice, partly because I do not have the strength to turn a heavy frying pan on to a large platter without most of the uncooked part spilling out."
And then you've got to be able to slide it back into the pan. Difficult to 'slide' a half-cooked omelette. She called her expert friend who told her to just make smaller ones, which is probably the answer, but I suspect I wouldn't be able to do that either. Though mind you her friend's suggestion of using a shallow saucepan or frying pan lid slightly larger than your frying pan sounds better than a plate to slide on to. And they actually have special plates/lids for the purpose in Spain. But like Claudia Roden I confess I do the thing you're not supposed to do - and finish off the second side under the grill. Claudia Roden also gives an alternative recipe for a tortilla completely baked in the oven - which makes it a sort of gratin really.
"Boiled potatoes cut into little squares are mixed with chopped parsley and beaten eggs and seasoned with salt and pepper. They are poured into a greased dish and baked at 160ºC for 45-60 minutes. If it gets too brown, cover with foil."
So no I shall not be making a classic Spanish tortilla. Mine will look a bit more like this one:
Mine is what could be called a fridge omelette. It depends on what I have in the fridge, although it shares with the Spanish omelette the inclusion, nay the dominance of potatoes. So I was very pleased to read this from Guardian columnists, Henry Dimbleby and Jane Baxter.
"I was not made to cook tortillas – or Spanish omelettes, as we admiring Brits know them. I can, and quite often do, have a go. It’s a quick, easy supper, great for when we’re running low on ingredients, and popular with my children. But I’m too slapdash to make it the thing of beauty it ought to be." Henry Dimbleby and Jane Baxter - The Guardian
and this from Nigel Slater:
"I think of a Spanish-inspired tortilla as a cheap and cheerful lunchbox filler, often made thicker with slices of potato, roasted red peppers, olives and basil. It is also one of the few welcome resting places for the sundried tomato." Nigel Slater
It depends on what's in the fridge as to what goes into mine. Today it will be potatoes, onions, zucchini, mushrooms perhaps, peas perhaps and bacon. And yes, sun-dried tomato is a good idea - now do I soak them first, or just put them in? And there will be garlic and parsley too. And maybe I shall slice the last tomato from my garden and put it on top as a last thing before putting it under the grill. If you put it in before then the eggs won't set properly. Capsicum is good of course, but it's horrendously expensive at the moment so I don't have any. And carrot just doesn't seem right in an omelette somehow. But perhaps I should try.
David does a pretty mean omelette too but his is more of a French version - thin and not finished under the grill and just with ham and a hint of garlic. But we will be having some of his delicious bread which he always makes to accompany a Spanish omelette.
And where did the Tortilla Española come from. Well there is no satisfactory answer to this. Not until the 15th/16th century of course as there were no potatoes before then. It's probably just a peasant's way of raiding the fridge as it were, that has become an art form over the centuries and not for the ordinary cook or the faint-hearted.
Claudia Roden's and Robert Carrier's recipes are very similar. Here is Robert Carrier's - for 2 or 3 people. It's made in a small pan, so you should be able to turn it over.
4-6 organic free-range eggs
4-5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 large potatoes, peeled and cut into large dice (1cm/1/2 in.)
2-3 tablespoons finely chopped onion
pinch of finely chopped garlic (optional)
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 tablespoon chilled butter, to glaze
Break the eggs into a medium-sized bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of water and beat with a fork or wire whisk.
Heat 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a small frying pan. Add the potato and onion (and the garlic, if using) and sauté, stirring continuously, for about 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are soft and beginning to change colour. Season with salt and pepper, to taste, then remove the potatoes and aromatics from the pan with a slotted spoon and add them to the bowl containing the beaten eggs.
Heat a small deep frying pan or omelette pan (15-18cm in diameter) ove a medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. When the oil sizzles, pour in the tortilla mixture and cook, lifting the edges of the tortilla from the bottom of the pan with a spatula to allow the still semi-liquid eggs to slip underneath. Be sure to shake the pan gently while cooking (and add a teaspoon of two of olive oil around the sides of the pan to keep the tortilla from sticking to the bottom).
When the bottom edges of the tortilla turn golden (lift it up gently with a spatula to see), place a large plate over the pan and turn the tortilla out onto the plate. Wipe the bottom of the pan clean with a paper towel moistened with a little olive oil and slide the tortilla back into the pan to brown the other side.
Slide the tortilla onto a heated round serving dish. Garnish with sprigs of fresh watercress or flat-leaf parsley and thin wedges of lemon. As a last touch of perfection, glaze the top with a bit of chilled butter held on the point of a sharp kitchen knife.
Note: The tortilla should not be too cooked. At its succulent best, the surface of the tortilla should be golden and slightly crisp to the touch, but the eggy filling should remain almost runny in texture.
