Spanish Omelette
Recipe
Prepare a large bowl with 1kg of thinly sliced potatoes and sprinkle plenty salt over them and work it down to the bottom of the bowl.
In a large frying pan heat about ½ cm of olive oil. When it's very hot add the potatoes from the bowl and start to fry them. Be sure to keep stirring them so that they don't stick or start to brown.
After about 5 minutes add half an onion to the potatoes. This should be chopped very fine. Stir the contents of the frying pan then cover it.
Now break 8 large eggs into a bowl and add a pinch of salt and beat them.
Keep checking the frying pan to be sure that the potatoes aren't turning brown. Turn down the heat if necessary.
Keep stirring.
Once the potatoes break easily under the touch of the stirring spoon they are ready. So now add the potato/onion mix to the bowl of beaten eggs. Drain away any excess that's left in the frying pan oil at this point.
Mix the potato and egg mixtures together well whilst the frying pan gets very hot with no extra oil in it.
Now add the mix to the frying pan.
Flatten it down in the pan and keep the heat at medium for a few minutes.
Put a plate over the mix and turn over the tortilla gently. When you return it to the pan press down the sides to create the classic shape of tortilla de patatas.
Turn the tortilla several times. You'll find it gets heavier each turn.
It is ready when you put a knife into it and the knife comes out clean.
This recipe makes a vary large omelette. What I tend to do is create the same mixture as above but make two separate tortillas using a smaller pan as this seems more manageable. Be sure to use a ladle when transferring the mixture to the frying pan if you decide to follow this advice otherwise one omelette ends up with too much liquid and the other with too much potato.
I think it is very difficult to find a good tortilla. I don't know what the secret is but I can usually make a delicious one; in my opinion at least. How does your recipe differ from the one abone?
What other traditional Spanish recipes do you know?
Comments
Hi Graham,
Sharing a Spanish omelette is a good thing. It is an old Spanish custom. Everybody knows to make a Spanish omelette and everybody thinks that his Spanish omelette is the best. If there is anybody that he doesn´t know how a Spanish omelette is made, he told you that the Spanish emelette of his mother is the best. There are a lot of recipes about the Spanish omelette but I prefer the classic model.
Generally speaking, I make a Spanish omelette like it said in this recipe, but there are some differences. For instance, I don´t make it with onion, I prefer the taste of potatoes and eggs to onion. In my opinion, 8 eggs to 1 kg of potatoes is too much, it is like potatoes were in a swimming pool. I think that eggs have to crystallize and the omelette too. I prefer that the Spanish omelette is juicy to liquid. This is the most important thing, the Spanish omelette must be in the proper way. Another thing, in this recipe it said: “Once the potatoes break easily under the touch of the stirring spoon they are ready”, but I don´t agree, it is necessary to follow frying them until the potatoes are well frying, not burned. Be careful!
See you.
P. S. What does “abone” mean please?
I would never claim that my Spanish omelette is the best but it's usually not bad.
My paella, a purely vegetarian one of course, usually turns out pretty well.
Sharing a Spanish omelette is a good thing. It is an old Spanish custom. Everybody knows how to make a Spanish omelette and everybody thinks that their Spanish omelette is the best. If there is anybody that doesn´t know how a Spanish omelette is made, they will tell you that their mother's Spanish omelette is the best. There are a lot of recipes for the Spanish omelette but I prefer the classic version.
Generally speaking, I make a Spanish omelette like it says in this recipe, but there are some differences. For instance, I don´t make it with onion, I prefer the taste of potatoes and eggs to onion. In my opinion, 8 eggs to 1 kg of potatoes is too much, it is as if the potatoes were in a swimming pool. I think that eggs have to crystallize (I don't know what you mean here) and the omelette too . I prefer that the Spanish omelette is juicy to liquid. This is the most important thing, the Spanish omelette must be made the proper way. Another thing, in this recipe it said: “Once the potatoes break easily under the touch of the stirring spoon they are ready”, but I don´t agree, it is necessary to continue frying them until the potatoes are well fried, not burned. Be careful!