Spanish Tortilla

Who knew eggs and potato could taste this good?

We have loads of eggs at the moment because I ordered an extra half dozen for my custard experiments, and somehow ordered double again the next week.  

Mr Duncan came down with the lurgy and was coughing his lungs out and keeping me up all night,so I banned him from dairy which has put a temporary end to my custard making.

When I have an overabundance of potatoes and/or eggs I often make a spanish tortilla.  

Although the basic recipe is just eggs, onions and potatoes, as with most of my favorite recipes you can add whatever you have in the fridge like, to jazz it up.

Tomorrow we are attending a picnic and because I'm no fan of bread I like to take alternative dishes that are equally hand friendly.  

This is one such dish.  

Just make it the evening before and chill in the fridge.  

You can either slice into wedges and wrap them individually in baking paper or cut into bite sized chunks and use toothpicks to serve.

 Ingredients

• 6 eggs
• sliced onion
• sliced potatoes
• olive oil
• sliced bell pepper
• sliced chorizo

Method

1.  In a heavy bottomed or oven proof pan over a medium heat, sweat the chorizo and remove to a plate.  Saute the onions and bell pepper in the chorizo fat until soft.

2.  While onions and pepper are cooking, wash and slice the potatoes thinly, then rinse the potatoes to get the starch off them.  Dry the potatoes by blotting with a tea towel.

3.  When it is cooked, remove the onion mix to a plate

4.   Pour into the pan a dash of olive oil and saute the potatoes, mixing occasionally to prevent the ones on the bottom from sticking.  

5.  Remove from heat when the potatoes are just cooked through.

6.  Crack the eggs into a large bowl and mix, but not too much.  Not airy like a fluffy french omelette, but just so that the whites and yolks are well mixed.

7.   Add onion, pepper, chorizos and potatoes to the eggs.  

8.  Mix carefully until all ingredients are covered by egg.

9.  Wipe out the pan, heat a little more olive oil over a low flame and pour the whole mix in.  

10.  Cook until just about set on the top.

At this point what you're supposed to do is put a plate over the top, tip out the tortilla and slide back into the pan to cook the other side.  

My big cast iron pan is too heavy for me to do this, though I do it with tortillas made in my omelette pan.  

Instead I put it in the oven, under the grill, to cook the top.

Onions and peppers

Remove to a plate

Drying sliced potatoes

Just cooked

Mixing into the egg

Cooking over a low heat

Ready to finish off under the grill