Tortilla de Patatas

In every bar across Spain you will be sure to find a tortilla - even if that's the only tapa it serves. It is also far from uncommon to see tortilla on offer as a sandwich filling.

The standard base for a tortilla (omelette) is eggs and potatoes (patatas). But in different regions and in different households there may be some additional ingredients. For example, I like onion in my tortilla. And in Valencia you commonly find pea and potato tortillas.

My friend Victor, whose Dad is Spanish, first showed me how to make a tortilla with a recipe that he brought back from Barcelona that he learned from his uncle.

It is simple enough. Slice waxy potatoes thinly. You will need enough to fill a large frying pan, even though the tortilla is going to be made in a small but deep frying pan. This is when I also fry my onions.

You will need a lot more oil than you think, so, when the potatoes are ready, you need to put them in a colander and drain off the excess oil. This also allows the potatoes to cool, which is important because you don't want hot potatoes cooking your eggs too quickly.  You can reuse the excess oil that you drain off.

Once the potatoes are cool and drained, put them in a small deep frying pan. Bear enough eggs to cover the potatoes - this could be as much as half a dozen - and add salt before pouring into the pan with the potatoes.

Now you have 2 options. You can cook the omelette mostly through, then finish up under the grill. Or you can try and flip it by using a plate. This way is a little messier, but I find it is better. The reason it is better is because the best tortillas are still slightly runny on the inside and flipping it achieves this better than the grill approach.

The other thing to note with flipping is that you don't have to do it just once. You can flip every couple of minutes. So, if you make a mess of the top, don't worry coz you're going to flip if again soon. I see this kind of like making a quenelle. Flipping back and forth will eventually achieve nice smooth edges. Unless, of course, the pan you're using is no longer non-stick. Then it would just be an irretrievable hash.

And there you have it. If you want to jazz your tortilla up, try adding green beans, or red pepper and chorizo, or maybe asparagus and little prawns. You get the picture!

Making It Easy

Keeping up with the Challenge has been pretty hard lately with all of the things going on.  Moving my brother into our house, complete with dogs, fish and a mountain of "stuff" was time-consuming in itself, but has left the kitchen a bit cramped and difficult to work in.  We have also been doing a lot of work on the new house, creating a level of household chaos I never thought could have existed.

However, we still need to eat!  So, I took the opportunity last week to cook from one of my recipe books - limited somewhat by which ones I could actually see and access as I weaved my way around stuff and more stuff - all covered with a layer of dust left over from the rewiring.

I picked up one of the earlier books that I had bought: 'Gordon Ramsay Makes It Easy'.  I think I actually bought this book originally for my dad in 2005, when he was first getting on board with the new wave of home cooking and celebrity chefs that was sweeping the UK at the time.  I actually liked the structure of the book - divided into sections like "Great Fast Food" and "Posh".  I think then that I must have bought another copy of the book for Dave.

One of the first recipes I tried from this book was the Carpaccio of Beef.  Anyone who loves their steak rare will love carpaccio.  I always order this at Via Romana in Los Belones, Spain, when I go back.  They serve it with peppery rocket, sweet balsamic and salty parmesan.  We also order a garlic flat bread to accompany it.  If you're making carpaccio yourself, the trick is to cool the seared beef so that it is easier to slice thinly.

I also tried to cook the Wild Sea Bass Wrapped in Courgette Flowers as a canape once.  I wasn't able to find courgette flowers - have you ever seen them? Anywhere? At all?!  But I did wrap the small squares of fish in thinly sliced courgette, and it was a lovely combo.

I have little sticky labels all over this book - obviously intending to try a few other recipes.  For example the Mini Tart Tatins of Caramelised Red Onion and Goat's Cheese, the Lemon Chilli Chicken Wings with a Couscous Salad and the Butternut Squash Puff 'Pizza' with Sage and Smoked Cheddar.  But, on the night in question, I opted for the Turbot Fillets with Fennel and Lemon - hindered slightly by not being able to find turbot.

It was a simple recipe whereby you created a fragrant stock with lemongrass and vanilla in which to poach the fish and serve it on a bed of aromatic, slightly caramelised fennel.  I found that a lot needed to be done last minute, so struggled a little to sufficiently reduce the sauce and still keep the fish warm and not overcooked.

With a stroke of genius, I paired the fish with a green salad of cucumber, apple and spring onions, which added a crisp, fresh dimension to the meal.  But it didn't need much embellishment.  It was a perfectly delicious fish dish that I would be happy to eat for lunch in the sun with a nice cold glass of white wine.