Tortilla
Boy I love eggs. I hold the opinion that any meal can be improved by adding an egg. So what is better than an egg? Lots of eggs! That is why I was delighted to get a book entirely about cooking the humble egg for my birthday - Egg by Blanche Vaughan
This is the first recipe I cooked from it, and was on the occasion of joining a picnic where everyone brought a couple of dishes. Knowing some of the party were vegetarian I thought a tortilla would be a FatSteakClub-type contribution. I followed the recipe as in the book but used a few shortcuts and tricks of my own on the way…
Step 1 - Onions!
Get the olive oil hot in a pan and then add the onions. Add a pinch of salt and keep stirring until they soften and then eventually caramelise (they should get golden coloured and sticky)
Note: I stuck in an old red onion that needed using up, but I’d recommend just big white onionsTop Tip: I did this in a separate, deep pan as the onions start big on volume and eventually collapse into the gooey sugary mess you want
Step 2 - Potatoes!
The mandolin got a great work out in this recipe. After slicing the onions with it I then sliced the potatoes the same way (no peeling required) on the medium setting
Rather than cook the potatoes in a pan as the recipe suggested, I went for speed and convenience and did them in my deep fat fryer in the sunflower oil
Drain the potato slices when they are just taking colour. If you leave them too long you will get crisps
Dry them on kitchen roll and season with salt
Step 3 - Eggs!
To complete the dish get a deep frying pan, grease with the oil from the onions and get it on a high heat
The recipe specified a 23cm diameter pan that is 5 cm deep. Mine was 24 cm and 4 cm deep and worked fine
Mix the onions, potatoes and whisked eggs together with plenty of seasoning. Do it by hand as the recipe suggests. It is rather therapeutic
Pour this mixture into the hot pan, turn down the heat and cook for a few minutes
As the tortilla sets you need to keep turning it. This is done by placing a plate over the top, inverting the pan and sliding the upturned tortilla back into the pan. Do this several times for each side until the faces have a delicious brown colour and the whole thing feels set but not overly hard
Top Tip: you should play Spanish guitar music during this part for perfect texture. I had some metal on in the background and it made the tortilla a tad heavy
Slice and enjoy warm, or as I did, cold the next day at a rather fine picnic.
Tortilla
6 tbsp olive oil
5 large onions (thinly sliced on a mandolin)
900g Charlotte potatoes (or other waxy type)
1 litre sunflower oil for deep frying
6 large eggs
I trained as a chemist, and now I don't work in a laboratory anymore, I apply that knowledge to my cooking. I do love my gadgets, experimenting and using an understanding of the principles of chemistry to make the very best food. I seem to cook more and more as a hobby now I don't wear a lab coat, and still dream of retiring to run a small restaurant somewhere quiet.
My confidence really came when I taught myself to cook Italian and found I was pretty good at making pasta. I was married to a vegetarian then and it was the one cuisine where I didn't miss meat. I'm big on meat usually and passionate about great ingredients and doing things from scratch yourself. I did a butchery course last year and intend to learn all the skills needed to butcher and make use of a whole pig nose to tail.
Eating out is also a passion, and I particularly like to go for things I don't think I could do at home easily or better! Mind you, I do love a pie.
