An eggxellent and eggciting vogue of egg- tortilla de patatas

Upon my arrival in Balaguer, I was greeted by the most delicious welcome dinner prepared very kindly by my wonderful tutor now friend. After eating this tasty meal of ‘tortilla de patatas’ with a flavoursome salad to accompany it, as the salads here are hands down the BEST I have ever had as far as my salad experiences have gone,  I quizzed her on this style of egg. In my broken Spanish, ‘ pero como es GRANDE’( actually it might have been in English that day so just in case), ‘ but how is it so BIG’ hand actions and everything. ‘How could this omelette feed an army?’ I wondered to myself. I waited for a secret ingredient like baking powder, magic dust, an exotic herb that makes food high (and rise).The secret turned out to be a very uncomplicated and what now seems a very common sense idea: the number of eggs in the omelette. The ingredients were simple, yet the meal was delectable, I could not stop thinking about that Spanish Tortilla! As a result of this dreaming about eggs, I decided that this week’s mission was to master the Spanish Tortilla. Or at least give it a go before putting it up there with the chef-like standards of my pan con tomate.

However, this time was different; I was cooking for an esteemed guest. A very honest, brutal but beautiful food loving younger sister. I knew that this taste testing would be the truth.  It was crunch time.This was the equivalent of Michel Roux tasting a masterchef dish. So, I consulted my trusty ‘ Tapas De ayer y de hoy’ and looked for something that would help me recreate the eggcellent magic again. The primary aim of this week’s venture was to have zero burns on me but more importantly on my tortilla.  

Now you must be thinking,’but Natasha how egg-otistical of you what did your sister think of the dish?!’. Well, the day the VIP arrived, preparation for this dish was going well, A-ok, like a pro one might say. Many pictures were taken to monitor the progression of this dish. Then, the unthinkable and unexpected happened. After I whipped up the 3 eggs, lightly fried the thinly sliced potatoes, seasoned and mixed everything together; I thought to myself ,' this is going to be a good one'. An egg like I’d never seen before. I added the egg to the hot pan with enough olive oil for the whole of Balaguer so nothing would burn and it happened. It burned. It was not the kind of burn where you could cut off the egg and hide by garnishing it with herbs or the kind of dish you could quickly turn into scrambled eggs. No, it was smoky, black and burnt.  So my sister did not get to try what should have been a fine version of tortilla de patatas but tried one in a restaurant and agreed that it was yummy.

My advice to anyone who wants to try this dish is, well I'm not sure. I'll let you know when I figure it out for round two. Once the scars of this venture have faded. For now I say stick to sunny side up, or even better boiled. 

Everything was ready for the materpiece

It looked as if it was going so well!

The final piece and that was the least burnt side!