Spanish Potato Omelette recipe - My first successful Tortilla de Patata!

Tortilla de Patata (Spanish Potato Omelette) is one of the most popular tapas to be eaten all over Spain and it is actually more common than the Paella rice dish. Although it only contains egg, potato and salt (and onion if you prefer. Again it is a huge debate between all the Spaniards.)

However making the perfect Tortilla has always been a mystery for me. Not only that I am not someone who like to follow a recipe word-to-word, but because the size of every potato and eggs are different. There is never a one-apply-all formula. 

Some people like a well-done, but I love it when it is nicely browned from the outside, but gooey in the inside like it is slightly undercooked, which is even harder to achieve!

After 2 times of disastrous failure (the potato was rather raw, the egg was too raw aka watery, too little salt, potato and egg are not sticking together...), I finally got it!! Thanks to the advice of my dear Galician friend Michael and his lovely mother Ana!

Again, I think it is silly to share a recipe that you need to follow word-to-word. But I do have some general tips to help you succeed.

Proportion of Egg to potato - 3:2

 

    The Egg 

• Add double the salt you need to season a regular French omelette into the egg (remember 40% of the omelette is potato which is not naturally salty). The salt would help to break down the  egg white and help the potato to integrate better with the egg.

    The Potato

• Slice your potato to the finest posible to make it integrate well with the egg later
• Always deep-fry the potato until golden brown / slight crispy. (nope, I know what you are thinking but pan-frying will only make the texture of your potato like as if they are still raw. Don't go down that route we have all been there... )

    The Mixture (Egg & Potato)

• After you fried the potato, pour it into the egg and salt mixture, break the thinly sliced fried potato in the egg into smaller pieces and let the mixture sit for at least 10 minutes. This allow the potato to integrate better into the egg making a eggy potato paste and allows the temperate of the mixture to be consistent.

    The making of Tortilla

• Put the fire on high at first, be generous with the oil and pour your mixture into A NON-STICK PAN (can not stress this enough). 
• Your egg will cook fast. Once you see the edges of your eggs being formed, use a SPATULA (your magic wand in this case) to make your Tortilla detachable from the edge of the pan. Prepare a big plate to flip your tortilla around to cook the other side. Once you are ready to flip, turn your fire down to medium. 
• Once you have flipped your tortilla and it is back to the pan, you can cook it for another 1 minute , or once you see the shape of the other face of the tortilla is formed. A general advice is swing your pan constantly left and right. When your tortilla is no longer sticking to the bottom of the pan, your Tortilla is ready. 
• LET IT SIT for 5-10 minutes (again allows better integration). A good Tortilla is an art. Treat it like a steak if you don't want all the juice to flood out (in this case egg).

With a 20-inch pan, I used 6 large eggs. Choice of potato is a science which I am not an expert of that but I used new potatoes because I like the slightly gooey and chewy texture and it can be easily smashed.

I was super happy to finally be able to make a Tortilla (plus having the approval of a Spaniard (Adri) who ate half the tortilla in 10 minutes 😝).

I hope you have enjoyed my sharing. Check out on how to make Spanish croquettes or my other posts about Spanish food if you are a great fan of foodie like me!

Lots of love,

Cherrie