5. Spanish Tortilla
(continued... read the beginning here)
Just to give you some visual to put in your head, a tortilla is a golden round "cake" (from the word "torta") of eggs and the other ingredients. Usually they're about ten inches or so across but I've seen smaller ones and broader versions as well. For the most popular of Spanish tortillas, all you need an onion, about six medium sized potatoes, six eggs, some salt and a lot of good olive oil. Roughly for four people you'll want about a good pound of potatoes, a couple of small onions and six eggs. If that sounds like vegetable heavy ratio for an omelet, it is. But that's because, as I said above, a tortilla isn't an omelet. It's... a tortilla.

So how do you make one of these things?

It's really pretty darned easy. Peel the potatoes and slice them fairly thinly, maybe 1/8 of an inch thick. Do the same with the onion. As with all things culinary the better the ingredients the better the dish is going to be. Low starch potato varieties seem to work best — I like Yukon Golds this time of year, but in the summer any of the really great heirloom varieties would be great.

The olive oil that you cook them in should be of better quality — please don't try to cut corners by not using extra virgin oil — it's actually the main seasoning in the dish, not just as a medium in which to cook. When I visited the Xandra Falco at the Marques de Griñon olive oil last fall, she served us a really nice, really simple lunch of which the highlight was an amazingly good tortilla. I couldn't figure out what was making it so great until I realized the obvious — while it's a high end estate produced oil for us, Marques de Griñon is just her everyday olive oil. And when you use an oil that good to make your tortilla, you end up with a really amazing tortilla.

The eggs are also essential to the dish — there's a huge difference of course from on egg to the next — if you taste a commercial egg next to a really good one you'll be amazed at how much difference there is. You can pick your analogy — night and day, or whatever you like. The point is that you really can taste the difference. A fourteen year old stopped me at the RH at brunch the other day to tell me how good the eggs were. A couple of people have said something in the last week at breakfast at the Deli. So yeah, that makes a big difference.

Whatever other ingredients you use, make them good too — in simple dishes like this the final dish isn't ever going to be better than what you put in it.

So, you start by heating about 8 ounces of oil in a heavy skillet. It will look like an awful lot of oil if you're not used to cooking like this but don't worry — the potatoes and onions basically need to almost be at a light "boil" in the oil. When the oil is hot add the potatoes and onions. Stir gently, but well. Add a bit of salt. Move the vegetables lightly around the pan every few minutes. You don't want them to brown but it's very important that they cook every well all the way through so that the potatoes are really nice and tender; this can take a good 15 to 20 minutes or so depending on how thinly you slice them — longer is generally better in my experience, though I'm sure you could overdo it at some point.

When the potatoes are tender, remove them (and the onions) with a slotted spoon and let them drain for a minute or two in a colander. Pour off all but a couple spoonfuls or so of the oil (you can still use it for other cooking). Beat the eggs gently in a large bowl. When smooth, add the still-a-bit-warm, but not hot, cooked-potato-and-onion mixture to the eggs. Mix gently and let stand, as is, for about 15 to 20 minutes so that the vegetables soak up some of the egg.

Next heat the skillet with the couple spoonfuls of reserved olive oil still in it. (Non-stick skillets work well but whatever you use make sure the pan is pretty hot, then add the egg-potato-onion mixture. Spread it evenly across the pan then cook for about 3 to 4 minutes 'til the bottom of the tortilla is lightly brown. Then put a plate over the top of the tortilla and quickly turn the entire tortilla over onto it. Immediately slide it back (the uncooked side down) into the empty, but still hot, skillet. Again, cook until lightly brown on the surface, soft. The tortilla should be very soft on the inside. Of course, everyone can cook to the doneness that they like — personally, I prefer a softer and moister texture. Marta Girones who distributes many of the best Spanish olive oils to restaurants and shops in Barcelona, and whose father Isidre, started and still runs the legendary Ca L'Isidre restaurant, was very adamant that the center of the tortilla needs to be almost liquidy. Similarly at the bar Cal Pep, another Barcelona culinary highlight, their very well known tortilla is really soft in the center. They enhance their dish by using slivers of chorizo in it as well, but at your house you can add pretty much anything you want to a tortilla and it'd be good.

Once you've finished the tortilla cooking, slide it carefully out of the skillet, and then let it sit on a plate for at least a few minutes to set up before you serve — I find that the tortillas are actually best when they're not really super-hot. In fact in Spain you're more likely to get a wedge of tortilla served at something close to room temperature. Speaking of serving there are several ways that Spaniards typically serve a tortilla:

1. Warm, just cooked, along with a nice green salad for lunch or dinner.
2. Cut into small squares and served at room temperature and offered as an appetizer or "tapa" with glasses of wine, sherry or beer.
3. Stored for a day or so (I just lay a dry cloth over the tortilla and keep it on the counter) then cut into wedges and eaten as or with a bit of mayonnaise to accompany it.
4. Put into a split crusty roll (the Bakehouse's hoagie roll would be great) and eaten as a sandwich. This is a very common lunch in Spain.