tortilla de papas recipe!!
last modified 4 months, 2 weeks ago
I promised it and now I will deliver.
This is a meandering and unfaithful translation to english of the recipe provided by Paulina Cocina. It makes about four slices, so consider doubling up if you're feeding more than one person; it keeps in the fridge for a good few days, maybe a week? I can't tell you for sure, because I usually devour any leftovers within 12 hours.
This recipe will involve something similar to frying, and also flipping, two techniques which are a bit more advanced than those of previous recipes shared on this blog.
I recommend a pan you can flip with confidence and a cutting board that cover it completely. You should be able to raise both above your head with no effort. The technique is to place the cutting board upside-down atop the pan, so that when you gently flip the pan over, the cutting board's "right" side (the one that usually sides up) catches the tortilla.
A fun etymological note before we begin: tortilla is a diminutive of the word "torta", from vulgar latin torta, which itself comes from the latin tortam, "twisted" or (if you'll forgive a more artistic translation) "flipped". "Torta", in spain, where this recipe originates from, refers to a sort of bread bun, but where I come from (and several other latin american countries), "torta" has come to straightforwardly mean "cake". (In other countries, the word "pastel" is used to refer to cake. "Pastel" is likely derived from the same root as "pasta", ultimately meaning "dough").
So you could totally use this as a birthday cake. According to the law.
Ingredients
- Four (4) eggs
- Three (3) medium-size potatoes (it's important you don't grab one and a half big potatoes, or six small potatoes)
- Half an onion
- Salt
- Cooking oil of your choice
You will also need: a big knife, a cutting board (not just for flipping!), a vessel for submerging food in oil (a shallow pot or a deep pan), a pan for cooking the tortilla itself (may be the same one), and so on, so forth.
Instructions
- Step one: Cut the potatoes in thin round slices, cross-wise.
The reason for the medium-sized potatoes is because the medium-sized slices are the right size to bind correctly with the egg. There is a video attached to the original recipe which purports to instruct people on how to cut the potatoes — though I haven't seen it myself, because it sounds pretty intuitive.
You may also want to take the time to julienne the onion before the cooking process begins, if you can't do such a thing in four minutes or less. (I do this because I also suffer a skill issue here...)
- Step two: Add an abundant quantity of oil to the pot or deeper pan, to cook the potatoes.
A VITAL NOTE: We will not be frying the potatoes, though of course this can be done. We are going to do something different.
I can't find the right translation for the verb pochar, though I figure it's probably related to "poaching" in some way. Nevertheless, that's what we're meant to do to release ultimate flavor from these potatoes.
To poch the potatoes, you have to do this: put the pot or pan full of oil on the stove, at a high heat; and add the potatoes when the oil is warm. Not hot, warm. That is, before the oil starts boiling.
The potatoes cook for five minutes.
- Step three: Once five minutes have passed, add the onions to the cooking potatoes and stir, very gently.
Please don't stir vigorously when you're cooking with hot oil...
Once everything is combined, add salt to taste and lower the heat to a minimum. Cover the pot or pan, but not completely. Leave a crack for vapour to make its darling escape.
Leave it like this for maybe 15 to 20 minutes, stirring gently every so often and making sure nothing sticks together.
The result at the end of this process shouldn't be crunchy potatoes, it should be very soft potatoes. The video, once again, presents a visual.
Step four: Once your 'taters with onion are cooked, take the mixture out of the oil and drain them until all the oil is gone. You can save a little of the oil for re-using during this very recipe.
Step five: While the potatonions are being drained, you can get started with the eggs.
Beat all four of them in a bowl with a little bit of salt until a nicely smooth, pre-cooked-scrambled-eggs consistency occurs.
- Step six: Once the eggs are beaten and the potatonions are drained, put the potatonions in the bowl with the eggs and mix.
Don't destroy the shape of the potatoes while mixing! Instead, make sure they're whole but very well integrated with the egg.
- Step seven: Let's return to the stove. Pick the pan you can lift over your head, then add a little bit of oil. Place the pan on the stove, over high heat.
The height of your tortilla will depend on the depth and width of your pan, but ultimately the mass is the same, so this is purely aesthetic.
- Step eight: Once the oil is very hot, we pour the egg-onion-potato mixture onto the pan.
And now (watch out) we want to move around the pan, sort of wiggle it around and shake it, for approximately 30 (thirty) seconds. Don't be scared, we're helping the eggs set; this is helpful for the tortilla's development!!
- Step nine: After about thirty seconds of wiggling, lower the stove to a low heat and start correcting the edges with a spatula, the way you might with an omelette. It cooks like this for a few minutes.
How long you cook it depends on how dry you like it. The recipe's original author likes it in-between, not too moist and not too dry, and for this, a 5 (five) minute cooking time is recommended. I think you could probably lower it to 4 minutes and be fine and have a slightly moister end-product...
- Step ten: We flip it! No fear. No fear! Fear is the mind killer!
Place a second surface upside-down atop the pan and flip it in one smooth motion, no hesitation. Hesitation has led to catastrophe. The tortilla knows it when you're afraid. But you're stronger than the tortilla, and you can easily triumph!! Kick its ass!! Flip that thing!!
There's no shame in turning off the stove to do this, either, or doing it over a more solid surface than a stove. It's about having fun, not about soloing Malenia in your underwear1
The video in the original recipe shows how to do it as well. I'd recommend a cutting board over a plate because, if you drop a tortilla on a cutting board, you only have to clean up egg and potato, not shards of porcelain lol. That said, the plate gives major grandma energy, so if you're specced for that build, go crazy(?).
Once you've flipped it, slide it gently back into the pan and neaten up the edges once more. Then cook for 3-4 more minutes. If you've forgotten, this is on low heat.
- Step eleven: Final stretch. To remove the tortilla, it has to be flipped again. You can slide it off, sure, but isn't it more fun to go for a second round?
Place the cutting board or plate upside-down atop the pan, then flip the whole thing. Voilà! You now have a potato tortilla, or tortilla de papas, however you prefer to say it.
You can also add stuff to the vegetables and egg mixture, if you're feeling fancy. Anything you'd add to an omelette, really. A traditional addition is spanish chorizo — here's the Wikipedia link so you can see what it looks like.
I don't know if you can substitute the eggs, sadly. I wish! More people should be able to enjoy this food... But if you can eat eggs, go ham!! And hell, maybe I don't know enough about egg substitutes. I've for sure never dove too deep into that field. So maybe technology has advanced, and it's now doable? That would be awesome.
Well, if you make this, you should send me a photo. I'd like to see it...
Once again, all credit to Paulina Cocina for the original. She's a bit of a viral food influencer where I live — and I think she's filtered over to other spanish-speaking countries, definitely to a lesser extent; though I saw a video once of a rave in Spain, where the beat drop was punctuated by a clip of Paulina saying "bondiola" ("pork shoulder"), and that was sick as fuck. Here's a link; unfortunately, it's on Tiktok...
Anyway, yeah that's about it. See you in the next post. And as always:
thank you for reading!!
A reference to Malenia, Blade of Miquella, an incredibly difficult boss encounter from the videogame Elden Ring, as well as a famous Elden Ring player known by their nickname "Let Me Solo Her" (Know Your Meme link). LMSH became known for appearing randomly in strangers' games through Elden Ring's online features and asking permission to "solo" Malenia, that is, beat her on their lonesome. This is despite the fact that bosses (including Malenia) get a major buff during online multiplayer. It was made all the more impressive not just by Malenia's difficulty, but by the fact that LMSH's character wore no armor or clothes, and therefore all of Malenia's monstrous, unrelenting attacks were dodged perfectly by LMSH.↩