All three Bells are celebrating the return of our cooker to the land of the living. We were without it for a whole 2 days and my it felt long. Most people when faced with a lack of cooker in the month of July would conjure beautiful bejewelled summer salads, but not me. Instead I reached for the takeaway menus, to experience Leicester's finest curries and Chinese fayre. I actually rather enjoyed it to be honest despite the grease overload. For me there's something grubby though thoroughly satisfying about eating sauces reminiscent in colour (though not flavour of course) of fluorescent marker pens.
With the takeaway menus safely stashed away, the bump nutritional abuse is over and now to quickly use up a fridge full of bits and bobs that are in danger of going off. I had to throw away some broccoli last night and still feel guilty about it. Like every child of the 80s, if I didn't eat all of my dinner up, my mother used images of starving Ethiopian children to induce guilt. Bob and his Live Aid crew have a lot to answer for. I remember suggesting what I thought was the perfect answer to the problem of me having too much food and them having too little - I'd post it to them. I think that suggestion was met with silence. Fair enough. I hadn't thought of the logistical issues.
This recipe is by no means an authentic Spanish tortilla - well, it could be but I don't know what the official recipe is.
Ingredients:
- a bag of charlotte potatoes, sliced length ways, half a centimetre thick (You can use any but these are what I had in the house.)
- normal white onions, peeled and sliced thinly
- peppers, de-seeded and sliced to about half a centimetre thick lengthways strips
- olive oil, lots
- a tablespoon of sugar
- eggs
- black pepper
The reason I haven't put volumes on the ingredients is that it all depends on the pan you're using. So... take a non stick frying pan and use it to measure your ingredients. Put the potatoes, peppers and onions into the pan (potatoes last so you can fish them out easily) until they come about 1cm from the top. Then take the potatoes out and boil them until tender but not falling apart.
Whilst the potatoes are boiling add a really good slosh of olive oil to the non stick pan full of onions and peppers, along with the sugar and black pepper. Stir and fry on a medium heat until the onions and peppers are a sort of sticky, carmamelly mess. Don't let them blacken as they're going to cook again once the potatoes and eggs go into the pan. Oh, and don't worry about using lots of olive oil - you drain most of it off, but if you don't use a good amount the poor omelette sticks. Sticking omelettes make me fly into an irrational rage, needing consolation from Mr B, so I go heavy on the oil.
Add the drained potatoes to the onions and peppers and stir gently, being careful not to break too many of the potatoes. Once you have a relatively even distribution of the veggies throughout take about 4 eggs, break into a jug, beat with a fork and pour into the pan full of potato, pepper and onion mix. Press the mixture down with a spatula. You want enough egg to almost cover the mixture but not too much so that there's more egg than veggies. If you don't have enough egg mixture just keep adding more beaten eggs until you're happy. (I have a HUGE pan and needed 10 eggs, though there was enough to feed me and Mr B for at least 3 meals - that's lots.)
Cook on a medium heat for about 25 mins, then transfer to the grill to give the top a blast. Now, you can flip the whole thing onto a plate and then slide back in upside down to cook the other side. This makes the omelette look all lovely and rounded on both sides. Sometimes when I do this is works. Other times it doesn't. So if you're looking for an easy life, which I am, just use the grill method.
Using a knife, free the omelette from the sides of the pan, then cut into slices and lift out with a couple of spatulas. (The first slice always looks a bit crap so give that to the person who will mind least, usually me.) When I lifted the first slice out it was still a bit runny and being preggers this is a no no, so it had to go back into the pan for another blast on the hob. Serve with salady bits or a tuna and cannellini bean salad. (Tinned tuna, beans, a few capers and some tomatoes with a little olive oil and black pepper.)
Mr B and I liked the omelette so much we ate two slices for dinner which may have been a little too much. Mr B had to stretch out a bit and watch an action movie until nearly midnight to let it go down. It's pretty good for lunch by the way too. The ultimate in low admin lunchbox prep - slice, wrap and go.
