Chari Makes Tortilla

 

 

You used to be able to get really good  tortilla de patata in bars in Spain. A quick pincho was warm, gooey and sunshine yellow . We could never resist it. Popping into a bar, perching ourselves on our bar stools, and ordering “dos cortatos“, and a pincho of tortilla with two forks. It was always a satisfying treat. But alas those days have gone. Nowadays, it’s hard to find a pincho of tortilla that is gooey.More often than not, it is dry, aenimic, and rather tasteless.  I thought, when I moved here to the south of Spain, that Andalusians just didn’t know how to make gooey tortilla but then I discovered the truth….

It’s Health and Safety again. ‘Sanidad‘ as its known in Spanish.  To protect us from salmonella poisoning. there is a law that states eggs have to be cooked at a temperature over 75 degrees. To avoid problems, most bar owners have opted to cook with a product known as huevina  – a ready liquid pasteurized egg derivative, or powdered eggs. And more often than not, they just buy a ready made tortilla and heat it in the microwave.

So thats it for tortilla in bars. No more gooey egg.  It’s over. There’s really only one guaranteed way to enjoy this delicious dish in its drippy state and that is homemade. You have no choice.

So enter Chari, with a basket of free range eggs.  She is Andalusian to the core and, to all who know her, the Queen of Tortilla. As you see from the photo above, her tortilla is perfect.

Here she is in action, chopping potatoes and a  little bit of onion, heating up quite a quantity of olive oil, and salting and frying up her potatoes in batches. The onions, she tells me go in with the last batch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She then starts cracking open the eggs, one at a time into a separate dish checking it’s OK before mixing it with the others.  I ask her how many eggs she is going to put in. She looks at me, a bit perplexed by my question “I don’t know yet. I depends what it needs.”  Then she shows me how it should look.

“The more eggy the better” she says. “There’s nothing worse than a dry tortilla”.  And I think of the miserable offerings I have had in bars and airport cafes  – especially airport cafes – and I know what she means.

Into the pan it all goes and she gives it about 3 minutes to seal, then takes a plate, places it on top and effortlessly flips the whole thing over and slides it back in. (she’s been practicing!)

The other side she cooks more slowly on a lower heat – letting it cook through for a few more minutes then out with the plate and over it goes again. The idea of turning so much it, she tells me, is to make sure it stays golden yellow and doesn’t get not brown – cooked but still slightly runny. So she turns it again but this time she pokes some holes with a fork.

And flips it out. Perfect.

Ingredients

• olive oil
•  5-6 potatoes
• eggs (she used 6 in the end)
• 1 onion
• salt

And just a bit of trivia and something I never knew till recently. Salmonella only exists on the shell and not in the egg itself. This is why the eggs we buy are washed and stamped with a sell by date. The washing might prevent salmonella but it also takes away a protective substance on the shell and reducing its shelf life. Hence, the date. Fresh farm eggs can be kept for ages but their mucky shells should only be washed immediately before using. Interesting.

 

The eggs for this tortilla didn’t come from a supermarket but from happy chickens living in paradise with our friends Nino and Elina. No wonder it tasted so good.