Tag Archives: tortilla

Fridge Booty

I often arrive home hungry and gaze into the fridge where there’s nothing instant to eat but many pots of left overs. Fortunately the left overs are full of potential and anything that tasted good the night before can be enjoyed with egg so we make odd frittatas/tortillas. Pasta works very well as do left over beans, lentils and vegetables.

Yesterday’s lunch was courgette and spaghetti encased in an egg blanket which makes a surprisingly great tortilla. Interesting texture and plenty of flavour – I threw in an extra handful of basil, and today’s could be lentils and stir-fried kale. The possibilities are endless and easy if you’re happy to live on a diet of eggs and random left overs. Add ins are welcome additions; cheese, herbs, tomatoes etc

Simply fry the ingredients in little olive oil until they are hot then tip them into a bowl of whisked eggs seasoned with salt and pepper. (I usually use 4 or 5 eggs)

Mix well and pour back into the pan.

Cook the egg mix carefully, lower the heat and cover with a lid. When the egg is cooked at the sides and beginning to set in the middle give the pan a shake and with a bit of luck your tortilla will be mobile, if not gently ease it away from the pan with lifter until it moves.

Place a plate on top of the pan and flip the tortilla onto the plate then slide it back into the pan again and cook for 2 minutes more – not too long as it’s better if the egg isn’t cooked dry. If the thought of flipping the pan freaks you out you can finish the tortilla under the grill or in the oven in which case you’ll have a frittata – the main difference between a tortilla and frittata being how you finish cooking the eggs.

Delicious with salad on the side and even portable if you need to run.

 


Ortiga Tortilla

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Now that the woofas have discovered that we can eat nettles we have a new culinary craze in our household. They were clearing around the fruit bushes this morning and of course what did they discover? Nettles. Lots of baby ones, which they picked and put into a large flowerpot . Todays lunch is Spanish tortilla with nettles. The Spanish woofa is in charge of  making the basic tortilla – there’s no disputing that they have the best technique- and I am in charge of the nettles which are washed and ready to sneak in with the spuds.

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The potatoes are cooked with garlic in plenty of olive oil and the onions are cooked separately, which is where I sneak in the nettles. When all the veg are cooked the olive oil is drained off and everything is mixed with beaten eggs – six or seven in this case – seasoned with salt and then the mix is slipped back into one of the frying pans. When it’s half cooked the tortilla is inverted onto a plate and flipped over,

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I have to say that we have always cooked our tortillas more but I’m beginning to realise that a ‘prized’ tortilla is slightly wet in the middle.

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If you don’t eat it too quickly it does in fact firm up and cook completely – this is from the residue heat – and it definitely tastes good this way.

We ate it with ‘blond’ coleslaw on the side. The tortilla was delicious but next time for such a fatty tortilla I think we’ll use more nettles. The flavour was there but it was subtle enough.

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