The Saturday Tortilla..

Home for lunch one Saturday morning, after the usual shenanigans at St George’s Market.. But what to make? A quick look in the fridge confirmed what I already knew – I hadn’t been shopping this week. And so yet another recipe was created as part of that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’ scenario with which I am so familiar (and as you are, if you’ve ever read any of my recipes).

This was a big success, on so many levels – we got a delicious lunch, and I used up all the little left-over bits from the fridge. Tada! Result!

Read on..

EQUIPMENT:

• A  frying pan (see NOTES)
• An over-head grill

INGREDIENTS: I used a 24cm diameter pan today. It made a large, shallow tortilla which would definitely make a lunch for 6 people.

These ingredients are what I had in the fridge today – naturally your fridge will be different..

• A little chorizo or other savoury sausage, cut up small
• half a green pepper, chopped
• 1-2 medium cooked potatoes cut into cubes (see notes)
• a small red onion, and a small white onion, cut into crescents
• 2 spring onions, finely chopped
• a small red chilli finely chopped
• a clove of garlic, finely chopped
• dried Italian herbs
• A sprinkle of Paprika
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 5 large eggs
• splash of whipping cream
• grated cheese

METHOD:

• Heat the pan to medium hot and add the sausage until it sizzles
• Add the peppers, onions, and chilli.

• Reduce the heat slightly and allow the vegetables to cook for 5 minutes or until softened but not coloured
• Add the chopped garlic
• Add the potatoes, stir in gently, until every thing is well mixed together.
• Continue to cook until the potatoes are warmed through and have gained a little colour
• Season with the herbs, Paprika, salt and pepper.
• Crack the eggs into a jug, add the cream and beat well together. Season.
• Tidy the contents of the pan by pushing down any vegetables from the side, so that everything is sitting on the flat part of the pan.
• Put the grill on to its maximum heat

• Pour the eggs evenly over the vegetables
• Let it cook gently for between 3-5 minutes, until the egg is still liquid on the top of the tortilla, but when you pull up the side, you can see that the bottom is cooked.

• Sprinkle the cheese generously over the top, then shove the whole pan under the grill.

 

• Keep an eye on it while you make a quick salad https://eatingforireland.com/recipe/my-easy-green-salad/ as an accompaniment.
• It usually puffs up nicely, but don’t get too excited, it will fall again as soon as you remove it from the heat.

• As soon as the cheese has melted, it’s ready. If you over-cook it, the eggs will go rubbery, so definitely give it no more than 5 minutes under the grill.
• Remove, allow to sit for a couple of minutes then cut into slices and serve with my green salad (see link above)

NOTES:

• If you want a deeper tortilla, just use a smaller pan. The trick with this is to have all the sausage and vegetable mixture fully cooked before you add the eggs.
• I didn’t have any cold potatoes today, so peeled two large ones, cut them into thick slices, then cooked them in a covered bowl in the microwave (mine got 7 minutes at 1000w) – I briefly ran them under cold water to cool them. Then it was really easy to cut the slices into the size I wanted. NB: two potatoes was far too much, but hey, you can never have too many cold potatoes, right?
• Over-cooking is easy, but remember that the egg continues to cook after you remove it from the grill, so just go by the melted cheese rule.
• These are just my fridge leftovers, but anything that’s lying about will probably do well. I probably wouldn’t use tomatoes (too much liquid) but sliced mushrooms, bacon pieces, (well crisped up)or virtually anything else will do very nicely. Of course, leave the meat element out for a vegetarian option.
• We’ll be having the remainder of this for lunch over the next few days, it’s good served cold or warm. It’s great for picnics too, as it travels well.