Flip with Authority

and, use what you have.

I am a ‘use what you have’ kind of person. You might know this by now. I like creative constraints, minimal choices. Take this kitchen scene for example. Our local Sears bargain basement (sadly now shuttered) had this stove on super-sale when we were building the cottage. The magnetic knife rack comes from Grohmann Knives, a twenty minute drive from the cottage. The salt in the little ceramic bowl with the teeny wooden spoon comes from OK Sea Salt of Bush Island. The melamine dishes below, made decades ago by the Canadian company Duraware, were a gift from our neighbour Tony. We now have a drawer full of Duraware plates and cups in a swath of moonmist colours. I’m not sure if melamine is food safe anymore; it certainly isn’t microwave proof, and the internet tells me that hot or acidic food on melamine can lead to chemical leaching, so I use them for room temperature prep plates and beauty shots. And then there are the denim overalls I left on a hook at the cottage last year. It was chilly and damp this morning so I put them on. They’re deeply unflattering. My sister confirmed it. But, we use what we have.

And in the spirit of using what I have, there’s a bag of potatoes, onions and lots of eggs in the fridge, so I’m making Spanish Tortilla, Tortilla de patatas, tortilla española or Spanish Omelet  for the third time this week. It’s a potato cake of sorts (very different from a Mexican tortilla), made by poaching thinly sliced potatoes and onions in olive oil until the potatoes are just tender. I’m adding thyme leaves, because yes, that’s what I have. It seems simple enough, like the gentle stove top scene above. But don’t be fooled; that is only the beginning. The potatoes are then drained of oil then combined with eggs. More oil is added to the now empty pan, the potato mixture is added back in, and when they’re firm around the edges but still wet on top, a series of flips and inversions begin. 

It’s beautiful watching someone execute their craft with ease and grace. I’m thinking about Andy Murray on the grass courts of Wimbledon. Or my yellow lab, leaping over logs in the forest. Or Aran Goyoaga flipping a Spanish Tortilla in front of a crowd. We were in the Basque country at a food and photography workshop with Aran, a Basque/American cookbook author and photographer. Aran stood facing everyone, casually flipping a thick, perfectly browned tortilla from a cast iron pan to a plate, then back into the pan again. This is the official dish of Spain. Aran’s probably been inverting potatoes bubbling in hot oil since childhood. It was a beautiful thing to behold. 

So I started practicing with gentle guidance from Camilla Loew, author of the Sobremesa Cookbook. Loew devotes three pages to Tortilla de patatas. I read them, several times, in preparation for my first attempt. Loew acknowledges that when making a Tortilla de patatas, there are countless techniques, variations, tips and tricks that vary throughout families and regions. The one thing that remains constant, however, is to invert the tortilla with authority.

So with apron on and sleeves rolled up, I put a large plate on top of the pan, palmed my hand over the plate as if it were a basketball, held the fry pan in the other and flipped. But the plate was too small and a quarter of the tortilla slipped into the sink. The second time the plate was askew and the wet raw egg from the top of the tortilla slipped through the crack in my system and splashed across the Vitamix. The third time I splashed hot oil on my wrist, but I muscled through, seeing the tortilla safely into the pan before I ran my hand under the cold tap.

I’m getting there. Look at this beauty, golden and almost symmetrical, sitting proud on a cake plate. I served it to my parents for lunch, along with this simple green salad, yesterday’s grilled asparagus and a slightly blistered wrist. 

It’s raining outside, I’m wearing overalls with authority and I still have half a bag of potatoes to work through, so I’ll probably make it again tomorrow. 

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I am not qualified, yet, to provide you with a recipe this week. Camilla Loew's excellent recipe can be found inside the Sobremesa Cookbook. She also includes Ferran Adrià’s version, made with potato chips! A genius move from Spain’s master of molecular gastronomy.

But if you’re keen to get at it, both versions can be found online. Here are two highlights:

• The NYTimes Cooking Spanish Tortilla

• Food 52’s version of Ferran Àdria’s potato chip tortilla

Good luck!