Harmony Kitchen

Feb 1, 2025 Recipe of the Week

It is pretty amazing how versatile the humble potato is. It’s our storage vegetable that lasts the longest into the winter and there are so many simple and delicious ways to cook it. It is a kitchen chameleon, change the cooking method and the taste and texture completely transform.

This week, our chickens have started laying a few more eggs, and I started experimenting with Spanish tortilla recipes. Once you get the hang of it, this recipe comes together in just over half an hour. It’s great for dinner, served warm, or you can put it in the fridge and serve it cold for breakfast, lunch or snacks (I made two at the same time so that I could have it both ways).

The recipe uses a lot of extra-virgin olive oil, which can be expensive. Don’t worry, you get most of the olive oil back at the end of the recipe and it’s delicious re-used in other recipes (more on that later).

Since I knew I would be using a lot of olive oil in this recipe, I pre-used the olive oil to confit a batch of garlic for the freezer. I then reused that olive oil to make the Spanish tortilla, used the same olive oil to make my second Spanish tortilla and then used this flavour infused olive oil to make roasted garlic aïoli.  The rest I saved in  the freezer for another Spanish tortilla night.

Pantry items: 3/4 of a pound of peeled and thinly sliced onion. 2 cups of extra-virgin olive oil. A few teaspoons of paprika, sweet or smoked (optional) salt and pepper Optional: several heads of garlic (available on our store) for pre-roasting

Method

If you want to get the most out of your olive oil oil (and add loads of extra flavor and nutrients to your Spanish tortilla), you can start by making a storage batch of garlic confit.

To do this, peel your garlic into individual cloves and give them a good rinse and dry.

***For peeling large amounts of garlic, I divide them into their cloves, cut the root end off each clove and then shake them vigorously between two stainless steel bowls. This removes all of the skins in about 30 seconds***

Place the cleaned and skinned garlic cloves in a pot and cover them with olive oil. Bring them to a simmer and then reduce the heat to the absolute bare minimum to just continue to see a few bubbles coming up off of the garlic cloves. Leave them on your stove for one to two hours until they’re nice and soft and lightly tan.

Drain the oil off, and save it for the tortilla recipe.

If you like, save one or two of the roasted garlic cloves to make some aïoli for your Spanish tortilla (see below for details); the rest can be frozen in portions for later.

For the tortilla, put your potatoes in the sink to start soaking so they’ll be easy to clean.

Next, prep your eggs.  Add a few good pinches of salt and pepper and whisk them together until frothy then set them aside. Whisking them with salt in advance will make them more tender and help them to retain water so that you will not have a soggy tortilla.

Next, wash and peel your potatoes (save the skins for potato skin chips, if you like!).

Cut the potatoes in half and very thinly slice them.

Peel and thinly slice your onion.  

Finely chop your roasted red peppers and set them aside.

Add 2 cups of fresh or reserved extra-virgin olive oil to your skillet and add your potatoes and onions. It will look like there’s way too many veggies in the pan, but they will cook down pretty quickly. Turn the heat up until it’s bubbling and then adjust the heat so that it’s just very slowly bubbling and not furiously bubbling over. Stir occasionally until the veggies are nice and soft, about 25 minutes.

Once the veggies are cooked, strain the oil by pouring the veggies through a fine mesh strainer over a stainless steel bowl.

Whisk your eggs to get them frothy again and pour the still warm vegetables into the eggs. Add your reserved chopped red peppers and their juice.  You can add a few teaspoons of paprika at this point if you like (it’s delicious with or without).Stir everything together to combine and leave to sit while you clean out your pan and make sure you have a nice non-stick surface for your your tortilla.

Add 3 tablespoons of your reserved oil back into the pan and heat on medium high heat until it’s shimmering.

Get your plate out and ready for flipping partway through the cooking (I like to keep it on my stove top so it’s right next to the skillet and easily accessible).

Pour your potato-egg mixture into the pan and swirl it around until it starts to set. Use your spatula to press in at the edges and allow extra egg mixture to go from the top of the omelette to the bottom. After about three minutes, keep the pan still but continue pressing in at the edges until the edges have started to firm up and set (about another 3 minutes).

Once the edges are set, put your large plate on top of the skillet (using oven mitts or a kitchen towel to protect your hands) then quickly flip the pan upside down so that the tortilla is on the plate with the cooked side on top.

While the tortilla is on the plate, quickly check to make sure there’s nothing stuck to the bottom of the pan, give it a quick wipe and add another tablespoon or two of oil to the bottom of the pan, then slide your tortilla back in with the cooked side on top.

Cook for another 2 to 3 minutes until the bottom is set and browned, adjusting the temperature to avoid burning. The middle of the tortilla should still be slightly soft to touch. Continue to press around the edges of the tortilla to make nice firm sides.

After 2 to 3 minutes, slide the tortilla back on your plate, let it rest for five minutes while you clean up your pan (and/or make some roasted garlic aioli, see below) and then it’s ready to serve.

Time Savers, Storage Tips and Spin off Recipes

• See last week’s newsletter for tips on making potato skin chips!
• You can easily increase your veggie count and use up any veggies that you happen to have in your fridge in this recipe.  Check to see what you’d like to add before you start chopping your potatoes and onions. Keep the ratio of eggs to veggies the same as in this recipe by replacing some of the potato and onion mixture with the other veg that you have on hand. Cook the other veggies separately. Any hard veggies can be seared a little bit and then covered to gently steam  in a separate pan and then added, still warm, with the potatoes and onions, to the egg mixture before proceeding with the rest of the recipe as above.
• You can make a quick and delicious aïoli in two minutes while your Spanish tortilla is resting and waiting to be cut. Put one large egg in the bottom of a large mason jar. Add a good pinch of salt and pepper, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and the juice of half a lemon. Add one or two of your roasted garlic cloves and one cup of cooled reserved olive oil. Let it settle for 30 seconds to a minute and then insert an immersion blender to the bottom of the jar.  Holding the jar in one hand and the blender the other, slowly pull the immersion blender up as the mixture emulsifies and thickens. You can serve this with your Spanish tortilla and save any leftover in the fridge for delicious sandwiches or for dipping your potato skin chips.
• Save any unused garlic confit/Spanish tortilla olive oil in the freezer; at room temperature or even in the refrigerator there is a risk of botulism, but it will store well in the freezer for months and can be defrosted to be used to make Spanish tortillas or used in other recipes anytime.
  

Did you Know?

Extra-virgin olive oil is a super food, boasting 36 known polyphenol compounds (compared to only six in coconut oil), including oleocanthal, which has similar anti-inflammatory properties to ibuprofen.

Scientific studies have shown that those who consume olive oil on a regular basis have lower rates of cardiovascular disease and breast cancer.

Cooking with olive oil reduces some of its health benefits, but it remains superior to other types of oil even after cooking.

There are significant differences in the processing methods and health benefits between extra-virgin olive oil and other grades of olive oil.

As a natural product, olive oil has a shelf life and slowly loses health benefits over the span of about 18 months; be sure to check the harvest date on your bottle when you purchase it to harness the maximum benefits

Olive oil degrades when exposed to heat or light so storage is important. Storing it in a cupboard away from sunlight and fluctuations in temperature will help to preserve its health benefits longer.

This Recipe’s Plant Count: Five, Six if you used paprika and seven if you use olive oil infused with garlic, unlimited if you take the opportunity to empty out your veggie drawer!

Time Required: About two hours to make garlic confit. About 45 minutes for the Spanish tortilla

Number of Servings: With a nice salad on the side, this will make eight meal portions. You can also cut it into smaller pieces and have it cold for lunches or for snacks.