Tortilla Española with Smoked Bacon – and TLC!

Pin It

The secret ingredient? TLC!

You know by now that I love magical dishes born out of the simplest of ingredients. One that I return to time and again is the Tortilla Española – the Spanish Omelette. The basic version has just 3 main ingredients – potato, onion, eggs. But there’s a 4th magic ingredient that must go into the mix – TLC – or Tender Loving Care.

The Three Amigos... on their own, they're nothing!

Each element must be selected with TLC - there is nowhere for inferior ingredients to hide in this classic dish. If you know the hens personally, so much the better! The tortilla must be prepared with patience - a hall-mark of TLC - and it must be served with reverence. TLC will make all the difference between a ‘so what’ snack and a meal fit for the Gods.

In this version, I’ve added smoked bacon. For the veggie option, obviously leave out the bacon... although in Spain, bacon/ham isn’t considered to be meat ... so you might still be served the bacon version as 'vegetarian'...

 Serves 2 hungry people

4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
100g of smoked bacon, diced
1 onion, chopped
500g potato, diced into 1cm cubes
approximately 25 strands saffron soaked in 1 tablespoon boiling water
5 large eggs
½ teaspoon fine table salt
¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

Tortilla - Spanish for "Just what I wanted!"

1                 Heat the olive oil in an 18cm (7 inch) frying pan over a medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until opaque then remove from the pan.

2                 Turn up the heat then add the onion and potato and stir until well-coated in oil. Immediately lower the heat to the minimum setting.  You want the potatoes and onions to cook without colouring. Cover the frying pan with a lid. After about 10 minutes carefully turn the contents of the pan so that the potatoes and onions cook evenly. Replace the lid and continue cooking for a further 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, poke a cube of potato with a fork make sure it is cooked right through. If not, continue cooking for a few more minutes and test again.

3                 While the potatoes are cooking, break the eggs into a large bowl and beat with a fork until the yolks are just incorporated with the whites. Strain the saffron liquid into the eggs, discarding the strands. Add the salt and black pepper.

4                 Once the potatoes and onions are cooked, add them to the bowl of beaten egg and mix until every piece of potato is well-coated. Then pour the mixture back into the frying pan and cook gently without a lid for about 20 – 25 minutes.

5                 When there is no longer any liquid egg on the surface, slide a spatula around the edges of the omelette to make sure it isn’t sticking. Then cover the pan with an inverted plate and carefully up-end the pan. Gently slide the tortilla back into the pan to finish cooking the other side for a further 2 – 3 minutes.

6                 This is good hot or cold, at any time of the day or night. Cut into thick wedges for a substantial snack and serve with a green salad. You could also cut it into cubes and impale with cocktail sticks for an excellent finger food.

Variation: Non-traditional... I love to add some smoked salmon in place of the bacon. No need to cook the salmon in advance. Simply add it to the egg mixture at the same time as you mix in the potatos and onions. Tortilla Española is also really good with this ‘Fierce’ Tomato Sauce.

Pin It

Smoked Bacon and Mushroom Chowder – Fuel for Dancing at the Crossroads

Pin It Summer arrived on Saturday – for one performance only.  The clouds of the past few weeks gave way to blue sky. The temperature nudged 20°C . It was perfect timing.  

Smoked Bacon and Mushroom Chowder - a 'souper' food

Cabinteely village was closed to traffic and a dance floor was erected in the street. Several local restaurants had set up stalls, with paella and meatballs from Las Tapas, and a range of Thai food from Pattaya. The Horse and Hound pub was five deep at the bar – almost unheard of since the smoking ban. The scene was set for the revival of an old custom - dancing at the crossroads – a tradition prohibited by the party pooping Public Dance Halls Act of 1935.

Hey! This is my airspace!

This community occasion would have been miserable in the rain. As it was, the temperature dropped to a chilly 10°C as the evening wore on. Dancing would have kept me warm but I had worn ridiculous shoes (a recurring theme) and I had to rely on this chowder to heat me up when I got home.  

For 6 - 8 servings you will need...

750g mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
10g dried porcini (optional) processed to a fine powder in a food processor
500mls chicken/vegetable stock
25g butter
150g onion, finely chopped
125g smoked bacon lardons
500mls milk
50g butter
50g plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat leafed parsley
A little extra chopped parsley for sprinkling over the top

1                    Put the sliced mushrooms (and dried porcini if using) in a medium saucepan and add the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes.

2                    Meanwhile, melt 25g of butter in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the onion and the smoked bacon lardons. Cook gently until the onion is soft and translucent. Transfer to a bowl.

3                    To the same large saucepan, add the milk, the remaining 50g of butter and the flour and stir with a whisk over a medium heat until thickened into a creamy sauce and starting to bubble – about 5 minutes. Strain the stock from the mushrooms into the creamy sauce. Add about 1/3 of the sliced mushrooms, then finely chop the remaining mushrooms and add them too. Finally, add the bacon and onion, along with salt, pepper, thyme and chopped parsley. Simmer gently for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

4                    Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Serve with a generous sprinkling of freshly chopped parsley.

This is even better next day, when the flavours have had a chance to develop further.

Pin It