Tapas
Michelle Phetlhe | Tuesday August 9, 2022 06:00
It is an omelette made with eggs and potatoes, optionally including onion. It is often served at room temperature as a tapa. The word tapas mean a snack or appetiser. It’s a Spanish noun.
More especially in Spain, this snack or appetiser is typically served with wine or beer. On the gram (Instagram), I follow a few cooking and foodie pages, and what is so great about these is that if you are being intentional or not, the algorithm makes sure to always show me something catchy and new.
I take screen grabs for reference and always find my way back when I’m finally sitting down and relaxed.
I didn’t have much of an appetite one evening, when I remembered that I had recently seen a recipe for something that intrigued me, it was called a Spanish Omelette but looked like Indian food.
This is when I decided not to fixate on what was available in the fridge, but rather to load this omelette with a bunch of leftovers, which was bacon and spinach. Why deconstructed? Well this recipe uses five very simple ingredients but I substituted, I might have lost out on its authentic taste, however, we created something amazing nonetheless.
I also did not fry my potatoes in oil, I boiled them through and processed the other ingredients and combined with eggs. I look forward to having this dish again made right, I cannot stop imagining how the fried potatoes taste wrapped in fluffy, well seasoned eggs.
The contrast in textures must be part of the reason it’s so popular. It is made up of a little bit of everyone’s favourite foods. Here is the authentic potato omelette recipe below. At Chellzkitchen, we added some spinach and bacon in the mix. Visit our Facebook page and let us know if you have tried either one of these omelettes or if you dared to make your own deconstruction.
INGREDIENTS
500g fresh potatoes
1 onion, preferably white
150ml oil 3 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
6 eggs
INSTRUCTIONS
Peel the new potatoes or leave the skins on, if you prefer. Cut them into thick slices.
Chop the onion. Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the potatoes and onion and stew gently, partially covered, for 30 mins, stirring occasionally until the potatoes are softened. Strain the potatoes and onion through a colander into a large bowl (set the strained oil aside). Beat the eggs separately, then stir into the potatoes with the parsley and plenty of salt and pepper.
Heat a little of the strained oil in a smaller pan. Tip everything into the pan and cook on a moderate heat, using a spatula to shape the omelette into a cushion. When almost set, invert on a plate and slide back into the pan and cook a few more minutes. Invert twice more, cooking the omelette briefly each time and pressing the edges to keep the cushion shape. Slide on to a plate and cool for 10 mins before serving.