Tortilla Espanola

One of my favorite things to cook is tortilla espanola. For those of you unfamiliar with this Spanish staple, it consists of cooked sliced potatoes and beaten eggs combined in a skillet. Like a frittata or potato omelet. I like mine served with sofrito ( tomato, red bell pepper, onion and garlic) and champagne. But alas I am in Greece with limited cooking equipment.



This is a photo of our cooker/cooktop in the studio apartment. The small burner is for making Greek coffee, so we are basically stuck with only one large burner, on which I am cooking the tortilla. However, when you turn the device on both burners heat up, so you must be really careful not to burn yourself. Tortilla making has been a two day process.



First we went to the store to collect the ingredients. Grocery shopping in Astypalaia is not like shopping for food back home. Stores open in the morning from 8-2and then close between 2 and 6 pm. Since we work in the lab from 7-3 the earliest we can shop is 6 pm.



So you set out at 6 pm, but you may have to visit 3 stores to gather ingredients. One for veggies, another for dairy, and probably the butcher shop. No one stop shopping. While at the store it is common to fall into a lengthy conversation with the store owner about politics, or beaches or the economy. It takes time.



You must go to the store with an open mind. If you go to the store thinking I will make sautéed chicken beast with zucchini, you will most probably come away disappointed. There might not be chicken or zucchini, or neither one is available. However, there may be fresh lamb, tomatoes, green beans and cucumbers. You must be ready and willing to improvise. Anyway, on shopping day farm fresh eggs and potatoes were available. The potatoes were locally grown on the island. So I decided to make tortilla espanola.



That is all well and good, but our cooktop has very limited heating abilities and the single burner. Sometimes it randomly switches itself off midway through the cooking process. So we had to boil the potatoes first. It took over an hour to boil three potatoes, but finally they were cooked, cooled and sliced. I stowed them in the fridge for the next day.



Day two the potatoes got combined with the eggs in the skillet. Cooked low and slow, the better part of an hour. It tasted fantastic, but not as good as the saganaki (fried cheese) that I had at a taverna the other night. We served it with Greek salad.



Dinner is ready in Astypalaia.



More soon.