Saturday is taterday

19 Saturday Oct 2013

Posted by Zoli in breakfast, comfort food, gluten free, kids, Vegetarian

Tags

breakfast, Garlic and Sapphires, hashbrowns, potatoes, Ruth Reichl

It’s Saturday morning! In my house that means lying in bed feeling a little bit hungover, but essentially cozy and happy. At 7:30 children might make clamorous noise and jump on me or they might snuggle in next to me and play weird games on their Dad’s iphone. Their dad makes no sound or movement, but remains a warm silent lump under the duvet. All this is my idea of fun. I know it does not sound like fun. But I don’t have to get up and go anywhere or make lunches or figure out what black item of clothing to wear to work. Sure there are soccer games later and coffee, breakfast and cat feeding are on the horizon. But no rush. We just are. An hour or so goes by.
When thinking of some warm crispy Saturday morning comfort food, I turn to this great recipe of Ruth Reichl’s for hashbrowns from her book Garlic and Sapphires. Potatoes, tons of butter, a little onion and plenty of salt and pepper. It is crispy, salty and looks kind of impressive.

Hash Browns for 2 hungry people or 4 people as a side dish
Not exactly Ruth’s recipe, but pretty darn close
6 medium waxy potatoes
5 tbs butter
1/2 small onion, very finely diced
Sea salt and fresh ground pepper
Medium/small sloping frying pan
Soft spatula

1. Boil the potatoes whole and get your coffee on for the day.
2. Check the potatoes after about 10 or 15 minutes. They should be almost cooked, not fully cooked.
3. Drain and let cool. Peel and cut into small chunks.

5. Melt half the butter on medium heat, season with salt and pepper and add in the potatoes. Press the potatoes down with your spatula to form a cake. You want waxy potatoes so they will be sticky and hold together. Run the spatula around the edges of the potatoes to keep them from sticking to the frying pan.
6. Cook for about 5 or 6 minutes until a bottom crust has formed. Cover with a large plate and turn the heat off. Leave the potatoes for a couple of minutes to steam cook. Then hold the plate firmly onto the frying pan and in one swift motion, flip the potato cake upside down onto the plate.

7. Add the rest of the butter, plenty of salt and pepper to the frying pan and melt on medium heat.
8. Sprinkle the onions evenly into the frying pan.
9. Carefully ease the potato cake back into the frying pan to keep its shape. If any potatoes come loose, just mush them back into place with your spatula. Repeat the same process of loosening the sides of the potato cake with a spatula and pressing down to keep the shape.
10. Cook for another 5 minutes, until a nice golden brown crust has formed on the bottom. Add more salt and pepper to the potatoes.
11. When the hashbrowns are cooked and there is a nice crust on the bottom, loosen the sides with the spatula and flip upside down onto a plate again.

Call everyone to the table and dig in!

Spanish tortilla

09 Wednesday Oct 2013

Posted by Zoli in breakfast, comfort food, drinks, eggs, gluten free, omelettes, party bites, Sauces, snacks, spanish, tapas, Vegetarian

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

potato omelette, romesco, spanish recipes, Spanish tortilla, tapas, tortilla, tortilla de patatas, tortilla espanola

The first time I went to Spain, I noticed these potato omelettes everywhere–on every menu, in every cafe and bar, stuffed inside of bread flutes and sold as sandwiches and sometimes cut into wedges and served to us free with a drink. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that what I thought would be a cold, dry, brick of potato and egg turned out to be soft, moist and delicious. The humble tortilla is not your run-of-the-mill omelette. For one thing it is delicious cold. For another it is delicious warm, hot, on its own, stuffed in bread, or served with homemade romesco and a green salad. It doesn’t feel like a heavy meal either–unless you eat the whole thing yourself.
I recently had the good fortune to visit my sister-in-law who lives just outside of Madrid. She was a wonderful hostess and tour guide and joy of joys, we stopped several times to sit in the shade with a cerveza or tinto de verano and pan and tortilla. It’s been so long since I’ve had really good tortilla that I had forgotten that Tortilla Espanola should be so soft and moist that you can barely tell the potato from the egg. Time to update this recipe!
Oh and, as a bonus, if you can find a last warm sunny day (such as today) before Autumn sets in, tinto de verano on your deck or patio will make it even more special.

Tortilla ingredients
will make about 6 mid-size wedges
3 large potatoes or 4-5 small potatoes, peeled
1 onion, sliced thinly
5-6 eggs, beaten and seasoned
sea salt and fresh ground pepper
about 2 cups Spanish olive oil
9-inch frying pan with curving edges
plates for flipping

1. Cut the potatoes into small pieces, almost like flakes, by holding each potato in one hand and using a pairing knife to cut off little pieces. They do not have to be uniform, just thinnish bits of potato, roughly the same size.
2. Do the same with an onion–small, thin pieces.
3. Mix the potato and onion in a large bowl with salt.
4. Heat up a generous amount of olive oil in the frying pan—enough oil to almost cover the potatoes. This might make some people uncomfortable, but the magic to this dish is that the potatoes and onions are simmered in the olive oil and become super moist and flavorful. Simmer on a low or medium-low heat until tender and easily breakable with a wooden spoon. Stir the mixture to cook evenly.
5. When the potatoes are soft and tender, pour into a strainer over a bowl to catch the excess oil.
4. Break the eggs into a large bowl and beat. Add a little salt. Then add the cooked potato onion mixture.
6. Heat up a little oil in the frying pan on medium heat and then add in the egg/potato/onion mixture. Hold the handle of the frying pan and shake it so that the egg doesn’t stick to the bottom. Use a spatula to run around the sides and make sure nothing sticks.
7. Let the omelette cook until the bottom is browned.
8. Take a large plate and fit it over the omelette in the frying pan. In one swift motion, flip the frying pan over so that the omelette falls smoothly onto the plate.
9. Add a little bit more oil to the frying pan.
10. Hold the plate with the omelette over the frying pan and scoot the tortilla carefully off the plate so that it gently eases into the frying pan (runny egg side down, cooked side up). Cook on medium for another few minutes–about 3-5 minutes on medium heat. Loosen the sides with a spatula to make sure it doesn’t stick.
11. Turn off the heat and cover the omelette with a lid for a couple minutes to gently steam cook. Then hold a plate over the frying pan and flip again to serve the finished tortilla.

This may take some practice and experience to judge when the tortilla is ready. Some people may prefer the egg more undercooked than others. You can’t really go wrong with potatoes, eggs and salt though!

Tinto de verano
For this lovely summery low alcohol cocktail:
1/4 to 1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup lemon soda such as Fanta or Trader Joes Lemon soda
squeeze of lemon, plus lemon slice
plenty of ice

1. Mix all together. I prefer mine on the light side—too much red wine isn’t as nice to me.
It seems so simple, but is quite delicious.