marksabout

There’s always a bit of harmless banter between two people of different nationalities. More so in Europe, it seems, and the weapon in Spain is food. Ah, that old chestnut. It always starts with a sly “what food is typical from Australia?” said in the knowledge that I’ll be searching the back of the pantry for an example, then a gleeful “you don’t really have your on cuisine, do you?” Yes, it keeps on popping up in conversations, and as my Spanish improves I get better at our defence. Truth is though, it’s really hard to defend your national cuisine when you only have Pavlova (to which New Zealand possibly has a better claim), and all the dishes in Possum Magic, though I’m hardly going to win a friendly argument with pumpkin scones and lamingtons. Let alone Vegemite.

If I do continue the discussion and argue that in my experience, Australians generally have a more diverse palate than any other culture I’ve seen, that our wine is pretty good (again a difficult discussion in Spain where you can buy a damn good Rioja for €5), and that we enjoy different methods of eating a selection of the world’s best culinary offerings and that Modern Fusion cuisine is likely an Australian invention, the retort goes something like “yes, but you don’t have your own tradition of cooking [the same dish over and over and over again]”. It’s like our grandmothers and our grandmother’s grandmothers simply didn’t cook. This ain’t true. And anyways, a whole lot of them brought their traditions from Europe and elsewhere.

I could argue about the sausage. Just about every country has it’s own sausage, so claiming a culinary tradition via the Chorizo is a bit weak, sure, it’s delicious but we know of Germany as the land of the sausage, and anyway we have the thick butcher’s snag. Everyone has their own sausage.

Anyways, before I got all defensive about Australian food, I was going to write about the making of my first tortilla de patatas. I kind of knew in my head how it was made, but had a quick look for an example on YouTube before heading to the market to buy the spuds and onion.

Prep.

Spanish tortilla is basically onion, potato, eggs, oil (lots and LOTS) and salt. You can add pepper if you like. That’s it if you wanna be traditional. I did want to be traditional, but I’ve eaten a whole lot of traditional tortilla here, and I thought it could be improved with a little of each of ground cinnamon and cumin. Not too much. The subtle result was pleasing, but I daren’t allow one of my traditionalist friends taste it…

You need all that oil to fry the diced onion and potato in until soft, this is also where I added the salt and non-traditional spices.

Getting there...

While the potatoes are bubbling away in the oil, you beat the eggs. I had no idea about quantities but the onion/potato/egg ratio in the photos is about right. Use as much oil as you want to fry the taters until they are soft. Then remove as much as you can so you feel less guilty. Combine the cooked potato and onion mixture with the eggs and stir a bit. Then put it into a deep non-stick 20∅ frypan. As the mixture is pretty warm already, cook slowly on low heat. When the egg is cooked up the sides a bit, you have to flip the whole thing over and cook the other side a bit. Use a plate. If I’m honest, I burnt the bottom a little (not pictured) so make sure you don’t have the burner up too high. Fact.

I reckon it’s nicer a bit runny in the middle.

Tortilla de patatas! First try...

To be frank, I’m not sure of the traditional use for this dish. I’ve had it served as a tapa when I order a drink, I’ve ordered it as larger portion between a snack and a meal, I’ve seen it slapped in a baguette and served as a bocadillo (sandwich, carbohydrate bomb). Friends serve it with a whole lot of other hors d’oeuvres at drinks. Actually, it’s pretty versatile. I think it’s a perfect breakfast dish, though eating a big breakfast here is completely foreign. Too bad.