Family Tradition Spanish Tortilla

The Traditional Spanish Tortilla resembles a potato and onion frittata which is served as a tapas item. It's delicious, but I was spoiled by age five when my dad (who is from Alicante in Spain) introduced his better version of spanish tortilla with spanish Jamon Serrano in it, instead of the onions. Living in NYC it's easy to find Jamon, however, the prices aren't very firendly to our budgets.. so I decided to make my dad's tortilla with chorizo which is more easily available in supermarkets. Any type of cured meat works for this as long as it doesn't fall appart in the cooking.

 You start out by peeling the potatoes...

and then using a mandoline to slice them very very thinly..

then you cook them in a skillet with olive oil a few minutes. Don't cook them fully.. just allow them to become soft and semi-translucent.

While that cooks you can cut up your cured meat into small chunks and also prepare the egg and milk mixture.

 I use 5 eggs per 3 potatoes plus half a cup of milk. I also add some salt and pepper to the mixture and then whisk it up.

Half way through the potatoes' cooking, add the cured meat. Make sure you stir often so the potatoes on the bottom don't get brown while the top ones hang out raw.

When that is all cooked through, dump it into the milk and egg mixture and coat the potatoes and chorizo with it.

Pam your skillet and pour all the potato and egg mixture back in, pushing down to make it as even as possible on top. You might also want to scrape the sides with a spatula every now and then to allow the egg to run down a little.

Cover the skillet with foil or with a lid for a few minutes untill the bottom is fully cooked and there is few liquid on top of the potatoes. To flip it over, loosen the tortilla from the pan and slide it onto a plate. Flip the skillet over the plate as if to make a lid, and then flip it all back into the skillet by doing a full 180 degree turn. Cook untill done and serve warm or cold.

Que aproveche!