Recipe: Spanish Tortilla

There are many different versions of eggs with filling out there: quiche, omelettes, frittatas, etc. One that I particularly like that is easy and also relatively quick is the Spanish tortilla. It´s not so quick that you could make yourself one before work, but start to finish, it only takes about 30 minutes and is a great, basic weekend breakfast, and you could even fancy it up a bit for a brunch with some guests. It´s also popular in our house, because we almost always have the basic ingredients on hand to make it. Here is the basic version. The one tool that is very handy is a good-quality non-stick skillet. I have a little Calphalon guy that I love for this kind of thing.

Spanish Tortilla with potatoes and onion (Vegetarian)

• 4 large eggs
• About 1 ½ cups of very thinly sliced potato (you could use any kind, but a nice, waxy one like a Yukon Gold is particularly good)
• ½ of an onion, very thinly sliced
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat, and then add the potatoes. Toss them in order to get an even coating of oil. Sprinkle a pinch of salt over them. They should cook until they are just getting soft, about 5 minutes. Stir them every minute or so.

Meanwhile, beat the eggs in a separate bowl. If you want your tortilla to be really fluffy, you can add a tablespoon of milk. Season the beaten eggs with salt and pepper. At this point, you could also add fresh or dried herbs to the eggs like oregano, parsley, or even rosemary for a distinct flavor.

Once the potatoes are all glistening and beginning to soften, add the onions and another pinch of salt. Continue to cook the potatoes and onions for another 3-5 minutes, until the onions are very soft and just beginning to brown. Another way to tell if the mixture is ready is to just try a piece of potato. It should be slightly al dente, but totally edible. The potatoes will soften a little more with the eggs, but not much.

With the potatoes and onions ready, spread them evenly in the pan, and then pour in the beaten eggs. Tilt the pan so that the eggs spread evenly. Put a tight-fitting lid on the pan, turn the heat down to low, and let the tortilla cook for 10-15 minutes without removing the lid. When it is almost done, it will start to puff up a little bit. You can tell that it´s ready, because all of the egg on top will be set. You can also do a knife test; insert a knife, and if it comes out clean (like with baked goods), your tortilla is done.

Note: I have seen recipes and also witnessed the technique of flipping the tortilla when it´s about halfway done in order to cook the top. A good pan with a lid over low heat negates the need to attempt this somewhat difficult feat.

Plating: If it´s just you and your partner, you can just slice the

tortilla right in the pan and put a portion on each person´s plate. If you want to actually present it, you should invert it, which is much easier than it sounds. Just cover the tortilla with a plate, grab the whole thing with potholders and invert it onto the counter top. Gently shake and lift the pan, and your tortilla should come out perfectly. It makes for a gorgeous presentation.

For an everyday dish, serve it with some hot sauce or ketchup (homemade is the way to go! Recipe to come soon.). For something a little more elegant, you could serve it with sliced tomatoes, a pico de gallo, a small green salad, or even a fruit salsa (maybe diced avocado and mango!).

As far as fillings go, the sky is the limit. If you go to a Spanish restaurant or tapas bar, you´ll see tortillas with cheese, seafood, jamón Serrano, other vegetables, you name it. The same basic principal would apply in your home kitchen. What I particularly like about this recipe is how the potatoes come out. They are sliced so thinly that they cook quickly and have a great texture with the egg. Use what you got! A tortilla can also be a great way to use up that half a bell pepper or extra zucchini you have sitting in your crisper drawer.

Recipe: Tabbouleh and Hummus (with homemade tahini)

Throughout the course of the usual What should we do for dinner? discussion, Maru suddenly said, “I want some nice, light Mediterranean food.” Sounded good to me, so we picked up the extra ingredients we needed and headed home. High quality Lebanese food is sorely lacking in Puebla (oddly enough since there is a history of Lebanese people living here) and something we both miss about southeast Michigan, but the basic hummus and tabbouleh is so easy that we had no excuse not to do it. In the past, I have followed recipes for both of these simple dishes. I think that if you know what flavors you want and the essential parts of each one, you can definitely wing it, which is what I ended up doing this time. Here is my estimation of what went into a delicious final product. Adjust at your leisure!



Tabbouleh (this fresh salad normally has bulgur wheat to add some texture and protein. I didn´t have any so just skipped it.) VEGAN

• 2 bunches of fresh, flat-leaf parsley, cleaned and chopped (I used about half of the stem finely chopped also. It´s good roughage.)


• 2 tablespoons chopped, fresh mint.


• 2-3 diced roma tomatoes.


• 2-3 T freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice (lemon is more traditional, but limes are what I had).


• Salt to taste.


• A dash of extra virgin olive oil.

Toss together the parsley, mint and tomatoes. In a small dish, dissolve the salt in the lime juice, then toss into the salad. Top with just a touch of good extra virgin olive oil. It tastes best if you let it sit for an hour or so.

If you have bulgur wheat, definitely add it (it needs to soak for a while in hot water I think). Also, I prefer my tabbouleh with just a little bit of tomato, while some versions have a lot or even add a little raw onion.

This salad is good by itself as a side or mixed with hummus on some good flatbread. I was at a house once where my friend´s aunt of Lebanese descent actually served the tabbouleh on lettuce leaves instead of bread. Makes a light dish even lighter and perfect for a snack on a hot day.



Hummus VEGAN

• 250 grams (about 1.5 cups or 1 can) cooked garbanzos. If you cook your own from fresh or dried, the final product will be significantly better. If you use canned, be sure to drain off the water and rinse them.


• 1 ½ T tahini
  
  
  
  • I did not have access to store-bought tahini, but man, this sesame paste is too easy to make on your own and way cheaper that way. Just put 3-4 tablespoons of toasted sesame seeds into a spice grinder and pulse them until they are ground into a dry paste. Then add a pinch of salt and olive or sesame oil and stir with a fork until it forms a nice thick paste the consistency of molasses. Poof! Tahini!


• 3-4 cloves garlic. I roasted mine on a griddle.


• ¼ of an onion, roasted.


• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil.


• 2-3 T lime or lemon juice (again, lemon is more traditional) or to taste.


• Up to ½ cup of water.


• Salt to taste (it needs a fair amount, probably 1.5 t)

In a blender, food processor or bowl to be used with a stick blender (that´s how I did it), place the garbanzos, tahini, garlic, onion, half of the oil, a couple pinches of salt, and the lime juice. Begin blending, adding just enough water to make the mixture workable. It should look about like lumpy mashed potatoes at first. Add the rest of the oil and continue blending. At this point, add water and blend until the hummus reaches your desired consistency. Some people like it chunky and thick, others smooth and creamy, and others somewhere in the middle. I tend to like smooth and creamy, so I added about half a cup of water in total and thoroughly blended it. As far as salting goes, it helps to dissolve it in the water you add to make sure that the mixture is evenly seasoned. Taste and adjust as needed (maybe you like more lime juice!).


Maru and I thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon repast with a strawberry lassi (fresh or frozen strawberries blended with plain yogurt) and some whole wheat tortillas we had purchased.

Travels: Mazunte, Oaxaca

During the first week of March, Maru and I spent 4 nights on an ideal beach vacation in the small town of Mazunte, Oaxaca on the Pacific coast. We took a bus (12 hours!) from Puebla and arrived early in the morning in Pochutla where we took a 30 minute cab ride to our hotel, El Copal, in Mazunte.

Mazunte and neighboring San Agustinillo used to be key towns in the trade of sea turtle meat and eggs until the government banned the industry in the mid 90s. After that, they turned the economy around and now focus on conservation and tourism. It´s still a sleepy little place. Most of the tourists are European hippies, and there´s a little European (mainly Italian from my impression) ex-pat population as well. There are four major beaches, all gorgeous, and the water is a little rough for swimming at times. Mazunte is good for surfing if that tells you anything.

Our hotel, or posada, El Copal is located overlooking la Playa Mermejita, the least developed of the main beaches. The place is about a 15 minute walk from town, which gives it a remote location in a remote town. Perfect. It´s considered eco-friendly as well; the power is all solar generated, there are no water heaters, and the toilets in each cabaña are dry, ecological toilets. I know, you may be thinking of an outhouse or pit toilet. I had a few experiences with those at campgrounds in Michigan. Those are gross. A quality eco-toilet, however, is a thing of beauty. There is no plumbing involved. The toilet sits on top of a pit and has a compartment in the front that collects urine and you poop into the hole then throw in some ashes then sawdust which absorb moisture and promote virtually smell free decay. From the way ours was set up, I think they could empty out the bottom in order to compost everything. No bugs, no stink, no water! And in this particular toilet´s case, you could see the ocean while you sat on it. Nice touch!

The shower was also mounted outdoors with a view of the ocean. It was positioned in a way that protected your privacy but let you bathe in the open air, which felt great in the hot weather.

So, we had a nice place to stay. The little restaurant there is very tasty. Breakfast is a little pricey for the area, but we had dinner and mezcal cocktails there one night and it was spectacular; queso panela topped with shallots, garlic, basil and olive oil followed by a perfectly cooked steamed fish fillet with rosemary and zucchini. Yummy.

Our daily routine consisted of walking into town for breakfast, walking to the beach of our choice, then doing the beach thing; relaxing, swimming, reading, eating fish, drinking beer, playing the travel version of Settlers of Catan, body boarding, exploring tide pools, and just watching the surf. We spent one morning in the town of Ventanilla (a few miles away from Mazunte) where there is a community cooperative that has undertaken the conservation and reforestation of a mangrove lagoon. The mangroves were devastated by hurricanes in 1996 and 1997 losing up to 70% of the forest. The community has painstakingly been raising mangroves from seeds and replanting them ever since, offsetting the cost by offering guided tours of the lagoon. There is all sorts of flora and fauna; lots of bird species, turtles, and, infamously, crocodiles. It was definitely worth a visit.

We also visited the Turtle Museum, which was built after the end of the turtle hunting. It´s a place for education and conservation. Out of the 11 species of marine turtle in the world, 9 can be found off the Mexican coast and one actually only lays eggs on one beach on the Gulf side. Several species nest near Mazunte. The folks at the museum will often collect the eggs to keep them protected, incubate them, then release the babies on the beach where they were laid. They also collect injured animals to nurse them back to health and rerelease them if possible. Sea turtles are amazing animals to see up close. We were also impressed with the fact that this little town managed to turn it´s economy around, from slaughtering thousands of turtles a day to being a hub for conservation.

We got ourselves out of bed at about 5:30 another morning and hiked to Punta Cometa near our hotel. It´s an outcrop of rocks on a cliff and we had a perfect view. Exploring the rock structures was one of my favorite activities. I love tide pools, and the ones in Mazunte are exploding with several species of crabs, including the one called Mazunte, a little blue, red, and yellow guy. I caught two crabs battling it out at one point and actually spitting water. It looked like a water gun. I think maybe I´ve seen something like that in a documentary, but it was kind of hilarious to see it in real life.

Obviously, all of the seafood we ate was great, but not just the seafood. There is an Italian restaurant in Mazunte called “La Dolce Vita” run by some of the aforementioned expats. Hands down the best Italian food I have eaten in Mexico and on par with some of the best I´ve eaten in the US. They make fresh pasta and brick oven pizzas, and the lasagna we had there was perfect. Oh, and their tiramisu was nothing short of spectacular. We went there two nights in a row and got it both times.

Mazunte was just what we needed to unwind and get our mind off of waiting to hear from the visa office about Maru´s green card. I had been dying for a beach vacation for a while and this laid back place was precisely what the doctor ordered. The link to our photo album is here.