Spanish Tortilla with Aioli

Happy mid-summer everyone! I don’t know how many of you celebrate mid-summer, but here in the North, I guess at least in Sweden alongside of Finland, it’s a big fest. It’s three days of relaxing, fleeing from cities and spending time at the summer cottage, enjoying the nightless night when the sun doesn’t go down at all, drinking beer and grilling sausages.

I just read from the newspaper that Finnish people, we’re about 5 million all together, eat 4,4 million packets of sausages and drink 11 million liters of beer during the mid-summer. Imagine that! 11 million liters of beer is more in three days than what Saudi-Arabians have consumed in centuries. No wonder alcoholism is the public health problem in Finland.

I spent my mid-summer with S at a friend’s parents place, comfortably near the nature and the city. My friends are food enthusiasts, so for me there was not much to do. Me and S just got to enjoy the incredible summer food and mood. It was a good break from work stress, with good people and we both really enjoyed the weekend!

As I haven’t been cooking anything lately, and I didn’t cook anything basically during the mid-summer either, I am posting you something I did a while ago already. I had a lot of potatoes to use, and I had been yearning for a Spanish omelette for a lot of time. I don’t remember which dish I made, but afterwards had many boiled potatoes as left-overs. So I finally got the omelette done!

Spanish tortilla is basically an omelette with potatoes. It’s super simple to do, just takes a while to prepare it. In Spain they eat it a lot in tapa style, as small snacks with other types of tapas. We had this for brunch. It’s best served with aioli, a strong garlic mayo.

Here I used boiled potatoes, but I know some prefer to use raw ones. If you use raw potatoes, need to cook them in the skillet in generous amount of olive oil before adding the eggs. Using boiled ones is also a bit healthier, if you’re after that!

Spanish Potato Omelette aka Tortilla

4 medium firm potatoes, boiled, peeled and completely cooled

1 large onion

6-7 large eggs

3 tablespoons good olive oil

salt and black pepper to taste

Cut the onions in half and slice thinly. Slice the potatoes.

Heat up the oil in a medium skillet over medium heat.

Beat the eggs with salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Gently mix the sliced onions and potatoes with the eggs.

Pour the egg-potato mixture into the skillet. Cook until the edges start getting firm, and reduce the heat to medium-low.

Cover with a lid and cook more 5-8 minutes until the top starts to get firm too. While the omelette is cooking, check that it’s not stuck in your skillet by sticking a spatula under it or shaking the skillet gently.

Flip the omelette by sliding it on a plate, topping the plate with your skillet and flipping the whole thing over. Now the bottom of the omelette should be nice and golden.

Cook for 5 minutes more until the other side gets a golden color too.

Slide on a serving plate and serve warm or room temperature with aioli.

Basic Aioli

2 cloves garlic

2 egg yolks

250ml olive oil

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon lemon juice

pinch of salt

All your ingredients should be in room temperature before starting.

Peel and carefully ground the garlic in a mortar. It’s important that there are no garlic chunks, would be a nice surprise!

Transfer the mashed garlic into a medium bowl. Using a wire whisk, whisk in first the mustard and then egg yolks.

Very slowly, start adding the oil. It’s very important to add it slooooowly, as it will emulsify and your aioli will become thick. Add the oil first in drops, and then in a slow, fine stream while constantly whisking with a wire whisk.

When your aioli has reached the desired thickness (it should be thicker than a normal mayonnaise), add the lemon juice and a pinch or salt. Whisk until smooth.

If you wish, you can also spice the aioli with chili or lime juice. Be creative!