Spanish Omelettes. Where am I going wrong?

As far as I know I'm doing all the right things. I finely slice the onions and potatoes, fry them gently in olive oil until tender, season the eggs well before adding them to the pan. So why do my Spanish omelettes never taste remotely like the ones I've had in Spain? Is there some magic secret ingredient?

Hi,

As a Spanish national, I can truly say I know my omelettes. A couple of things spring to mind:

- You must use waxy rather than floury potatoes. They are normally chopped quite unevenly, so that some fry more than others.

- We tend to add chopped onions to the pan, at the same time as the chopped potatoes. Avoid colouring the onions or the potatoes: you are after a mushy, rather than crispy, texture.

- Once the potato and onion mix is fried, you take it out of the pan with a slotted spoon, draining as much oil as possible. Mix it in a bowl with the beaten egg (rather than add the egg to the pan with the potatoes). You then put the eggy mixture in a pan with a little bit of oil, fry one side, then flip it over (quite a skill to master), and then fry the other side.

Hope that helps. I must add I have never managed to cook a very good Spanish omelette in this country. I blame the potatoes being a different variety, but it might just be the weather -

Thanks for the reply, apart from mixing the potato and onion with the eggs in a bowl your recipe is pretty much the same as mine. I'm wondering if the difference is in the eggs?

Hi! My husband is also a Spanish National & we regularly make Spanish omelettes. I agree with everything cris71 says, but would also add a couple of extra tips.

Firstly, you don't mention garlic. All Spanish omelettes have chopped garlic cloves in them.

Secondly, once you have mixed your egg mixture (with a little milk added) in a bowl, don't pour it back into the frying pan until the oil is really hot.

When you are ready to turn your omelette over, put a plate on top of the frying pan (big enough to cover it), hold the plate & turn the frying pan over so that the omelette is now sitting on the plate & remove the frying pan. Put the pan back on the heat & slide the omelette off the plate back into the pan.

Another thing about cooking is that in Spain the omelette is usually still quite runny & moist in the middle, something we tend not to do in this country due to food scares re eating undercooked eggs. THe texture of an omelette with a moist runny middle is very different from one that is cooked until it is hard.

Hope this helps!

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Problems from paxil

I haven't noticed eggs tasting particularly different here, but potatoes do taste sweeter and seem softer to me. Other Spanish friends have mentioned it's impossible to make one that tastes just like the ones at home, hope you get some consolation from that!