As I’ve mentioned in Wednesday’s Passionfruit-Glazed Tuna & Avocado Bites post, I’m currently struggling to keep my travel-bug – it’s screaming for someone to hit the giant fast-forward button at the top of its lungs – under control by actually feeding it memories and tidbits from previous adventures. Plus, I’m starting to tire of the wintery kind of food, so bringing a bit of Catalonian Summer to our Sunday Breakfast table seemed like a really good idea.

There’s one dish on the Tyrian menu, the Griffon Egg Omelet, that kept nagging at me ever since we returned from our trip to Barcelona. For reasons not entirely clear to me, every time I brush by this particular egg dish…

… I’m reminded of the “accidental” omelet I was served at a beautiful little tapas bar halfway up the hills leading up the Tibidabo. We had ordered our way up and down the tapas and wine menu all evening and all of a sudden, a serious “Tortilla” sounded like an absolute must-have before we wobbled back down in to the general direction of our hotel. Over the course of the night, I had completely forgotten about the fact that a spanish tortilla is in no way the mexican tortilla I was expecting at that moment, but rather the more commonly known italian frittata. Or french oven omelet, for that matter. Anyways, the thin slice of cheesy, chorizo’y egg cake was about the last thing I was prepared for – but not in the least bit less hearty and delicious than the steaming mexican tortilla I had craved, mind you.

For a showy breakfast or brunch spread, you can repurpose a muffin tray to bake individual, fingerfoody portions of it~! In this case though, the amounts listed will net you a nicely filled 18cm DIA pan.

The Tortilla
1 Fingerling Potato, very thinly sliced
2 Duck Eggs
or 4 regular Chicken Eggs
50g Chorizo, sliced into thin disks
50g Manchego Cheese, grated – for the egg mixture
Extra Manchego Cheese – for a cheesy finish~
½ Lemon, Zest
2 Spring onions, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
½ Red Bell Pepper, finely diced
1 Tsp Pimenton
½ Tsp Chilli Flakes – hot or mild is up to you, use a fragrant variety in either case
Salt to taste – be careful, though, the chorizo and manchego both add a lot of salt to the dish already

1) Spread out the potato slices in your pan.
2) Arrange the chorizo slices on top, pop on a lid and set the pan onto medium heat. As the pan is warming up, the chorizo will start to ooze out its deliciously spiced fat, seasoning the potatoes and providing them with the fat they need to crisp up in one go.
3) Once the contents of your pan start sizzling away, about 6-7 mins into the merry proceedings, check on your potatoes – depending on how thinly you’ve sliced them, they might be close to done.
4) You’re looking for a just slightly underdone texture with a pretty crisp on the pan-side.
5) Give the potatoes and chorizo a hearty flip and add the bell pepper and spring onion.
6) Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl, add the lemon zest, pimenton and chilli flakes and whisk them until the spices are evenly distributed.
7) Pour the egg mixture into the pan and gently stir the lot to re-distribute all of the ingredients as the mixture is firming up.
8) Once you see or fork-feel the same amount of chorizo in every future slice of the tortilla, stop fussing around with it – going on would create a pan of scrambled eggs. Just a light nudge to spread out the goodies inside is enough.
9) Pop the lid back on and turn the heat down to medium-low.
10) Leave it to its own devices for 5 mins, then check on the progress. If the omelet has firmed up around the edges and seems only slightly wet towards the middle, sprinkle some more manchego and an extra pinch of pimenton on top.
11) Gently slide a spatula around the rims and give the pan a light shake from side to side to prevent the omelet from burning after half that time has passed and the outer rim has set.
12) At this point, you could pop it into the oven for a couple of minutes at 180°C to melt and crisp the cheese.
Oooor, close the lid again until the cheese has melted and then go to town with a crème brûlée burner to get the same result~
13) Either way, let the pan cool off for just a couple of mins, then slide the tortilla out onto a serving plate before it cools off entirely – it might set, stick to the pan and break if you try to remove it at that point. You could, of course, simply serve it in the pan…
14) A tortilla like this is best served as part of a breakfast or brunch spread while it’s still warm, but makes for a delicious cold snack any time of the day… or night~ as well.

Enjoy~!

We cleaned the leftovers of this particular one with a bottle of beer we encountered during the same trip for the first time and, by some freak blip on the universes radar, appeared in the craft beer section of the supermarket around the corner as part of a Spain Special of sorts… sadly it hasn’t been available since then – it’s so rare for a wine person like me to find a beer to their liking. I suppose I’m going to have to go back to Barcelona for a drink~! Awww.

Well, that’s the Chef’s Guild for you, giving me, with such a simple but delicious dish, an instant-ticket back to a wonderful evening… with this breathtaking view of Barcelona

♥