You’ll need eggs (los huevos) and potatoes (las patatas), of course, and also onions (las cebollas) and peppers (los pimientos).
To make a potato omelet, first put on a pot of water to boil. You’ll want to boil your potatoes before you fry them so that they won’t turn out raw. If you wish, you could microwave them instead.
While the water is heating up, scrub and chop your potatoes. I chopped them into pieces a little less than a square inch each (wedges). Also start to chop up your other ingredients.
I used one red pepper...
And one yellow onion. The bag I'm wearing on my hand, by the way, is so that my hands don't stink to high heaven afterwards. It's just a ziploc bag, but it's so much more than that.
If you’d like to omit the pepper, Avancemos claims that one needs only onion and potato (in addition to eggs, of course) for a genuine tortilla de patatas.
Boil the potatoes until they’re just shy of ready (Ten minutes? Maybe more, maybe less. Depends on the size of your chunks. Also I over-boiled mine, so I really can't do much more than estimate.).
Warm some oil (el aceite) (I used a splash of canola) in a frying pan. When it’s hot enough that the oil spatters when you flick water into it, add the onions, peppers, and potatoes.
Cook the vegetables until the potatoes are browned -- basically, until they look like breakfast potatoes. If you have anyone in your household that dislikes eggs (read: the resident twelve-year old), you’ll be able to serve some breakfast potatoes outside of the omelet.
While you’re cooking the vegetables, beat the eggs well. I added milk because milk adds to the fluffiness of the scrambled eggs.
Plus, ya know, it’s prettier that way. (Beat the eggs better than that, though!)
When the vegetables are fried to your taste, pour the eggs right on top of them. This is where las tortillas de patatas are different from standard omelets – you don’t cook the eggs, and then put the vegetables in on top of the eggs, but you pour the eggs on top of the vegetables. After that, however, cook like you would any other omelet. I found it awkard because the potatoes wanted to turn the omelet into a scramble. It would, I think, have been easier in a larger pan, but I used a single-egg pan because I was the only one who was going to eat the omelet.
If you’ve never made an omelet, make sure that you lift the sides from time to time so that the uncooked egg on top runs to the bottom. Cover the pan when you’re not actively doing something to keep the heat inside. When the top is still uncooked but no longer watery, flip the whole omelet. If you're making a large omelet, you can cut the omelet in half with your spatula, and flip one half at a time (trust me -- this makes flipping much easier). With this omelet, flipping was harder than usual because the lack of a pure egg bottom made the dish want to fall apart. This would have been fine, but I wanted the presentation of an omelet, darnit!
Continue cooking until both sides are lightly browned, and the eggs are cooked all the way through. I blackened mine a bit, because that’s what I felt like having this morning.
Serve, and enjoy. I had the omelet as pictured, with a little salt and pepper on top. It was tasty (sabrosa). It would be good with salsa, too, I think.
All pictures were taken by me, and all content is mine. Please don't take or use without my permission and without giving me credit. Thank you.
