Tortilla for babies and toddlers, aka Spanish Omelette

I remember my Mum eating 'Spanish Omelette' when I was little.  I never quite got it.  It seemed to contain pretty much anything and everything and always had tomatoes in it.  Even as a child, tomatoes and egg seemed like a pretty bad idea and I still can't quite compute that now.

Needless to say, despite being a fantastic cook, there was nothing Spanish about my Mum's omelettes.


I don't quite know where she got that idea from but she was of the generation substituting ingredients where she saw fit and never being all that bothered about authenticity.  You also have to remember that peppers (capsicums) were exotic at one time to my Mum's generation.  She had to order dried peppers in especially!  Let alone being able to buy fresh ones!

Well in a similar vein, this is pretty inauthentic.  Ok, the basic ingredients are similar to a Spanish tortilla but it's simplified a lot.  The real version has slow cooked onions and potatoes in olive oil.  If you do it that way, it is truly delicious but this isn't bad either.  If serving to adults, still allow it to cool down; it should never be eaten hot and include a good amount of seasoning.  Olive oil would be more authentic but I'm not convinced that some Spanish cooks don't use butter, the flavour is definitely good with butter.

I remember eating something similar with a nice cold beer in La Plaza de Santa Ana in Madrid a good 3 years BC (before children).  Happy memories...

Anyway, this takes approx 10 mins from start to finish as long as you have some spare cooked potatoes and I always seem to cook too many vegetables so that happens more often than you'd think.  Also eggs are a good source of vitamin D (there aren't many) which is a good idea at this time of year.

Spanish Tortilla (omelette) - Serves 1 toddler (possibly with leftovers)  Ok for babies on finger foods, ideal for baby led weaners.

Ingredients

2 Cooked new or salad potatoes, cooled and sliced thickly (approx 1 pound coin thick)

1 egg

A splash of milk

A small knob of unsalted butter

Method

Melt the butter in a pan and add the potatoes.  Cook until browning.  

Remove from the pan and put in a bowl.  Add the egg and milk and mix.

Now is the time to get poncy.  If you don't have a small non stick frying pan, you can do as I did and use a cook's ring in the pan to pour the mixture into.  This means you get little rounds without them being too thin.  You might be able to make two depending on the size of the rings.  Don't make them too thick though as otherwise they'll be difficult to cook through.  Cook for a couple of minutes on a medium heat until the egg is starting to bubble but is still liquid on top then put under a hot grill for another couple of minutes checking occasionally until cooked through.

Using a fish slice and gloves (if cooked in a ring) remove to a plate and cut off the ring (protect your hand with an oven glove, the ring will be hot).

Cut into wedges and allow to cool enough for your baby.  Serve with hot finger vegetables or finger salad vegetables.

Can be served completely cold.

If you like this, why not try my oven baked crustless 'quiche'?  Or if you have any more cooked new potatoes left over, why not try my most recent meatloaf recipe which uses potato instead of breadcrumbs?

I've been contributing to Crumbs Feed Your Family's year of the vegetable recently if you want more vegetarian recipes, Mari's world has hosted a linky too recently and I've contributed my two cottage pie recipes to Reluctant House Dad.  I must learn how to do linkys, they've introduced me to so many new blogs!