Tortilla española

This is not, I repeat not, a Mexican dish. (Even though I recently returned from Mexico and LOVE the food). The Spanish (española) from its name is Spanish as in Spain, not the language. It is also not a tortilla as most Americanos think of tortilla. A better way of thinking of it would be Spanish Omelette. Most American students studying in Spain go crazy for tortilla española (it really is delish!) to the dismay of their Spanish mamás who think it's super easy and doesn't deserve the honor given it by the students in comparison with all the other wonderful things she is able to create for them. That would be equivalent to an exchange student coming here and staying with a mom who is a pro at making omelettes, quiche, and blueberry stuffed french toast, but the student only wants the scrambled eggs! That is given the assumption, of course, that Spanish mamás are fabulous cooks and most are. Mine, however, did not cook anything. We ate take out and anything that can be brought directly from the grocery store to the microwave so, sadly, I did not learn how to make tortilla española at the elbow of a wise mamá who was humoring me by teaching me this super easy dish. Instead, I bought a pretty Spanish cookbook for the pictures and used the recipe in that. My mamá actually purchased tortilla from the store (if you were a typical Spanish mamá, you would be passed out on the floor right now). It came pre-made and actually tastes pretty decent, but it's the principle of the matter. No self-respecting Spanish mamá would ever consider it. Alright enough of my reminiscing, on to the recipe. 

First step is to fry up 3-ish diced (or sliced, if your mamá told you to do it that way...) potatoes with olive oil and salt. You need to use more oil and salt than your health-conscious instincts will tell you, but it really makes it taste better. It takes about 15-20 minutes until they're cooked all the way through and you'll have to watch it to make sure they don't burn. In the meantime, you can beat about 5 eggs with more salt (yes, more salt) in a bowl. When the potatoes are ready, drain off any extra oil and pour the potatoes into the bowl with the eggs. Stir them together until they're well mixed. You can put the extra oil back in the pan (just make sure there's not too much). 

Next, pour the egg and potato mixture back in the pan and let it cook on low heat for a while until it thickens up. The trickiest part is flipping it over. It helps to use a plate so that it all stays together. Once it's brown on both sides, it's good to go. It's delicious hot or cold. This is the very basic tortilla, but it could be used as a base with other ingredients added. Some ideas: onions, mushrooms, fresh veggies, chorizo, spinach, and, if you really want to be Spanish, seafood of any and all types. If you want to turn this into a calorie overload, you can turn it into a bocadillo (a sandwich made with crusty white bread, similar to a French baguette). Just slap slices of tortilla on a roll and you're good to go. My mamá may not have cooked much, but she did give me some excellent bocadillos for our excursions, which often included the fabulous tortilla española bocadillo (not recommended for everyday consumption).  

Grade A Challenge

Another of the benefits of being a part of the CSA was the chance to try some farm eggs. So, today's post features a comparison of farm eggs with regular, grocery store eggs. *Props to Kristin for coming up with the title.*  

As you can see, we have our regular, grocery store egg (probably from either Meijer or Hardings) on the left and our farm egg on the right. The main difference is that the farm egg is brown and slightly bigger than the grocery store egg.

At this point, they're side by side in the pan (still with the grocery store egg on the left and the farm egg on the right). The grocery store egg was slightly more slippery when I put it in the pan. The farm egg stayed put when I cracked it into the pan and the grocery store egg moved around. 

It's starting to get hard to find any observable difference. I'm frying them over easy because that's how I like my eggs. (You know you all watched Runaway Bride and then made sure you knew how you really like your eggs...anyone with me?) 

Done and looking good. I can't wait to eat them and see if they taste any different. I wonder what the nutritional difference is between the two eggs. Any AP Chemistry overachievers out there want to do an experiment? I'll let you be a guest blogger...

Here you can see the yolks of both. It's hard to tell from the pic, but the farm egg is a slightly richer color. The taste is about the same. I tried to eat it with my eyes closed to see if I could tell and I honestly couldn't. So, in conclusion, the farm egg was slightly bigger, didn't move around the pan as much, and had a slightly deeper color yellow to the yolk. 

Mexican food and blueberry delights

I am back from Mexico and a teeny tiny parasite can't hold me down! Thank you to Kristin Porter for keeping up the blog while I was gone. She did a fabulous job! I'm so impressed by her actual recipe-following abilities. Perhaps we should collaborate a little more and come up with something slightly more structured than what I usually put up here. We should have a fresh batch of veggies from the farm tomorrow, so you can expect some excellent new recipes soon. For now, I'll leave you with some pics of the fabulous food I got to eat in Mexico. Some day I might try to recreate some of this stuff. 

This is chef extraordinaire Elenita. She cooks for 20 people Monday thru Friday without breaking a sweat (ok maybe she sweats, but it is Mexico afterall). Here she's putting the finishing touches on sopitos, which are small, fried tortillas with a meat mixture, lettuce, cheese, and topped off with a fabulous tomato-y broth. 

Here's a close up on the sopitos. Sooo delicious. I might have to try to make these sometime, but I doubt they could ever come close to Elenita's masterpiece. 

  

These are enchiladas made by the wonderful cooks from Pan de Vida in Ixmiquilpan. They made us the most delicious food while we stayed there. 

I'll also leave you with a few blueberry recipes I found to use some of the fresh blueberries I picked with my friends Amy and Marliese at Brookside Farms in Paw Paw. I wasn't on the ball with the camera, so I'll just pass along the recipes. I'm not quite as creative in the baking world as in the cooking world so I relied on allrecipes.com for advice. The first is for blueberry syrup, which is fantastic on pancakes, waffles, and pretty much all breakfast foods. My roommate Christine suggested putting it on ice cream, which I'm excited to try. Go here for the recipe. The second is for fresh blueberry pie that is called Five-Minute Blueberry Pie and literally takes 5 minutes. Tastes great with Cool Whip on top. Check out this link for the recipe. 

Refrigerator Pickles

These won't last long!

Today at the office someone passing by my door said, "refrigerator pickles." Looking back, I am confident there were a few other words involved in some greater statement surrounding those two words, but it was those two that stuck with me. And I now know that the words we speak are powerful, because those two words changed the course of my day. 

Shortly after, in an email from Farmer Pete, I received an old family recipe for (you guessed it!) refrigerator pickles. And that's when I knew this was meant to be.  So after pick up at the farm, and a quick nap (because I have been feeling under the weather), I did some swift slicing. 

This is one of the simplest recipes ever.  I think the hardest part is waiting to eat them!  Here is the recipe:

Combine the following ingredients in a glass bowl, let sit for 1+ hours. Enjoy!

• 2 cups sliced cucumber
• 1 medium onion sliced
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup Cider Vinegar
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon dry mustard

The finished product was tart and delicious -- it even tasted pretty familiar.  We decided that the flavor reminds us a lot of Subway's sweet onion sauce.  And it tastes great on a salad!  I cut up some fresh lettuce from the farm, along with green pepper and purple carrots (they are orange on the inside) also from the farm.  Then topped it with some onion and cucumbers from the pickle jar, and a bit of ranch. 

Farm Fresh Food

This blog was happily brought to you by guest blogger, Kristin Porter.