Una receta para tortilla de patatas

Tortilla de patatas has to be the staple Spanish food. It is everywhere. It is essentially a potato omelette, but sometimes has onions, peppers, ham and more. I've never attempted to make one, but I plan to do it as soon as I get back to the US! While I was in the tiny mountain town of Peguerinos with my roommates, my roommate's mother taught me how to make tortilla de patatas. Here is an outline with photos below!

So I didn't take photos of the first step, but you skin maybe 4-6 large potatoes and slice them into slices as seen below. You want the slices to be thin. Add some salt to the bowl of potatoes and mix it up. 

Then, you put the slices of potato into a large frying pan and add lots of olive oil - you want to fill the pan about halfway to the top. Leave the potatoes cooking, without a lid, over strong heat for a long time, around 30-45 minutes. You want the potatoes to be so soft that they fall apart if you poke them. 

In the meantime, you want to crack the eggs. She used 7 eggs for this tortilla. 

Then scramble the eggs and add some salt. 

Continue to check the potatoes. By now they should be pretty soft! 

Take spoonfuls of potatoes out of the frying pan and add them to the bowl of eggs. Be sure to drain all of the oil (that's why she used this special spoon).  

Once all of the potatoes are in the bowl of eggs, mix them together. 

Either grab a new frying pan and add a little oil (enough to cover the bottom of the pan), or use the old pan and drain most of the oil. Add the entire potato and egg mixture. 

The trickiest part was too fast to get a photo. You need to keep wiggling the eggs/potatoes in the pan so that they don't stick to the bottom. After about 2-3 minutes, you need to take a large lid or plate and put it on top of the tortilla and flip the tortilla. 

Put it back on the flame and continue to wiggle it so it doesn't stick to the bottom. You can pat it down with the spoon and form the edges if you want. 

You can flip it one more time if you want (using the lid/plate).  After about 2-3 more minutes, it's done!

Voila - the perfect, homemade tortilla de patatas.