6.057
3 (Tue) March 2015
Tortilla Improvisado
3.0
by me
in my apartment
-Ermita, Manila-
solo
Improvisation–no idea at the outset what a dish will be, making it up on the go, fairly confident that it will turn out okay (see generally 3.019 Spaghetti with Shrimp & Shiitake Scampi)–requires 4 essential skills.

With leftover ingredients from various prior meals, including lapu lapu and chopped garlic (see 6.055 The Penultimate), bell peppers and onions (see 6.051 Lentejas con Chorizo), butter* (see 6.043 Bibimbap), as well as pre-cooked potatoes from CAL’s pantry (see previously 5.364 Grilled Shrimp & Olives…).
*Whereas open butter needs to be quickly used because it absorbs flavors from the refrigerator, but I don’t cook all that often these days, even less with butter, the single-use butter packets, each about a half-tablespoon (provided with the bread rolls on the plane) represent a tidy solution (I don’t eat the rolls anyway, so why let the butter go to waste?).


While the tortilla wasn’t the greatest ever, I was quite pleased by the outcome nonetheless. Nicely cooked, nicely seasoned. Not too shabby for an improvised first-time effort. What a great way to clean out the fridge.

i’m slightly confused by the use of the word “tortilla” – what is in that jar exactly? i’m only used to the flat flour/corn kind.
“tortilla = small cake” in Spanish.
traditionally, the term refers to a cake made of egg (i.e., an omelet).
the jar contains potatoes–peeled, seasoned, cooked–which are added to egg to make tortilla de patatas, the most popular form.
when the spanish discovered the natives making flat breads (with corn) in the americas, they were referred to as “tortilla,” hence the divergence of usage. BTW, according to CAL, the mexican-style tortillas don’t exist in spain, except in mexican restaurants.