Spanish Tortilla, Fall Recipe

I've been reading and re-reading this cookbook my brother bought me for Christmas, or my birthday last year, or maybe the year before. It'll all about pie. Until about 5 minutes ago, I had been under the impression that it was a British book because of the many many meat pies included. Now that's I've actually looked up the publisher's page, though, it looks Australian.

In any case, I made one recipe right out of the book, and was inspired to create another one from the things I had left in my cupboard. First, I made the mustard chicken and asparagus quiche. This combination is not something I would have ever thought to put in a quiche myself. Sure, I've served asparagus with chicken before, but not with mustard, and certainly not baked in eggs and lots of cream cheese. The cream cheese made it too heavy, and there was too much mustard - it took over all the flavors. I may revisit and tweak this a bit.

After flipping page after page of this book, I saw quite a few recipes including sweet potatoes, but nothing that I had all the ingredients for, and nothing that really screamed delicious. I had also recently received a Spanish Tapas book in which Tortillas are described. These are not the corn or wheat flat breads most of us know by this name, but rather a potato-filled omelet/frittata thing, sliced in wedges and very similar to quiche but without the crust.

So, I looked at the ingredients I had at my disposal. Two sad and dying sweet potatoes. Old, leftover roast chicken. That was enough to get me started. Classic tortilla recipes have you shallow or deep fry all the potatoes, then fold them in with the egg mixture, and then bake. I thought I would simplify the process; deep frying is not really my thing.

First, slice the sweet potatoes, toss them in olive oil, and roast them at 350 for about 30 minutes. While they roast, cut up and season any leftovers you have that you'll want to add in, like chicken, or vegetables. I also sliced and caramelized an onion. This was definitely a good decision. Yum.

When the potatoes were cooked through, I layered potatoes, chicken, and onion twice in a deep dish pie plate. The egg mixture is three large eggs, plus enough half and half (cream & milk) to make 1 cup of liquid. I poured that over the filling, and popped the whole thing in the oven for about 25 minutes, still at 350.

Delicious, and definitely fall-flavored. Fantastic served with cider. The strong stuff, not the juice.