So apparently I am now someone who is creative with leftovers. Not sure it’s going on the skills section of my CV…

There was a lot of leftover paella and I fancied doing something a bit different with it. While Indie’s pincer grip is coming along nicely, it needed to be something grippable. Omelettes are an almost perfect BLW food…and so the paella tortilla was born.

I seem to find myself reaching for an egg when I am lacking ideas and/or Indie’s salt content is as high as I want it to be. You can cram the beaten egg with lots of veggies and you quickly have a meal ready. While I have always believed that eating eggs without salt is like kissing a man without a beard (a lovely phrase that a school friend’s mum once introduced me to) I am just about getting used to not cooking eggs with it. I just add it at the table to my portion.

I have a beaten up old small IKEA frying pan that I love to use for things like this. It seems to be the perfect size for a two-three egg frittata/tortilla. I’d recommend using your smallest pan for this, so you can get the nicest, thickest tortilla.

Ingredients

1 overfilled cup of leftover paella
2 eggs, beaten

Mix the eggs and paella together, season with a little pepper.

Heat your frying pan and add a scant teaspoon of oil when it’s hot. Pour in the egg mixture, leaving it for about thirty seconds without stirring. Once the bottom is starting to cook, give the mixture a good stir and then turn down the heat. You will still have some runny egg on the top, this is OK. Keep cooking the tortilla for another 1-2 minutes. You’re going to flip it once the bottom is nicely browned. This will depend on how high the heat is, and how well your pan conducts the heat.

When you’re ready to flip, place a dinner plate over the frying pan and invert the whole thing, then lift off the pan. Slide the tortilla back into the pan, so the uncooked side gets a turn at the heat. The second side should take just a moment or two to brown.

If your pan is ovenproof, you can always slip it under the grill instead of turning it over. This results in a nice puffed up top, but my small pan handle isn’t ovenproof. I also quite like the way the edge of the tortilla will round out if you use the inverting method, I feel this look more authentic.

We had this with a little sweet potato with lemon and tahini dressing, and those nice Spanish breadsticks you have with jamon.

So tell me, how do you feel about beards and salt?