24 Jul Kale Tortilla and Sweetcorn Soup

Posted at 14:32h in Uncategorized by

I made plans to go to Eastbourne and hang out with my dad this weekend. Then I changed my mind. About five times actually, back and forth (luckily, my dad is extremely chilled out). I’ve been doing that a lot recently and I’ll tell you what, it feels good. Just over a year ago, when I was in the middle of a life crisis, completely lost, without any idea what I wanted, and really rather stressed out about it, a friend of mine, Anton, said to me “remember, you can always change your mind”. This has stayed with me as one of the best pieces of advice that I’ve ever been given. It seems so obvious, yet I don’t think a lot of people feel like they can change their minds. I certainly didn’t in my old life, I was always busy doing stuff that I’d said “yes” to weeks before, whether I felt like it or not, carrying on down old paths, chosen for no apparent reason, always an undercurrent of discomfort and anxiety, that comes from suppressing your natural instincts. And does anyone really care if you go for a drink with them now, or a week later? (or never in some cases) Or if you cancel that party? I don’t think so. Not really. And if they do, then it’s still a small price to pay for your freedom to do what you want, when you want. So I stayed in Hackney and cleaned my flat as much as I could with my injured back (stupid yoga position, too early in the day), found a new favourite passtime (swimming in the lido), had a few beers, and cooked quite a lot

This is basically an ordinary Spanish tortilla, with the addition of kale. You finely slice an onion and a potato,  then fry them, covered and seasoned, in some olive oil, for about 20min. Pour boiling water over a handful of kate, and allow to cool a bit, before chopping finely and adding to the potatoes and onions for the final 5min of cooking time. Break about 5 or 6 eggs into a bowl and whisk lightly, season. Add the cooked potato, onions and kale into the beaten egg mixture, heat some more oil in the frying pan, and pour it all in. Turn the heat down really low and cook for about 25min, uncovered. I don’t bother turning the tortilla over, instead I stick it under a hot grill for 2min to gently brown the top side. And I prefer eating it cold. It was perfect today, eaten with chilli jam, while sunbathing in the garden after a swim. Then, there was this beautiful sweetcorn soup from 101 cookbooks
I used more water than in the recipe, cooked it all together for quite a bit longer than recommended and added pearl barley. My friend Ayesha loved it, because, apparenty, she loves anything yellow. Yeah, you read right, anything yellow