Back to normal with McCain : Baked Tortilla Using Frozen Chips !

McCain have launched a 'Back To Normal'  campaign to help mums and dads get back into the  swing of the school routine and mid-week teas, which I could particularly relate to this week after having a lovely half-term break (just a few days ago, but it seems like a distant dream already !).  They sent through a pack of goodies, containing an oven tray, serving tongs, oven gloves, plates, egg timer and a supermarket voucher to stock up on McCain frozen products and other ingredients. They also sent through some recipes from Holly Bell, from Recipes From A Normal Mum, one of which immediatey leapt out at me as a potential timesaver because it's a twist on a family fave recipe that I often cook - Spanish tortillas. Frying cubes of raw potato until they are golden brown and soft is what takes the time when making tortilla, but Holly had the ingenious idea of replacing them with frozen chips. Would it work though? Well, there was only one way to find out !

You could use oven chips but I always cook mine in the Actifry so that was the first thing to set off.

While they were cooking, I threw some frozen bacon lardons in a large frying pan, along with some chopped onions and red and green peppers. (I used fresh but you can buy these ready chopped and frozen too, to save even more time.)

Drain off any excess fat. Add the chips and give it all a good stir.

Crack three eggs into a pint glass, give them a whisk then top up with milk to the top of the glass. (My failproof method !) Pour into the pan and put it in the oven for about 15-20 minutes until it's set.

I served it with onion rings (also snatched straight out of the freezer and thrown in the oven with the tortilla) and it was a big hit. Pierre gobbled up his plateful and came back for seconds and then thirds, which is almost unheard of (although he did request no vegetables in it next time - he's dreaming !). The girls looked at me like I'd gone mad when they saw it but they did have to agree that it passed the taste test hands down.

There were still some chips left in the Actifry so the kids had extra chips with theirs, whereas I had salad. It tastes fab - very similar to my usual tortilla in fact - and it is actually a double timesaver, firstly because you don't have to spend 20 minutes or so waiting for the potatoes to cook and go golden brown, and secondly because you don't have to wash up a pan with bits of burnt potatoe glued to the bottom ! 

I'll admit, I was dubious when I saw the recipe, but it's definitely one that I will be using again ! This is my usual tortilla recipe, just replacing the potatoes with chips, but Holly has a different recipe that you might like to try, using peas and layering the chips, which looks fab when you slice it into squares.

Disclosure : I received a baking pack and shopping voucher for ingredients in order to take part in the Back to Normal campaign.