LP7 - Potato & Ground Beef Torta

Lasang Pinoy as hosted this month by ChichaJo of 80 Breakfasts explores breakfast food. This months it also happens that I'm kicking off a brand new topic on poverty on Blogkadahan.com. As I was getting my posts ready, I realized how inter-twined the two topics were; at least in my personal experience anyway. I often mention my grandparents in my writings not only because I love them but because not only do they seem to be the source of many of my childhood memories it seems they also are the source of my traits and idiosyncracies. Frugality being one of those traits.

As a child, I heard people say that farmers living in the provinces are poor. My grandparents were farmers and lived in the province, but for some reason I never thought them to be poor. There was always food on the table, and they always seemed happy. I took it for granted then, but I pause and think about it now especially when I am walking around the mega supermarket with a cart full of meats, produce, and every possible food items unimaginable by my grandmother. My grandmother always had a large household made up not just of her grandchildren when we visit during school breaks, but she regularly had at her table any number of relatives, distant cousins, nephews, nieces and sometimes just town mates who they employed to work in the house and the farms. I always wondered how she fed all those people with so little. When I started feeding my own family, and marvel at how much three girls can eat, it finally dawned on me the little tricks my Lola used to stretch a chicken or 4 eggs to feed 10 people.

Breakfast usually consisted of whatever food is left over from dinner the night before. Once in a while though, especially if her hens have been generous, she would serve eggs for breakfast. She didn't invent the torta by any means, but she sure utilized the technique every chance she got. She didn't ever serve an egg sunny side up or over easy, she couldn't afford to give each person an egg. Instead she utilized various means of stretching an egg. That means adding either tons of tomatoes and onions, adding a can of sardines, or in this case, potatoes. I happened to have some left over ground beef handy so I threw those in too.



POTATO AND GROUND BEEF TORTA

4 Eggs, scrambled
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 medium sized potato, finely cubed
1/2 cup cooked ground beef
Salt & Pepper to taste
Oil

In a bowl, scramble the eggs and season with salt and pepper. In a skillet, heat about two tablespoons of oil and sautee the onions until fragrant then add the potatoes. Stir continuously until potatoes are cooked through. Add the ground beef and stir until warmed over. Remove the potato/ground beef mixture from the pan and add to the bowl of scrambled eggs. Return the skillet to medium heat and add 2 more tablespoons of oil. When heated, pour the egg mixture into the pan. Cook over medium low heat until the egg is almost cooked through. Carefully flip over and cook the other side.

One trick I learned from a friend on flipping a perfect torta is to cover the skillet with a plate wider than the pan, flip the pan onto the plate so the torta is now on the plate uncooked side down. Return the skillet to the stove, and slide the torta back in to cook the other side. Comes out perfect every time!