Yiayia Despina's Fourtalia (Egg and Potato Omelette) from Andros
When I ring Yiayia Despina up to arrange our time together in Andros, she calls me ‘agapi mou’ (my love) without having ever met me. Each time we touch base before I head out to the Cyclades by ferry, she answers the phone and speaks with such warmth that I find myself grinning as she speaks.
Despina lives behind a church in a whitewashed village on the sloping hills of the island that are at this time of year peppered with velvet red poppies. Pots of geraniums line her veranda and the idiosyncratic beaded curtain at the front door hides an absolute cave of wonders inside.
She meets me with a bouquet of freshly picked jasmine, a slice of walnut cake, loukoumia, local cheese, Greek coffee and a carton of juice. This woman likes to indulge her guests. She probably picked up her need to feed while running the village’s first supermarket and kafeneion, both of which were once in the house she now lives in. Bobbing from room to room, arms wide in emphasis and eyes clearly lost in another moment in time, she proudly tells me, ‘This shelf would be full of preserved meats, we had the bakery downstairs.’ In a room now housing a double bed above which are shelves crammed full of religious icons, she says, ‘This was the phone centre, where everyone in the village would come to make their phone calls.’
Together with her husband, they ran what became the village hub. Now she lives alone and the village that overlooks the inky aegean below has only 50 permanent residents. her home is full in a chaotic but homely way. Crochet, floral prints, embroidered fabrics and plastic fruits fill every nook and cranny of the centuries-old village house. It’s the most perfect granny setting, in every way. Photographer Marco can barely drink his coffee for needing to snap away at her rose-print three-piece sofa set.
The fourtalia we make is an andros classic; a thick wedge of potato omelette that rivals a Spanish tortilla, with extra sprinklings of oregano and spearmint. Despina says that the women in the village call this ‘the lazy man’s dish’, on account of how easy it is to whip up. An omelette it may be, but this yiayia serves hers with village wine and a greek salad. It’s so hearty that it would make for a good go-to dinner. I like to treat myself to this one for Sunday brunch. Don’t be tempted to skimp on the oil and butter – the potatoes need it.
Recipe extracted from Yiayia: Time-perfected recipes from Greece’s grandmothers By Anastasia Miari (£27, Hardie Grant).
See all the best recipes from the House & Garden archive.
Ingredients
Serves 4
Methods
Step 1
Heat the olive oil and butter in a large, deep frying pan (skillet) over a medium-high heat. Once the butter has melted, add the potatoes and sprinkle in the salt, plenty of black pepper and the dried herbs. Cover with a lid and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally so that they don’t stick, until they take on a golden hue.
Step 2
When the potatoes are ready, crack the eggs into a bowl and whisk in the milk. Pour this mixture over the potatoes and move the saucepan, tilting it in a circular motion so that the egg filters into the gaps between all the potatoes. Cook for 2 minutes, or until the top of the fourtalia is beginning to set.
Step 3
Yiayia Despina flips the pan with its lid on, so the fourtalia lands onto the lid. She then slides it back into the pan and cooks the other side for a minute. You could stick your pan under the grill for 2 minutes so that the top cooks.
