Although I’m not fond of eating eggs, once in a while a properly cooked omelet really hits the spot. Carmel brown on the bottom, lots of savory fillings…mmmmm.
This recipe is more of a technique than a list of ingredients. You can put almost anything inside an omelet—cheese, vegetables, meats, fish, last night’s fried rice—honestly, this is one of the tried and true McQuillin household tricks for using up leftovers.
French Omelet
for each omelet
2 eggs
2 Tblsp water
2 Tblsp butter
Fillings of your choice
1 fork or wooden spoon
1 slope-sided frying pan
Everything has to be ready in advance because start to finish, cooking an omelet takes about 2 minutes. So whisk the eggs and water together until they are evenly blended. Set aside. Prepare the fillings (chop, sautee, reheat, etc.). Set aside.
Heat the pan very hot. When it is on the verge of smoking, drop in the butter. Tilt the pan to spread the butter evenly across the bottom.
Pour in the eggs.
Immediately start stirring the eggs. You don’t want to break the bottom surface too much, or you’ll get scrambled eggs, but you do want to keep everything moving and push down any bubbles that form. When you break through, tilt the pan to let some of the raw egg fill the hole. I usually find myself shaking the pan, which helps to let the raw egg in around the outside edges. In about 60 seconds, the egg will have set; you can stop stirring and shaking.
The regular finish: place filling over one half of the omelet. Allow to sit for 30 seconds, then fold the other half over and slip or lift the omelet from the pan.
The fancy finish: Place the filling in a line across the center of the omelet, perpendicular to the handle of the pan. On the side of the pan with the handle, fold over 1/3 of the omelet. Then grab the handle with an underhand grip, slide the pan right up against the serving plate and roll the omelet out of the pan, completing the fold as you serve. Be careful not to burn yourself on the pan.
Nice illustration! I don’t like eggs either, but omeletes are ok, because there’s some control over the egginess.
If you like puffy omeletes, use a little milk instead of water in the eggs and don’t flip anything in the pan. Turn on the broiler, and place the pan in the oven for a few minutes (handle sticking out, of course). When the eggs puff and the cheese bubbles, take it out and slide it onto your plate, folding as you go. Yum!
Omeletes are a big Hill Kaucher leftoverture solution too. This spring, I had a lot with fresh asparagus with the garden crop being so plentiful!
Posted by: Jenn on August 21, 2003 08:58 PMI take my eggs pretty seriously, but I’m self-taught so I might be doing things kind of wrong. I don’t use any milk or water (I was really surprised to hear the water thing actually). I am not sure what the egg situation is in japan, but I am a total convert to free-range and / or organic eggs. Not because of all of the (very good) moral / biological reasons, but for a very selfish reason: they taste GREAT!!! Yum Yum. Ok, it’s omlettes tomorrow morning. :-)
Posted by: Shaun on August 22, 2003 05:36 PM