The Omelet: A Tutorial

While we are on the subject of leftovers (and we were just yesterday), we should now consider the omelet. I've been considering it for a few days now ever since I made this tasty version a couple days ago. We still had a kitchen full of leftovers after our party but nothing special to eat so it was a green salad and this. Not bad! At work we have been talking about omelets as well. One of our IT guys, Huy, has been taking cooking classes and has been coming in early to try out his new creations on those "lucky" enough to get to work early. I learned about this after stumbling through the kitchen one morning, still have asleep, to find him making a dozen eggs in ham cups for his workmates around the firm. Quite a stark contrast to the oatmeal and cold cereal most people here make for their workplace breakfast! It seems that Huy has been bitten by the cooking bug and is taking classes -- his most recent being a brunch class. The resulting conversation had me once again considering the omelet...something it turns out Huy did not know how to make. So Huy, this one is for you!

As long as there are eggs in the house, leftovers have a home and you will have something to eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner. As with quesadillas, there is no need for a recipe here -- the omelet is all technique. Start by breaking 2 or three eggs in a bowl and beating well. Add a splash of water or milk if that is to your liking. Some say it helps keep the eggs from getting too tough but you can accomplish this by just not overcooking the eggs. Put one TBS of butter in a good, non-stick omelet pan. Pan shoud be hot and the butter should be fully melted and slightly bubbling.

As the eggs cook, use a spatula or rubber scrapper to pull the edges of the egg into the center of the pan. While you do this, tilt the pan to fill the exposed pan area with uncooked egg in the pan. Do this uniformly around the pan.

Continue with this until your pan looks like the one below. Run your spatula around the edge and shake the pan a bit so that your egg 'disk' moves freely without sticking:

Give it a good strong flip so it lands back into the pan with the cooked side up! I know this sounds hard but you can practice this move in advance by putting a piece of toast in the pan and flipping it over in one motion. After doing this a few times you will have the confidence to try the real thing.

Let the 'disk' sit there for only a couple seconds before flipping it back. You don't want to cook this part too much as you want to keep the inside of your omelet light and tender.

This completes the cooking of the omelet shell. Now you just need to put in your filling and turn the omelet. Here I'm using (what else?) some leftover mushrooms, green chillies and cheese.

Use your spatula to fold the shell over the filling and plate immediately. The heat from the eggs will melt the cheese.

I garnished this one with some leftover avocado and some mango-papaya salsa from the party.


Wallah. OK Huy. Your turn!

(Update: Since I'm getting a few hits here from Tastespotting today I thought I would link to Huy's first omelet attempt which I featured along with some pointless haiku -- which is a weekly feature of this blog. Send me your omelet works of art and I will post them here as well.)