Monday, March 23, 2009

Day 7 - How to Make an Omelet and Herb-Filled Omelet

I was going to take today off, but then, it appeared before me: a recipe that served one. It was the AM, it involved eggs, I was hungry, and I had all the ingredients! Even clarified butter! (Especially clarified butter. It would have sucked if I had used up all the clarified butter, only to discover that I needed it for this.)

How to Make an Omelet (p. 87)

I have to confess, the omelet-making method Martha describes is not new to me. It is not, however, the method of omelet-making I grew up with. My mother belonged to the "scramble, dump, and leave" school of omelet-making, so I didn't know there was any other way until 1987, when I dated Karen Sullivan, who was quite the gourmand. (Yes, there were girlfriends in my past...) Karen was the first person to show me the technique where you lift and move the eggs around, achieving that ripply, fluffy, great egg texture. (In retrospect, I actually learned a lot about food and wine from Karen in the few months we were together - if you're reading, thanks!)

What was new for me was the idea of using clarified butter, which definitely seems to allow for a hotter pan. Also, the cute flip-and-serve technique is a nice touch. Thanks, Martha! I'm going to lower my grade for making a little tear in the omelet, but I'm pretty sure I can solve that the next time around. And there are several filling variations I'm looking forward to trying!

Jeff: B+
Martha: A


Herb-Filled Omelet (p. 87)


Martha suggests a mixture of fresh herbs, so I chose parsley, chives, and thyme. (Sound familiar? See Herbed Compound Butter from Day 6.) I was a little dubious about an omelet with just herbs in it. That seemed overly spare, given the things I'm accustomed to have spilling out of my omelets. But you know me, I'm a good little student, I do it by the book.

And I was pleasantly surprised! I'm always amazed how potent the flavor of fresh herbs is, and the eggs were a beautiful foundation for those flavors. The clarified butter was also a nice clean taste. And the eggs were cooked perfectly, if I do say so myself. Yummy!

Jeff: A
Martha: A


Tomorrow, I'm cooking Japanese for my friend Judith's birthday: Miso Soup and Tempura Veggies!

Until we eat again...

3 comments:

  1. The book has arrived. Thank you, Amazon Prime! Now I can follow along.

    Also, Jeff, can you add a way to subscribe to comments? Charles did that with his blog. That way if someone comments on an earlier post, we'll know.

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  2. Yay! Annie, I'm so excited you have the book now, too! Maybe you'll come over sometime and be my sous chef!

    I checked into the comments subscribing you just mentioned, and it looks like you can subscribe to the comments for a specific entry, i.e. today's entry, but not to the comments of the blog in general.

    If you see down below, it says "Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)." Click there to subscribe by feed. Then there's also "Subscribe by email" just below, which is self-explanatory.

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  3. Annie later sent me an email explaining how to set up the subscription to the comments only, which is now available in the right hand side bar. Thanks, Annie!!

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