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Authors: Nicholas Clee
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consistency of foam insoles. Don’t wait until the eggs look ready; take them off the heat just before then, and carry on stirring. They will continue to set; if you leave them on the heat, you’ll find that they move from readiness to dryness before you can react. The second helping of butter, because it melts rather than cooks, will give a more luxurious butteriness to the eggs, and it will help to arrest the cooking just at the point of perfection. You can still ruin your creamily curdled eggs by tipping them on to scorching hot plates, which will cook them some more. For an even softer result, add 1 tbsp milk or cream for every 2 eggs.
4 • Pepper . If you want pepper, add it at the end; it discolours the eggs if cooked with them.
OMELETTE
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HOW TO MAKE IT
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You need a seasoned frying pan ( see here ), with a slick surface. A medium-sized pan (23cm) is about the right size for a 2- to 3-egg omelette. Blend the whites and yolks of the eggs lightly in a bowl, and season them with a little salt and 1/2 tsp (for every 2 eggs) of vinegar (see Scrambled eggs, here ). Warm the pan over a medium flame; add a walnut-sized knob of butter, and twist the pan so that the butter lubricates it thoroughly. The butter should foam, but not turn brown. With the flame still at medium, pour in the eggs, and give them a quick stir with a fork to distribute the heat. The edges of the omelette will set immediately; with a fork or a spatula, pull these edges from the side of the pan, tilting it to allow the runny egg to take their place. 1 When the omelette is set, but the surface still moist, tilt the pan away from you and roll the omelette over towards the far edge. 2 Tip it on to a warm plate.
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VARIATIONS
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Herbs: parsley, chives and tarragon are among the possibilities. Add them to the beaten egg before cooking.
Cheese: blue cheese might be a little overwhelming in an omelette, but almost any other kind will be good. Grate it and sprinkle it over the omelette just before rolling, and don’t use too much: you want a lightly melted filling, not a sticky wodge.
Vegetables: onions, shallots, mushrooms, peppers, courgettes, asparagus. Cook them apart (see the Vegetables chapter, here ), make sure all their liquid has evaporated, and stir them into the eggs before making the omelette. If you simplified the process by sautéing, say, mushrooms, and then pouring the eggs over them, the browning that has taken place in the pan would discolour the omelette; also, omelettes made in that way seem to be tougher.
----
WHY YOU DO IT
----
1 • Quick-setting . The process, from pouring in the eggs to tilting the omelette on to the plate, should take about a minute. If you left the omelette undisturbed, the egg layer that hit the pan first would be tough before the runny egg above it had set. By pulling in the edges, you allow the runny egg to flow on to the hot surface, and to set as quickly as possible.
2 • Slick surface . These manipulations will not work unless you have a well-seasoned or non-stick pan: without one, you’ll end up with stuck bits of eggy mess. I often do anyway, because I lack skill in rolling an omelette neatly; but the result usually tastes fine.
FRITTATA
A frittata is an Italian flat omelette, served hot or cold. It’s thicker than a rolled omelette, and cooked very gently, so that it doesn’t toughen up before it’s set all the way through. The medium-sized pan that makes your 2- or 3-egg rolled omelette will make a 5- or 6-egg frittata.
----
HOW TO MAKE IT
----
Crack 6 eggs into a bowl, beat them gently with a fork until the whites and yolks are just blended, and stir in 3 heaped tbsp of cheese – Parmesan, say, or pecorino, or Gruyère, or Cheddar. You may not need salt, because the cheese is salty. Melt butter – be generous, use 30 to 40g – in the frying pan, turn the heat to its lowest, and pour in the egg mixture. Cook until the base of the frittata is well set – a process that may take 10 to
4 • Pepper . If you want pepper, add it at the end; it discolours the eggs if cooked with them.
OMELETTE
----
HOW TO MAKE IT
----
You need a seasoned frying pan ( see here ), with a slick surface. A medium-sized pan (23cm) is about the right size for a 2- to 3-egg omelette. Blend the whites and yolks of the eggs lightly in a bowl, and season them with a little salt and 1/2 tsp (for every 2 eggs) of vinegar (see Scrambled eggs, here ). Warm the pan over a medium flame; add a walnut-sized knob of butter, and twist the pan so that the butter lubricates it thoroughly. The butter should foam, but not turn brown. With the flame still at medium, pour in the eggs, and give them a quick stir with a fork to distribute the heat. The edges of the omelette will set immediately; with a fork or a spatula, pull these edges from the side of the pan, tilting it to allow the runny egg to take their place. 1 When the omelette is set, but the surface still moist, tilt the pan away from you and roll the omelette over towards the far edge. 2 Tip it on to a warm plate.
----
VARIATIONS
----
Herbs: parsley, chives and tarragon are among the possibilities. Add them to the beaten egg before cooking.
Cheese: blue cheese might be a little overwhelming in an omelette, but almost any other kind will be good. Grate it and sprinkle it over the omelette just before rolling, and don’t use too much: you want a lightly melted filling, not a sticky wodge.
Vegetables: onions, shallots, mushrooms, peppers, courgettes, asparagus. Cook them apart (see the Vegetables chapter, here ), make sure all their liquid has evaporated, and stir them into the eggs before making the omelette. If you simplified the process by sautéing, say, mushrooms, and then pouring the eggs over them, the browning that has taken place in the pan would discolour the omelette; also, omelettes made in that way seem to be tougher.
----
WHY YOU DO IT
----
1 • Quick-setting . The process, from pouring in the eggs to tilting the omelette on to the plate, should take about a minute. If you left the omelette undisturbed, the egg layer that hit the pan first would be tough before the runny egg above it had set. By pulling in the edges, you allow the runny egg to flow on to the hot surface, and to set as quickly as possible.
2 • Slick surface . These manipulations will not work unless you have a well-seasoned or non-stick pan: without one, you’ll end up with stuck bits of eggy mess. I often do anyway, because I lack skill in rolling an omelette neatly; but the result usually tastes fine.
FRITTATA
A frittata is an Italian flat omelette, served hot or cold. It’s thicker than a rolled omelette, and cooked very gently, so that it doesn’t toughen up before it’s set all the way through. The medium-sized pan that makes your 2- or 3-egg rolled omelette will make a 5- or 6-egg frittata.
----
HOW TO MAKE IT
----
Crack 6 eggs into a bowl, beat them gently with a fork until the whites and yolks are just blended, and stir in 3 heaped tbsp of cheese – Parmesan, say, or pecorino, or Gruyère, or Cheddar. You may not need salt, because the cheese is salty. Melt butter – be generous, use 30 to 40g – in the frying pan, turn the heat to its lowest, and pour in the egg mixture. Cook until the base of the frittata is well set – a process that may take 10 to
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