The ultimate fast food: the omelette
January 21, 2010
Now, I know I banged on at length about eggs not so long ago (by the way, in sad news just to hand Charlotte Chicken just got going in terms of supreme egg production – she was up to double-yolkers, for godsake! – when she and Shirley had to return to their grandpa at Rentachook. Apparently, while much loved, they laid waste to the (not-theirs) garden which now resembles Maralinga or something. Still. We chookless urban dwellers are very sad to see them go.)
Anyhoo, I just wanted to bang on a little bit more about eggs – specifically, the joys of the omelette.
The thing is, if you can believe it, until two months ago I had never in my life made an omelette – and then I did, inspired by this Julia Child TV demo. But now I know how seriously fast and fabulous this little baby is, I’m slinging one into the nonstick pan twice or thrice a week for lunch.
Now, as you’ll see on the video Julia goes nuts with the butter – as she is, of course, obliged to do – and uses three or four eggs per person (mmm). But it’s just as good with a teensy bit of olive oil, and I’ve gotten used to two eggs plus tossing in whatever is to hand – fresh tomato, a little bit of grated Parmesan, lots of chopped herbs, salt & pepper.
But be warned – omelette making is a superfast and furious game. I’m talking about a single minute in the pan, so you gotta have everything ready to go before you chuck the eggs in. But do watch the video for the joy of Jules as much as the excellent pan-shaking technique.
I never get the thing to slip and slide out so elegantly the way she does, of course – I just use a spatula to fold and flap and scoop it out any old which way. It’s still divine.
How to shuck an oyster 
Lady Charlotte, I am exactly the same – had never made an omelette in my life until this very week. Wasn’t it here on this very blog that I saw something a little while back about a Neil Perry omelette…? Since then I’ve thought, must get on board with this quick and tasty thing, and then found a recipe – goat’s curd and sage – in a Bill Granger book that pushed me into the final phase of *actual preparation.* There’s work to do on my extraction – the maiden omelette was tasty but no looker. Still, I find myself wanting to become a master omelette maker, so it looks like there’ll be plenty of slipping and sliding ahead.
I just hella stuffed up my first attempt to Be Julia. However, the eggs in their messier format were still very tasty.
[…] already know about me (I fear I ran out of secrets some time ago!): ever since Shuckin’ Charlotte posted a link to a YouTube video of Julia Child making a classic French omelette, I have been obsessed. If […]