My name is Amy and I am an omelet avoider.
Not eating them. No, no. I love to eat omelets! Sunny-yellow, the weight and floppiness of a puppy’s ear, it’s an easy, minutes-to-table meal that you can boost by adding delicious healthy extras (spinach or feta or tomatoes or fresh herbs or what have you) and, voila, breakfast—or lunch or dinner—is served. So easy, right? Unless, of course, you are me.
Up until this past Sunday morning, I have left the cooking of omelets to my husband, Dan. He’s good at it, see. And there’s a part of me that likes to (not unstubbornly) leave certain tasks to him and only him. The second shameful divulgence of the day: I pretty much do all the housework around here. When we started out, we shared it all. Dan’s a great cook, utterly self-sufficient, and, yay, I thought, I’d found a modern man. Then you move in together and marry and fall into these roles. I know a big part of it is I work from home and, thus, any time I wander out of my office (a third bedroom in the front of our house) I’m immersed in the visual cornucopia of undone housework. And can’t stand to look at it, so I do it. Dan also works nutty hours, and so there you go. Mostly, I’m cool with that, but there’s this part of me that keeps certain tasks out of my reach, setting them squarely in Dan’s area of expertise. Omelets being one of them.
But this bothers me. How can one be a grown-up and not know how to, essentially, cook eggs? I make all kinds of challenging, kooky things. There is no recipe that I cower from. Except omelets. It really seemed time to remedy the situation.
I like cookbooks (obviously) of all kinds, but I am especially partial to practicality. One of my favorite recipes is in Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook in which he eloquently extols upon “how to boil a freakin’ egg”—how can you not love that? And you know what? It’s perfect instruction. I haven’t overboiled an egg since.
For a perfect omelet, though, I knew who I needed. Julia and Louisette and Simone. Admittedly, since all the rediscovered Julia hoopla of the last few years (which I have nothing against, mind you, it’s just, you know, it starts to feel a little overwrought after a while) I’ve been avoiding
So how good are you at making omelets?
Julia, Louisette, and Simone’s L’Omelette Brouillee (Scrambled Omelet)
1-2 servings
- 2-3 large eggs
- Big pinch of salt
- Pinch of pepper
- 1 TBSP butter, plus extra for top of omelet
Beat the eggs and seasonings in the mixing bowl for 20 to 30 seconds until the whites and yolks are just blended, about 40 strokes.
In a 7-inch omelet pan, heat the butter over very high heat. As the butter melts, tilt the pan in all directions to film the sides. When you see that the foam has almost subsided in the pan and the butter is on the point of coloring, it is an indication that it is hot enough to pour in the eggs.
Hold the handle with your left hand, thumb on top, and immediately start sliding the pan back and forth rapidly over the heat. At the same time, fork in right hand, its flat side against the bottom of the pan, stir the eggs quickly to spread them continuously all over the bottom of the pan as they thicken. In 3 to 4 seconds they will become a light, broken custard. (If you want to add a filling, it goes in at this point.)
Lift the handle of the pan to tilt it at a 45 degree angle over the heat, and rapidly gather the eggs at the far lip of the pan with the back of your fork. Still holding the pan tilted over the heat, run your fork around the lip of the pan under the far edge of the omelet and be sure it has not adhered to the pan.
Give 4 to 5 short blows on the handle of the pan with your right fist and loosen the omelet and make the far edge curl over onto itself. Hold the pan titled over the heat for 1 to 2 seconds more to brown the bottom of the omelet very lightly, but not too long or the eggs will overcook. The center of the omelet should remain soft and creamy.
Turn the omelet onto a plate. Rub the top with a bit of butter and serve as soon as possible.
Amy Zavatto has been writing about wine, spirits, and food for ten years. Her work appears in Imbibe, Gotham, and Every Day with Rachael Ray, among others. She is the author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Bartending and the co-author of The Renaissance Guide to Wine & Food Pairing.
