An omelette and a glass of wine - cleaning out the fridge
"Eggs may be dressed in a multiplicity of ways but seldom more relished in any form than in a well made expeditiously served omelette"
Eliza Acton
I was going to write a bit about omelettes but whilst looking for suitable quotes and pictures I found so many lovely bits of writing that I'm not really going to bother much with my own thoughts - I'll just add the odd word or two here and there.
Why am I writing about omelettes? We are off to Port Douglas for a week the day after next and so I need to empty the fridge of some things. Not everything - we're only gone for a week after all - but perhaps the eggs. So we are going to have an omelette. It won't be a classic omelette about which I am writing here, but more of a frittata or Spanish omelette - flat, loaded with veggies and finished off under the grill. This article is focussed on the classic basic omelette. And as we all know a true omelette is rolled, or folded over, not flat. And yes there is some leftover wine to have with it too. White - which is the recommendation.
The title of this post comes from Elizabeth David's book of collected essays and articles, which I often turn to for inspiration for these posts.
The first of my quotes is not actually from her, but from Madame Poulard. Who is Madame Poulard? Well she is a French cook who was cooking back in the around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries into the 30s, and whose omelette making was legendary. So much so that there was a huge amount of speculation as to why. In the end she supplied her recipe:
"I break some good eggs into a bowl, I beat them well, I put in a good piece of butter in the pan. I throw the eggs into it and I shake it constantly. I am happy, monsieur, if this recipe pleases you." Madame Poulard
Her hotel restaurant was on Mont St. Michel, which we visited way back - over ten years ago I think, which is when I took this photo. We climbed to the top, passing her hotel which is still serving omelettes - of course. It's in the street, fairly low down. I gather that Mont St. Michel is the second most visited tourist site in France after the Eiffel Tower, and it certainly felt like it that day. It was tourist mad - crowded and full of mostly tacky tourist shops. It's certainly best seen from a distance. I actually found an article written by David Lebovitz about his experience there - in the low season. But I have to say the current version does not sound like the original.
It's obviously all about performance - copper bowls, cooked over an open fire. And he says that they beat the eggs for 5 minutes - with a resulting soufflé omelette rather than the classic as in the picture at the top of the page. He also said:
"f you ask anything about what’s in the omelet, or how they’re made – well, I can tell you one thing for sure: they’re not telling." David Lebovitz
So a little sad that something simple has succumbed to meddling because of we awful tourists. I guess it still looks pretty nice though. I can't remember how much it costed. A lot I'm guessing. It doesn't come with fillings, though it does come with various accompaniments.
And one final thing about Mont St. Michel. Having struggled all the way to the top - it's quite a steep climb, my lovely husband decided he wasn't going to pay the admission to the church so we didn't go inside. I was a tiny bit miffed.
But back to Elizabeth David who has a few more words to say about omelettes.
"As everybody know, there is only one infallible recipe for the perfect omelette: your own. Reasonably enough, a successful dish is often achieved by quite different methods from those advocated in the cookery books or by the professional chefs, but over this question of omelette-making, professional and amateur cooks alike are particularly unyielding. Argument has never been known to convert anybody to a different method, so if you have your own, stick to it and let others go their cranky ways, mistaken, stubborn and ignorant to the end."
Which is surprisingly unschoolmarmy for her. She then goes on to give advice including this:
"First the eggs are very often beaten too savagely. In fact, they should not really be beaten at all, but stirred, and a few firm turns with two forks do the trick."
Two forks? How do you do that? Doesn't sound like the five minutes at Mont St. Michel though. But sticking with Elizabeth she has a final word on what you are aiming for:
"What one wants is the taste of the fresh eggs and the fresh butter, and visually, a soft bright golden roll plump and spilling out a little at the edges. It should not be a busy, important urban dish but something gentle and pastoral, early morning mushrooms or the sharp tang of freshly picked herbs, sorrel, chives, tarragon. And although there are those who maintain that wine and egg dishes don't go together, I must say I do regard a glass or two of wine as not, obviously, essential but at least as an enormous enhancement of the enjoyment of a well-cooked omelette."
Moving on to my favourite Robert Carrier, who includes it in his Great Dishes of the World and has a mini essay before his pretty simple recipes.
"So much has been said as well as written about the omelette's capricious nature that otherwise daring cook often refuse to attempt it. In actual fact, most of omelette-making is easier to do than to explain.
Omelettes can be infinitely varied in flavour, for no other dish so lends itself to the inventiveness of the cook. And once you learn to make a basic omelette, its countless variations - paysanne, provençale, parisienne, Parmentier, caviare, fines herbes - become child's play. An omelette is perfectly easy to make and yet so easy to spoil. One false move and the dish is ruined. You might as well throw it away It takes talent to make it right and you must be on the job every moment it is in preparation, for speed and efficiency count above all. Every omelette must be made to measure - let your guests wait for the omelette, never let the omelette wait for the guests."
Robert Carrier
All of which is a bit daunting, which is not like Robert Carrier - though the following recipe doesn't sound too hard.
And the lovely Delia just wants to teach you how to do it - and she has a video on her website and a recipe that will show you how
"If I can teach you how to master the 'well-made, expeditiously served omelette' then I will have served you well, because you'll never be short of one of life's simplest, quickest and most pleasant dishes."
Delia Smith
And of course, with something like this I just could not go past Felicity Cloake who assesses a few of the basic techniques in her article on how to make the perfect omelette.
"There is something magical about a good omelette – the way a couple of eggs and a pinch of salt can, in less than a minute, achieve such greatness. Light, yet rich in flavour, swift, but satisfying, the omelette is the ultimate frugal supper."
"It is vitally important to match omelette to the size of your pan: if the pan is too big, the omelette will cook too quickly, too small, and it will be tough on the outside while still excessively runny within."
"Omelette cooks divide into two broad camps: those who hold that spatulas are for amateurs, and those of us who live in the real world." Felicity Cloake
Another thing that the various cooks disagree on is whether to add water or cream to your eggs. Overall I think the general consensus was no, but it does seem to add fluffiness and height.
"One teaspoon of cold water per large egg will make a difference in the fluffiness of the omelette. Though it would seem that the addition of water would dilute the egg mixture, what happens with much of the water is that it becomes steam upon hitting the pan. This steam rises through the omelette and acts as a leavening agent of sorts, thus making the omelette fluffier." Steven Shaw
And of course there is argument over the eggs themselves, with most going for free-range, organic and fresh - although, as one of my 'authorities' (I can't remember who) said, this was 'if you can afford it'. So I'm not alone in thinking that only the wealthier amongst us can afford to be really, really healthy and pure.
"eggs are one of the few ingredients where the organic version (for, no doubt, complex reasons of feed, breeding and husbandry) tastes demonstrably better than non-organic." Tony Naylor
I believe making an omelette (or scrambled eggs) is a much used test for chefs applying for jobs.
Anyway I am not aiming for the heights of Madame Poulard tonight - just a decent frittata kind of thing. And there will be a glass of wine.
