Roasted Red Peppa ‘n Spinach Omelette

According to the good people at reference.com, “gourmet cook Julia Child once described an omelette as soft-cooked scrambled eggs wrapped in an envelope of firmly-cooked scrambled eggs.” That makes an omelette – the gold of all egg creations – sound pretty lame. I propose, as many would agree (Dave), that an omelette is a damn beautiful and multi-elemental thing.

I just made a great little omelet for the history books in about ten minutes using whatever I had on hand. The key to making a good omelette is that you need three things: good spatula; a good oil; and a good no-stick pan.

But before you worry about the tools, think about the ingredients. Be creative. First, lets start with eggs. For a personal serving, use two or three eggs with the yolks in. You’ll get more flavour that way. Crack em open and place in a cereal bowl or something a little larger. Once you’ve done that things getting a little interesting. The staple of any omelette is some sort of veggie. I highly suggest using finely chopping the vegs and toss them in with the eggs. In my case, I coarsely diced spinach and tossed it into the egg. While I was as at it, I also diced some roasted red peppers (you can use pretty much any other veggie so long as it’s got taste!) and kept them aside – you’ll see why. Next, add some flavour in there. Use a good amount of salt and pepper, a little garlic, some dried herbs and even some icing sugar if you have some. The icing sugar makes it, it’s weird but it works! If you have any ‘hard’ cheese (like parm), add a little of that too! If you’re feeling crazy, add in some mustard seed or turmeric. Dump in a little milk and whisk everything up with a fork. It’ll be kinda green uncooked and really ripen with a little heat.

At the same time, warm a small non-stick frying pan lined with a glaze of olive oil on medium heat. By glaze I mean use a good amount of oil so that the pan is neither dry nor basting in oil and make sure it’s covered evenly! I like to use extra-virgin olive oil for taste and health factors. Once ready, dump the mix into the pan filling the pan’s entire diameter. Here, I suggest using a spatula to poke and prod at the cooking omelette. Keep a good eye on her – occasionally jam your spatula into the egg opening up the bottom shell. This will allow some of the excess liquid on top to be cooked off.

After a couple minutes, the bottom of the omelette will be cooked nicely – so that it’s neither sopping nor crisp. At this point, carefully use to the spatula to loosen it all around. Then, on half of the circular omelette, add on the roasted red peppers near the edge. When ready, elevate the non-roasted red peppers side and fold it over the other half. A helpful hint here is to lift the pan off of the stove a little so that you can get the right angle with the spatula. Take it slow and be gentle – eggs are fragile.

Turn down the heat to minimum and leave it on the stove for another couple of minutes. This will allow it to cook through and to head the newly placed veggies inside. Personally, I like my veggies with some crunch, they taste better and have more nutritional value that way. By this point, your omelette will have a little gold colour on the bottom – the sign that it’s all done and sufficiently cooked through. Remove from the stove and serve directly onto a plate. Garnish with a little pepper, lemon zest, or whatever you’ve got handy.

And that, my friends, is omelette 101 with yours truly.

To clarify quantities and measurements:
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 roasted red pepper (from a can, it’s easier that way)
- handful of spinach
- some dry herbs (rosemary and basil are perfect!) (1 tbsp)
- a touch of yogourt or milk (2 tbsp)
- a pinch of icing sugar (1 tsp)
- a little bit of garlic (1/4 clove)
- salt and pepper
- olive oil

As a hilarious endnote, the worlds largest omelette to date was made by the Brockville Lung Society in 2002 – Ontario represent! It weighed 2.95 TONS and looked like this:

Have a good one!

Jordan