It’s always good to begin something new in the simplest way possible. And there is nothing more simple than a French-style omelette.
A couple of eggs, salt, pepper, butter, a little time in a hot pan, and you have breakfast or lunch.
Or topped with finely chopped herbs, and served with a glass of Viognier and a green salad, you can even have a simple but elegant dinner.
And the whole trick to making French omelettes is in the wrist.
Namely using a hot pan primed with butter to swirl the egg mixture to quickly cook it, then giving the pan a couple of sharp tugs to fold the omelette over itself to get the classic French rolled omelette.
You can read differing approaches to this technique in Richard Olney’s “Simple French Food” or James Peterson’s “Glorious French Food”. However the technique isn’t really intuitive coming from the pages of a book.
Therefore, in our first post, it is probably appropriate that we have America’s first foodie, Julia Child, to give a vintage video demonstration of the pan technique for omelettes:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpIndUafTJU
The key is not to overcook the eggs. As you can see, this technique is 30 seconds, tops. Any other ingredients, such as tomatoes or mushrooms, are added on top after the omelette is plated.
What you are trying to avoid is something browned and overcooked, with a texture like shoe leather.
That’s why it’s important to leave the top part of the omelette a bit soft when folding it up in the pan. The middle of the omelette will continue cooking to the right consistency, even after it’s been inverted on the plate.
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