unbibium: (Default)
unbibium ([personal profile] unbibium) wrote2003-11-28 07:21 pm

the omelet adventure

Since my weekend recipes were mostly of the "dump these ingredients in the crockpot" variety, I decided to go for a slightly bigger challenge and attempt an omelet. I had to put those six eggs in the fridge to some use before they started to hatch.

The first one turned into scrambled eggs because I stirred them too long. The second one ultimately failed because I skipped the step where you wait ten seconds.

I'm thinking of going to the store again tonight so I can pick up some more eggs; I'm pretty sure I can get this to work tomorrow morning.

Re: Enlighten me.

[identity profile] pentomino.livejournal.com 2003-11-30 10:19 am (UTC)(link)
Er, ask Alton Brown.

The way he describes it: stir it for 5 seconds in the middle of the pan, moving the pan as much as your stirring implement. Hopefully that stirring implement is a little rubber spatula, because then you're supposed to swish the remaining liquid around, and then sweep the edge into a nice circular shape. THEN you wait ten seconds, maybe more. Then there's some simple pan tricks you get to do in order to get it into a nice, neat tri-fold presentation.

The episode title: "Zen and the Art of Omelet Maintenance", because an omelet is not so much about excessively materialistic ingredients, but about a technique that embraces the nature of the ingredients. To that end, you're supposed to start with the eggs and butter at room temperature.

See, I spent all that time taping these Good Eats episodes, so I'm going to use them, dammit!

Enlightenment dawns late.

[identity profile] vardissakheli.livejournal.com 2003-12-31 09:51 am (UTC)(link)
OK, Kerri's BREAkfaST appliance finally reminded me to come back to this post to check for an answer! The part I didn't get was the stirring in the pan part. That seems to me like just asking for trouble. I don't think I've ever seen anyone make an omelet without stirring up the eggs in a bowl first--often beating them briskly to make them nice and fluffy. And I think my wife may be the first person I recall seeing making scrambled eggs without stirring them up in a bowl first, too. It's especially tricky to try to add milk to them in the pan!