I asked Philip what he’d like for breakfast this morning; he said he’d like a “manly” omelette. He’s not a Quiche guy, and I’ve always wondered why he likes omelettes but not Quiches.
So keeping “manly” in mind, and using a new red pepper I brought home the other day, half a red onion, and a bit of roast beef that I made last night (which was a great hit – more on that some other time), I managed to make a “manly” omelette. He told me while smiling and eating that it was the “texture” that made the difference. There was something to chew on.
I know that’s because I didn’t overcook the onions and peppers, so they still had a little crunch. The dice meat also added to the “something to chew on” aspect. Knowing this, it will be interesting if I can ever make a manly Quiche.
I should note that we are avoiding cheese right now; for some reason it’s not agreeing with Philip, so I have been leaving it out of recipes. Normally I’d add shredded cheddar to this recipe, just before I put it in the broiler. Doing so adds another salty component, and also puts a nice shine on the top of an omelette.
Anyway, here’s what I did, with a few pics.
First I chopped up half the red onion and half the pepper into tiny bits, and fried them gently (to make the onions sweat nicely) in my large cast iron pan, in a little safflower oil (I don’t use canola oil anymore after learning more about what it’s made from. Ditto for “vegetable” oil.) I sprinkled in some Mexican seasoning (McCormick – I use their mixes frequently, saves time.) I added a little squirt of water as they were cooking, just to keep them from carbonizing.
Once they were soft, I added only about 1/3 cup of leftover stewed tomatoes, cut into bits, and the meat, also diced. I only used about a handful of meat. You could use any beef you had left over.
What you’re seeing in the pic above is all of these ingredients, ready for the eggs. I removed the pan from the heat, beat three eggs in a bowl with a whisk, then gently drizzled them into the mixture. I moved the pan back to the burner for a minute (on medium) and turned on the oven broiler.
As soon as I could see that the eggs were starting to solidify – just the tiniest bit – I shifted the pan to the oven, and let the broiler do its thing.
Meanwhile, I made two sauces:
Avocado (half) with 2 T of light mayo and onion salt, mashing it and mixing it until it was pretty creamy.
Sour cream (light) – about 1/3 cup – stirred up, with about 2 T of water added, to make it creamier and less caloric.
Warmed Philip’s plate in the microwave and took the pan out:
The broiler made the eggs rise, but they will fall again if cooled too fast; if I wanted them to stay fluffy (and Philip wasn’t already sitting in his “eating” seat), I would have kept them in the oven while they cooled so they maintained their risen shape.
I then cut the omelette into quarters, and put them on a plate, along with a somewhat artistic but not very posh arrangement of the two sauces:
The sauce arrangement worked fine – it was easy to get a good bit of sauce on every bite of the omelette, and the refreshment of the sour cream worked well with the somewhat salty avocado.
It was quite satisfying. Of course, you could apply this basic method to just about any harmonious leftovers you had in the fridge; I could imagine a ham and onions version with some herbes de Provence as the spice, swiss cheese as the cheese, and a mild (more mayo than ketchup) thousand island kind of dressing – or, even a mayo, mustard, and honey dressing (easy on the honey). That would be delish – sort of an omelette version of a reuben sandwich.
Hmmm. Substitute bits of pastrami for the ham, sprinkle in a little rye, and you would truly have a reuben omelette. I’ll have to try that.
In any case, this passed the manly test. Good.