Mornin' everyone! It is New Year's Eve and I am starting the new year with this blog. Today I made for breakfast the French Omelet with Gruyere cheese and chives. This recipe is my practical for my mid-term so needless to say we have made a few of these in this kitchen! Thank goodness Brandon (my 7 yr old) LOVES eggs! Now I will tell you from the start that this recipe is easier to cook if you have a gas stove. I do not, but after the first day of class I came home and proclaimed to DJ that one with a convection double oven is what I want as a graduation present, (he said let's get through the first quarter before we start thinking about graduation presents, he is the sensible one). Any-hoo...an electric will work but it may get a little darker on the bottom to get enough heat to cook all the way.
The first thing I did was get my mise-en-place together. That is the term for "everything in its place". You gather your ingredients and all your utensils you will be using and measure what you can out before you get started cooking anything. This practice has come pretty easy for me; I was a Pampered Chef consultant for 6 years and did this regularly before a show. It saves time when you aren't hunting around your kitchen looking for things. You will burn less stuff this way if you are ready to go!
I guess since my stuff is laid out I should tell you what they are!
This recipe comes from my Culinary Foundations class. It calls for mushrooms but I omitted them because DJ is about the only one around here that eats them.
French Omelet with Gruyere cheese and wild mushrooms
1 TBSP vegetable oil (I used butter because I think it tastes better)
2 Eggs
1 TBSP Gruyere cheese, finely grated
1 TSP fresh chives. chopped
1 TBSP mushrooms, sauteed
1 TBSP butter
salt and pepper to taste
Now that we have all our mise en place together we can get started!
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| Our Mise en Place |
1. Wisk eggs until combined, season with salt and pepper.
2. Heat a non-stick pan over med heat and coat with the oil, this is where I used butter instead.
3. Pour eggs into pan and stir continuously while shaking the pan back and forth. I know, two different movements at one time, it was hard but I managed to do it! Now it says to use a non stick spatula or wooden spoon to stir the eggs but when I was in Thailand I learned to use chopsticks to make my eggs, it gives you the small curd of egg that you want and is usually made with wood or a hard plastic that will not scratch a good nonstick pan. I have used them ever since while making eggs. You do want to avoid browning the egg on the bottom, should be a nice and yellow color.
4. After the curd (lumpy part of the egg) begins to set fold in pieces of the whole cold butter. This is also when you want to sprinkle your mushrooms, chives and cheese.
5. Once the curd is mostly set, tilt your pan up to begin to roll your omelet. Roll on the opposite side then turn onto a warm service plate. Allow residual heat to finish setting the curd and melt any additional cheese.
6. Garnish with finely chopped chives, cheese and salt and pepper!
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| Golden yellow |
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| Perfecto! |
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| Brandon gives Mom a thumbs up! |
Now this morning I made four of these and my first one came out perfect, my subsequent ones got darker every time. I think this is because my pan may have had leftover butter that had browned with the heat causing my egg to brown faster. They were very delicious and a big hit here at my house. And they only take about 3 minutes to make! Please if you make these or any other recipes that I post about at home, let me know how it goes for you!
Stay tuned for our next installment, tonight DJ is helping me with my Christmas-break homework assignment. The assignment was to go to an ethnic, non-chain, restaurant that you have never been to before. We are going to an Indian place! I love my homework!
