thai omelette

Fluffy one-egg omelette

It’s only called a one-egg omelette as that’s what I made … it could quite as easily be adapted to be a two- or three-egg omelette if you prefer, of course.

Until recently I hadn’t even thought about fluffy omelettes, but when I was about 13 or 14 years old, my friend Emma and I were obsessed with them!

I have no idea why but we had a phase of making them all the time. Whoever’s house we were at after school we’d be raiding the egg bowl and seeing what there was in the fridge in the way of cheese and/or ham or whatever that we could add to make our perfect cloud-like omelettes.

I liked it best if we were at Emma’s house as she had ponies we could go and visit in the stables afterwards.

Anyway, the omelette.

The ‘secret’ of a fluffy omelette is simple: just separate the white from the yolk and whisk up the white until it’s stiff and almost forming peaks (as cookery books always say. This always makes me wonder who first came up with the analogy of peaks, as it does when I read - or write - about a thumb-sized piece of ginger).

I whisk the whites with an electric whisk now but back when I was a teenager we did that work by hand, passing the bowl back and forth to swap as our arms got tired).

Remember that when separating yolks and whites that you absolutely can’t have any of the yolk in the white, not a single drop, or the whites won’t ever whisk into those peaks.

if you do - as I did with my first attempt today - end up with a little yolk in the white you’re just going to have to put them back into a bowl together to use tomorrow in a non -fluffy omelette instead (or for scrambled eggs or something else of course).


So … for this omelette I used:

1 egg, white and yolk separated

Salt and pepper

a knob of butter (oh there’s another of those cooking analogies!)

grated cheddar cheese but any cheese or ham or cooked vegetables like tomatoes or mushrooms would work well

something to serve alongside if liked - I have chilli jam but so many sauces would be really good.

Also you could have this with a good hunk of bread and butter together with a salad if you wanted something a bit more substantial.


Add a little salt and pepper to the egg yolk and whisk with a fork until is combined.

Next whisk the whites either by hand or - much more easily - with an electric whisk until they have come together in little mountain ranges - or peaks if you prefer.

Stir the yolk mixture into the whites mixture and stir gently to combine, not adding too much air to deflate the whites.

Put a non-stick pan over a medium heat and add a knob of butter or a little slosh of olive oil if you prefer.

When it’s hot, add the egg mixture and smooth into the pan.

After a few seconds, grate some cheese over the omelette or add in your cooked veg or meat or ham. I added a little more black pepper too.

Let it cook on a medium heat for maybe 2-3 minutes but keep checking in on lifting the edges - as if it burns, it will do so fast, so keep on top of it -and lift under the edges as well to see how it’s browning underneath.

Then take the pan off the heat and place under a hot grill. Leave the top to cook for a minute - perhaps a few seconds more but it won’t need more than that.

Remove pan from under the grill and flip half of the omelette over the other half.

Serve immediately with a sauce or sauces and/or with bread and salad.

When Emma and I made these- I’ve literally just remembered that we were also mad about chives at that time and always running to the garden to get some either to add to the cheese filling or to snip onto the top to make it look pretty.

I wish I’d added some chives to mine too! When I next make it I will.


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Kai jeow - Thai omelette

A rainy Sunday calls for possibly the most comforting of all comfort foods, a savoury Thai omelette served with rice and a chilli dipping sauce.

Quick and easy to make, I like it best made with a little ground pork and spring onion, but occasionally have it plain, when its simplicity is somehow also luxurious. For a more substantial veggie option, fry some sliced peppers and mushrooms in place of the meat.

I’d put the rice on to cook first so it’s ready to serve as soon as the omelette is cooked.

With that underway, make the nam prik sauce, which will keep in an airtight jar in the fridge for up to two weeks and goes with almost everything – plain rice, grilled meats, baked fish, noodle dishes and many, many more.

There are probably a million different variants of this sauce, so do adjust the lime juice, fish sauce or sugar to your own taste.

4 tablespoons fish sauce

juice of 1-2 limes

4-6 sliced birds eye chillies (today I used two green and then two normal red chillies as I didn’t have birds eye)

1-2 teaspoons sugar

2 cloves of garlic, very finely chopped

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly to dissolve the sugar.

The Tiniest Thai Rachel Walder kai jeow - Thai omelette

Note: to be honest, you can make an extremely good sauce with literally just fish sauce and some chopped chillies - and this is what I usually make as it really couldn't be any easier.

 
Kai jeow Thai omelette nam prik Rachel Walder
 

And now for the kai jeow.  This makes one.

cooking oil

a little ground/minced  pork (maybe 1-2 tbspn)

two eggs

fish sauce

soy sauce

one spring onion, chopped

white pepper

coriander

Heat a wok or frying pan and add quite a bit of oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pan.

When the oil is very hot add the pork if using and cook for two or three minutes.

While the meat cooks,  break two eggs into a bowl and add a couple of dashes each of fish sauce and soy sauce, the chopped spring onion and a shake of white pepper.

The Tiniest Thai Rachel Walder kai jeow - Thai omelette
The Tiniest Thai Rachel Walder kai jeow - Thai omelette

Beat the egg mixture until frothy – you want as much air in it as possible – and then pour it into the very hot oil, where it will start to go fluffy.

The Tiniest Thai Rachel Walder kai jeow - Thai omelette

Cook until brown and slightly crispy on one side, then turn and cook until the other side is browned too but the inside still soft.  Just fold in half if you don’t want to try to flip it all at once.  I tried and broke this one, but hey ho.

Make the rice look nice by packing it into a little plastic bowl (china doesn’t work for me, only the plastic one), putting the plate on top and turning it out.

The Tiniest Thai Rachel Walder kai jeow - Thai omelette
The Tiniest Thai Rachel Walder kai jeow - Thai omelette

Add the omelette on top, sprinkle with chopped coriander, and serve with the nam prikdipping sauce.

The Tiniest Thai Rachel Walder kai jeow - Thai omelette

So is this the most comforting of all comfort foods?

Let me know what you think …



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