Florentine Omelette

I savor Sunday mornings: I let the baby talk and play in the crib with a few crib toys I sneak in when he is just waking up, before he notices me and jump-starts my day; I push down the surging guilt at not rushing to greet but letting Ana (who is old enough at 3¾) to get up from bed and read her books or play a bit in her room or even get out of her room if she likes.

I just sit on the bed, propped up with comfy pillows, savoring my morning cuppa, deliberately attempting to tune out the baby's prattle and Ana's parley with her dollies streaming in through the baby monitors.

And, when those 4 or 5 minutes pass, I busy myself thinking up a good way to cook up eggs for the morning brunch as I change the wriggling baby's diaper under Ana's watchful eye :)

This is just another omelette recipe, but happens to be D's and my favorite that I haven't posted so far. Typically, it is fairly thin, cooked only on one side, with favorite veggies and cheese filling, folded up and served warm with the morning joe.

As I make it in a 10x10 pan, this is large enough to be a meal in itself - usually ends up being Sunday brunch for us...

Ingredients
1/3 cup Eggbeaters™ whites
1 whole egg
1 tsp Herbs de Provence mix (or Italian herbs mix, if handy)
salt and pepper to taste
chopped spring onions for garnish
1 Tbsp Olive oil, or canola oil or even butter if preferred

Filling:
Baby spinach leaves
marinated and sauté mushrooms, if handy,
fresh grated colby jack or part skim mozarella or both
some diced smoked gouda, if preferred
some diced mock chicken sausage, if handy
Other veggies if preferred**

**I prefer not to use bell peppers or tomatoes as the omelette gets a bit soggy.

Preparation:

1. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan over medium heat
2. Beat the egg whites, eggs and herbs till fluffy - do this right before ready to pour in the pan and cook
3. Pour into a fairly wide and shallow pan - I use a 10x10 square non-stick pan with about ¼-inch rim that works out just perfectly for this dish
4. Pick up the pan and spread the egg mixture around to form a thin uniform layer, sprinkle salt and ground pepper lightly
5. Allow it to set part-way, add the sausage, spinach, mushrooms across the middle, then add the cheeses on top of this layer of veggies, allow the eggs to cook through and the cheese to start melting
6. Fold in the two edges to form a packet and slide it off the pan into the serving plate
7. Garnish with chopped spring onions or any other favorite garnish like chopped parsley or shredded basil or oregano leaves

stuffed omelette and hashbrown breakfast

It was a lazy Sunday morning. I woke up with a nagging headache, but, Baby and D needed breakfast...

Left to themselves, I am sure they would have been fine with some cereal and milk, but, since that's what they have on weekdays, I try to cook a sumptuous breakfast on weekends.

This breakfast is usually quick and easy to make, and is quite filling. The omelette is stuffed with spiced spinach and cheese; hash browns are plain and simple with a touch of salt & black pepper.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
2 Tbsp milk
1 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
¼ medium onion, finely minced
½ cup grated cheddar cheese
1 medium potato, matchstick or julienne
½ tsp Madras curry powder
2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
salt to taste
canola oil or butter or ghee as needed

Preparation

beat the eggs with 2 Tbsp milk or water, some salt and ground black pepper

heat oil in a pan, sauté the onions and the spinach with some salt and curry powder; keep this mixture as dry as possible

make two omelettes as thin as possible and set aside for stuffing

layer some spinach mixture and some grated cheddar, roll up the omelettes just like a burrito; cut on a bias into 3" long pieces

cook the potato matchsticks on medium low heat, with some oil or butter till it browns to desired crispness; sprinkle some salt and a few turns of the pepper mill before serving

instead of cheddar, either feta, or home made bag cheese (paneer) can be used for stuffing the omelette

telor balado

I like hard-boiled eggs and i like spicy sauce; this dish combines the two favorites of mine.

Ingredients
3-4 hard-boiled eggs
oil for frying

for the sauce:
¼ cup sambal oelek (or chili paste)
¼ cup tamarind concentrate
¼ cup tomato purée (or, tomato paste diluted in water)
2 medium tomatoes chopped
1 shallot finely diced
1 Tbsp Thai Chili-Basil paste
2 Tbsp Kecap Manis
1 Tbsp brown sugar

1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce (optional)
2 Tbsp White wine vinegar (optional)
water as needed

Preparation

1. Heat oil for frying and deep fry the hard-boiled eggs for 3 minutes or so till golden brown; drain set aside
2. In a saucepan, combine all the sauce ingredients except water and let it simmer for a few minutes; add water as needed to keep the sauce consistency rather like a thick pasta sauce but not pasty
3. cut the fried hard-boiled eggs in half and gently set it in the saucepan and let it simmer with the sauce; stirring breaks up the eggs
4. serve warm with steamed rice, or even hot rotis

Spicy Egg Curry

I like eggs. But, not when i can sort of taste and smell the raw eggs - like in cakes, mayonnaise, aioli etc. So, i usually end up making omelettes, fried eggs, pickled eggs and egg curry with eggs.

This is a simple recipe, but, to get some depth, i wanted the eggs to absorb all the rich flavors from the gravy, so i let it sit in the slow cooker overnight and woke up to the wonderful aroma.

Ingredients

for the gravy/sauce: ¼ cup chopped fresh ginger 10-12 cloves of medium sized garlic 1 medium size yellow onion 4 medium size tomatoes 5-6 dried red chilies (less if you don't like it hot) 1 star anise 2 inch piece of indian cinnamon bark 2 bay leaves (dried) one can of diced tomatoes

6-8 hard-boiled eggs, shelled 4 tbsp canola oil (or any oil of your choice) salt to taste ¼ cup chopped cilantro for garnish 2 tsp brown sugar 1 Tbsp curry powder (more if you like the spicy flavor)

Preparation

1. blend all the ingredients for the gravy until smooth
2. heat oil in a pan and all the blended items from 1.
3. sautée until the oil releases, stirring occassionally
4. add salt to taste, curry powder and brown sugar and stir well
5. transfer the gravy from the pan to a slow cooker, and add the shelled hard-boiled eggs, making a few slits on the surface of the eggs
6. leave the slow cooker on overnight making sure there is enough liquid so it doesn't burn and char
7. if you don't have a slow cooker, just add the eggs to the pan in step 4., cover it and simmer it on low heat for about an hour, making sure there is enough liquid in the pan
8. the gravy/sauce can be as thick or as thin as you want, so, add water accordingly
9. garnish with chopped cilantro and serve warm with roti, naan, paratha, roti jala,Green Rice or plain cooked rice.