A perfectly cooked omelette the French way is velvety yellow on the outside and creamy on the inside, folded into 3 to stuff or not. Once you learn the technique you’ll never see eggs the same way!
Omelette is the French way of doing eggs, just like the Spanish have their tortilla de patata, the Italian their frittata, the Japanese their square omelette. The art of French Omelette making is quite a fast and precise way. Some people add a little milk or water to the egg mixture before cooking it in the pan. I, usually, prefer my omelette with a touch of milk, a pinch of salt and pepper.
In this version, I’ve used olive oil instead of butter, simply because I believe it’s healthier, and especially with the Mediterranean aromatic herbs crusted goat cheese that I’ve used for the topping, it fits perfectly. Butter is usually used… it’s a French recipe after all.
The filling
The omelette can be served plain, of course, but most of the time, you’ll add a filling. In this case, I’ve added a topping instead of aromatic herbs, goat cheese with tomato, but it could be mushrooms, ham, cheddar, spinach, etc.
If your filling, or ‘topping’ in this case, is colorful and generous, I would add it on top. But if you use a cod fish in bechamel, let’s say, since it’s less appealing I would cut a hole lengthwise on the omelette and stuff it. The color or texture being not particularly appealing better to hide it. Again… it’s up to you. With a cheddar or mushroom filling, I would hide those inside, to melt the cheese and mushrooms aren’t exactly pretty…
The technique
The technique to achieve a smooth omelette is to bring your small (I suggest a good quality aluminium cast with non-stick layer) non-stick pan to med-high heat and make sure the pan is really warm before adding the egg mixture. Turning gently into circles the pan in a circular manner (or simply shake gently the pan non stop) and with a wooden spatula, mix in the opposite direction in a circular manner too, taking the sides of the omelette stuck to the side off. You keep doing this for a minute or until the omelette have a “cottage cheese texture”, then stop shaking/mixing and let set the bottom until cooked, no more than a 15 seconds, then take off the fire, fold it into a 1/2 moon, or simply fold it twice on itself, if the interior looks still too runny, let the residual heat do the rest of the cooking.
Golden rules
- A top omelette is never brown on the outside, this means it’s burned, you want a silky, uniform yellow omelette.
- Use a wooden spoon not to scratch the pan.
- Don’t bother using any other pan then a none-stick one.
- The French use white pepper but this is purely aesthetic.
- The perfect omelette contains always 3 eggs, well bitten until no more white showing.
On the inside it should still be creamy and don’t wait too long before attacking it, because the omelette keeps cooking and will lose this precious creaminess in no time. The whole conception of the omelette is quite fast, I would say, about 3 minutes. It makes a great breakfast, lunch, even dinner dish and kids usually enjoy it too, especially with stuffed cheese in it.
On the menu today
The filling for this precise recipe, today is a Mediterranean aromatic herb crusted goat cheese and tomatoes. Which is fresh, easy and frankly nice for the eyes too.
*I’ve learned the “art” of making omelette from my culinary school teacher, which was specialised in eggs, he did a special course in France on the subject. A one year course! Solely on eggs! I didn’t know they had such precise speciality classes, but apparently “eggs” are quite the ingredient!
So here is the technique to the perfect omelette!
The art of French Omelette making
Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 1 tbsp milk (or water *optional)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper
Toppings
- 1 tomato
- goat cheese
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- thyme and rosemary (*optional)
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- In a bowl mix well, (but not too much) your eggs, *optional; add extra 1 tbsp of milk or water. (milk make the omelette slight creamier and water puffier.)
- Add salt and pepper. (white pepper preferably)
- In a non-stick pan, bring it to med-high heat, until quite hot.
- Add a touch of olive oil or butter to the pan.
- Add the egg mixture to the pan, with a wooden spatula turn gently into small circles (while gently shaking the pan) taking the sides of the omelette stuck to the side off and back into the wet mixture until the omelette looks like “cottage cheese”.
- Make sure the eggs are covering the bottom of the pan, no holes, and let it cook the omelette for a 10-15 seconds more without touching it, to set the bottom.
- Take the omelette off the fire and fold gently, into 2 or 3, if you do a filled omelette, transfer to a plate, then cut lengthwise and fill it up.
Notes
Nutrition
Bon Appétit!
