When I cooked omelets to order for a brunch line, everything got cooked in the same skillet. Stuff went in longest cook time to shortest, so onions first, peppers, then stuff like mushrooms and tomatoes, then the eggs, then fresh herbs. A little stir distributes it all evenly. Very finely shredded cheese goes in right before it’s folded and served. Bacon, were it on offer, was pre cooked, so it went into the pan right before the eggs did. (That’s a food safety thing.)
Adding the cooked fillings to the partailly cooked eggs means you can put more stuff in it, but I think the ratio of egg to other stuff is wrong.
Zucchini cake! So moist and good. Add walnuts and chocolate to kick it up a notch.
Zucchini fritters. Aka, zucchini with egg and flour. Don’t use leftover sourdough starter, it’ll be doughy for ever. Only works if you’re the kind of vegitarian who eats egg.
Zucchini chips. Baked. They’re fine. Use flavorful salt, with paprika or cumin or cinnamon or whatever’s in your cupboard. Ok maybe not cinnamon.
Pickled zucchini. Make it future yous problem. Put it on burgers and… hmm… maybe not. My brother has an excellent fermented zucchini recipe, but refuses to share. It’s all chilli and citrus and mystery.
Did I mention zucchini cake? Make zucchini cake. Make zucchini cake in muffin tins. If you don’t like it, mail it to me. Just don’t mail me your zucchini. I twice planted too many zucchini. You’d think I’d learn the first time.
What I am using is a product called “turkey bacon.” I took to eating it because my doctor recommended a diet lower in fat to avoid gall bladder issues; but I actually prefer the flavor to that of standard (pig) bacon.
I don’t see why the ratio would have to change. I’m thinking of putting in the very same amount of “other stuff.”
There seem to be two different concepts of “omelet” here. On one hand there is egg stirred up and with other (cooked) ingredients stirred into it, which would be called “scrambled eggs” if the other ingredients were omitted. On the other hand there is a circular surface of egg, folded over once, and with other ingredients (if any) going inside the fold. Wiktionary seems to favor the second, saying " A dish made with beaten eggs cooked in a frying pan without stirring, flipped over to cook on both sides, and sometimes filled or topped with cheese, chives or other foodstuffs."
The omelet that I showed in my photograph was a soufflé omelet. I separated the eggs and beat the whites to firm-peaks stage, whisked the yolks until they went pale and beat in salt, pepper, and chopped parsley. Then I folded the yolk mixture into the beaten whites, poured the result into a medium-hot cast-iron frying pan with a bit of fried onion and ham in it, put a lid on, and returned it to a very low heat. When the force of the omelet rising lifted the lid of the pan I removed the lid, sprinkled grated cheese on top of the omelet, and slid it under a hot grill to set the top. The whole thing slipped out of the pan onto my plate.
I’m told that you can turn them over, or put the pan into a hot oven instead of putting a lid on it and returning it to the low heat, but I find it easy to use the griller.
In my parlance “scrambled eggs” includes milk or cream and is cooked very gently; it is basically a savoury custard made in a pan¹. If you omit the dairy and cook it a bit hotter it is omelet. Omelet may have other ingredients folded up in the omelet (“French omelet”), just included (usually by cooking them in a pan and pouring the beaten egg over them when they are pretty much cooked), or omitted.
¹ Adding anything other than pepper, salt, and parsley or chives to scrambled eggs is an anathema. Adding both parsley and chives is decadent luxury (so I do it often).
In my usage “scrambled eggs” are stirred up eggs turned over repeatedly throughout the cooking process, so you end up with an irregular mass rather than a neat disc or folded over half disc. The dairy content is optional, though I remember my mother using milk.
I cannot agree with your rejection of other seasonings; I like them with finely cut up Anaheim chili peppers and cumin. The peppers need to be cooked first before the egg goes in; the cumin gets sprinkled onto the egg and stirred up. Black pepper is optional.
In America, if you go into a breakfast place, and order scrambed eggs, you’ll get eggs broken onto a medium hot griddle (flat top), cooked quite quickly, and stirred with a spatula. High volume places will crack eggs in mass, whisk them together with salt and pepper, and pour out the required amount when someone orders them. If you get them at fancy place, or a hotel buffet (or amazingly, my college’s cafeteria) you will get slower cooked stuff, typically done in a bain marie (despite the internet’s claims, you don’t have to stir constantly). you can also do this sous vide, but I’ve never tried it.
My favorite way of scrambling eggs for a quick breakfast is to crack a couple in to a bowl, sprinkle salt and a couple grinds of pepper on them, no stirring. Then you dump them onto the hot buttered pan. stir the whites once they start to cook, leaving the yokes alone. When the whites set, scramble up the yolks. very quck, easy, great on toast.
My method is to break the eggs into a 16 ounce measuring cup and stir them vigorously, breaking the yolks, for some time; C asked me some time ago to keep stirring till enough air was trapped to make the texture lighter, so I do that. I melt some butter into a skillet, pour the eggs in, sprinkle black pepper on (coarse ground if possible), and once they start to solidify, use a pancake turner to push the edges toward the center, which displaces the liquid at the center toward the edges. Later in the process I’ll flip them over so the less cooked tops come into contact with the hot surface of the skillet. If I’m making them to my taste I’ll include green chilis and a lot of cumin, but I consider those extras, not part of what defines “scrambled eggs.”
Wiktionary claims that “scramble,” used of food, means “to thoroughly combine and cook as a loose mass.”
The entire assembly took me… 8 hours? More or less. 32 crepes for a total of 65 layers (32 crepes, 32 “marshmallow buttercream”, top crepe) and then covered in chocolate ganache, crumbled graham crakers, and a few marshmallows (a few of which I toasted with matches because why not, but after I took the picture).
It’s tasty, but holy heck was it a lot of work. And a mess. Thankfully, I think I got most of the kinks out from last time, so the final crepe cake for her birthday (raspberry cream, I think) should go pretty well.
Three and a half hours ago, when the sun was trying to peek through the clouds, I genuinely thought smoking a pork shoulder out on the deck would be a dandy idea for dinner.
And it probably will be. Those onions are going to have to make room for the chicken, though, since the unexpected onset of rain makes the possibility of grilling it over coals less and less likely. I’ve kludged the grill into successful smoking under worse conditions, at least. (If the frigid windstorm of Thanksgiving 2019 could work out okay, I can manage this.)
Now I’ve got to figure out the timing so I can bake the rolls and then hustle all the meaty bits under the broiler for those crispy edges. And I guess I need a backup plan for the zucchini. Charred and tossed with smoked onions and miso’s gonna have to wait for another day…
I look forward to trying out some of your other suggestions. Given the number of courgette and tromboncino squash plants in the garden, I may need to try quite a few of them…
