A Simple Omelette

It was a lazy sunday morning, well, for Erin at least. Her goal was to sleep in but I'm terrible at that. So I arose at 7:30 am as normal for a Sunday. I browsed the internet a bit, watched some SportsCenter, feed the cat, etc. I was getting hungry but I didn't really want to eat cereal or oatmeal again so I raided the fridge. What do we have. Eggs. Ok. Eggs. What else? Herbs? Not bad. Canadian bacon. Getting better. Is that a shallot? I see something coming together. An omelette! But do we have cheese? Found shredded cheddar! Omelette City here I come!

They say eggs are the measurement of a true chef. If that's the case I have a long way to go. I ended up making two omelette's. The first was a charred mess and the second was a decent attempt (Photo). It still tasted pretty good even though it didn't look so hot.

The beauty about omelette's is that you can pretty much put anything in them. A few fresh herbs, cubbed ham, caramelized onions, shredded cheese, sauted veggies, etc. Anything your heart desires.

Ingredients:
3 Eggs
1 Shallot, diced and caramelized
3 Slices of Canadian Bacon
1 Tspn Finley Chopped Fresh Herbs (Basil, Thyme, chives, flat-leaf parsely, etc)
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 Tblspn Clarified Butter (See directions below)
Salt and Pepper

For clarified butter, melt 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter in a small saucepan over low heat until foamy and milk solids haven fallen to the bottom - about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and cool. Carefully skim foam from top and discard. Slowly pour metlted butter through a cheesecloth-lined sieve into a bowl, leaving solids behind. It should yield 2/3 cups clarified butter.

Meanwhile, heat a medium skillet over medium-high heat with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Once ready saute shallots until clear - 3-4 minutes. Reduce heat to low and let shallots caramelize, stirring occasionally - 25 minutes. To save time, I cooked the canadian bacon in this pan as well. The canadian bacon should only take 3-4 minutes depending on it's thickness so cook them towards the end. While the onions were cooking down, I chopped the herbs, cracked the eggs, and got the cheese ready.

Once these ingredients are ready, remove and let rest on a plate. Place 1 tablespoon of the clarified butter in a medium skillet over medium-high heat and heat to just before it begins to smoke. While the butter is heating, whisk the eggs. Make sure to whisk them vigorously, capturing as much air in them as possible. This is what makes an omelette fluffy. Lift skillet from heat in one hand and pour the eggs in with the other. Begin shaking the skillet back and forth. Continual movement is key. Do this for about 1 minute. Return to heat. Using a plastic spatula, stir eggs around letting the runny parts cook. Be sure not to break the omelette at this point as I did on the first one. You can lift the cooked edges to let the uncooked eggs run underneath. Just when the eggs are about to set and there are no more runy parts, sprinkle the ingredients of your choice down the middle. The eggs continue to cook through at this point. You'll need to do this quickly otherwise the eggs might begin to burn. Reduce heat if they begin to burn or pull from heat. With the spatula, work under the cooked eggs to loosen from the skillet.

In the pan, fold over 1/3 of the omelette on the opposite side of your serving splate. Slowly work omelette down and flip over on plate to encase your ingredients. Sprinkle with a bit of herbs and shredded cheese and voila!

A simple omelette!