What’s cooking today: Camembert omelette

I flip my omelettes. There’s no rule that decrees that this must be done with an omelette, but I’ve always done it. I use a spatula, slide it under once it’s well set underneath, and flip it over in one swift move. The key is to gauge when it has set enough on the underside to be flipped.

Ingredients

1 whole Camembert, or 3 or more thin slivers of it per omelette

3 XL eggs per omelette

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

3 or 4 sprigs of thyme

3 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp more for the onions

Salt

Black pepper

Method

Please don’t make a stingy omelette with a measly two eggs. An omelette needs three to be fulsome and appealing. If you serve me a two-egg omelette in a restaurant I will send it back. That’s a travesty on a plate.

Melt 1 Tbsp butter in a pan and fry the sliced red onion gently, adding picked thyme leaves. Keep to the side.

Cut as many slices of Camembert as you need; I’d use three slices per omelette.

I prefer to use 3 sizeable eggs. I do not add milk when beating the egg. I have never seen the point of diluting the egg in this way; it makes no sense, dissipating the texture and lightening the colour.

For me, eggs, either scrambled or in an omelette, need only themselves, butter, and seasoning and, in the case of an omelette, your chosen filling.

Beat the eggs vigorously in a bowl with a wire whisk.

Melt 3 Tbsp butter (at least, I’d probably use 4) on a moderate heat in a nonstick frying pan. Pour the beaten egg in (I whisk it until the last second for added fluffiness) all at once, and move the pan around for the egg to spread to all sides. Turn the heat down. Let it sit on a low heat for about 15 seconds, then use a spatula to pull the egg in from the sides towards the middle, while turning the pan this way and that for the runny egg to move to the edges and bottom.

Spoon the onion around the centre of the egg. Place the Camembert slices on top, leave for another minute or two, then fold the omelette over from right to left with the spatula, in one quick, careful movement. (This is not the flip.)

After another minute or two, slide the spatula underneath from the end of the omelette closest to you, and flip it. Quick-quick, don’t hesitate or dilly-dally.

Barely half a minute more should do it. Slide it onto a plate and season with salt and pepper. DM/TGIFood

Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Writer of the Year 2021. His book, foodSTUFF, is now available in the DM Shop. Buy it here.

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