What’s cooking today: Cheese, tomato and onion omelette

Omelettes are best enjoyed at a kitchen table if you have one, as they have to be made one at a time if they’re to turn out well, so the crew can be gathered around the table, knives and forks at the ready, to be served theirs in turn.

And never be mean with an omelette, because no matter how generous the filling is, it’s still all about the eggs. If you’ve ever read any of my previous omelette recipes, you’ll know that I only ever cook them in butter, believe firmly that they should be made of three generous eggs, and I never add milk or bicarbonate of soda to the mix. The argument is that a bit of bicarb helps them fluff up, which it does; but it also changes the texture and flavour in an unpleasant way. I detest an omelette tarnished by bicarb, and milk thins out the eggs.

The fluffiness you’re after comes from three other factors: vigorous whisking, foaming butter, and the right temperature in order to achieve that foam.

The key to this filling is to cook both the onions and tomatoes, separately, adding a herb to the tomatoes. Ordinary, everyday Cheddar is perfect for them.

(Per three omelettes)

Ingredients

9 jumbo eggs (3 per omelette)

9 Tbsp butter (3 per omelette)

Tbsp butter for cooking the onion

1 medium red onion, sliced thinly

1 large, ripe tomato, sliced and chopped

2 Tbsp olive oil for the tomatoes

½ cup Cheddar cheese, grated

2 thyme sprigs

Salt and black pepper to taste

Method

Slice the onion and cook it in a little butter with the thyme leaves (picked off the sprigs) until softened and taking on a little colour, about 5 minutes.

Chop the tomato and cook in olive oil until most of the juices have cooked away. Season with a little salt and black pepper.

Grate the Cheddar cheese and divide it into three piles on a plate or board. Divide the onion and tomatoes into portions too. This makes it easier and quicker to add an even quantity to each omelette while cooking.

Have all of the above ready, next to the stove, and a medium-sized frying pan, preferably non-stick. You need to work on a moderately high flame; neither so intense as to burn the butter, nor so insipid as to not cook the eggs fast enough. An omelette needs balance.

One omelette at a time, break three eggs into a bowl.

Melt 3 Tbsp butter and, when it is foaming, whisk the eggs vigorously and pour them in while still whisking. Turn the heat down a little. Tilt the pan left and right, fore and back, for the egg to run around, while using a spatula in your other hand to pull the egg in from the sides while the raw eggs pours to the part you’ve just cleared. Keep doing this only until the egg is nearly set, then turn the heat down low and spoon in a third portion each of the Cheddar, then the onion, then the tomato (this gives the cheese more time to start melting).

With the spatula, turn one half of the omelette over to make a half-moon and give it another minute or so of cooking.

Slide carefully onto a plate, grind some black pepper over and add a sprinkling of salt, and get on with the next omelette. The etiquette, in this instance, is for the first person served to start eating right away. DM/TGIFood

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.

This dish is photographed on an oval plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.