Video – Omelet

The 2-Minute French Omelet

Instructions:

1. Watch video.
2. Then read text below it.
3. Listen and read at the same time. Repeat.
4. Watch video again without text.

For today’s kitchen conundrum, we’re tackling (see note below) the omelet. Now I know we have gotten a lot of comments, people asking us what’s the best and easiest way to make an omelet. And I’m going to show that to you.

Farm-fresh eggs, that’s the first thing you want to start with. And I’m going to use three eggs here. Crack them into a clean bowl. You can tell they’re farm-fresh, because the yoke is actually orange. It’s not yellow. It’s so rich in color.

So, that’s two, and three. And now, I use a fork here. You can use a whisk. Gently, whisk the eggs together. Add a hefty pinch of salt, a tablespoon of chopped herbs. And these are fine herbs, so… or “fines herbes” as the French say.  And what that is, is it’s chives, tarragon, parsley or chervil. And now half a tablespoon of unsalted butter that’s cut into small cubes. And that gets added right into the egg mixture.

If you’re using really, really fresh eggs, you need to add a teaspoon of water.  What it really does to farm-fresh eggs is it helps to breaks the eggs up. It’s easier that way. If you have an older egg, the whites start to degrade a little bit and start to become watery, so you don’t have to add water in that case.  I’m going to add a little bit here.

And now I’m going to heat a ten-inch non-stick skillet over medium heat for about 30 seconds. And using a wider skillet here – ten inches as opposed to an eight-inch, which we would use for something like scrambled eggs – is important, because you want the egg to spread out, creating a very thin crepe-like omelet.

So, the pan’s been heating for 30 seconds, and I’m going to add a tablespoon and-a-half of unsalted butter to the pan. And you just want to melt this down in the pan.

So, now, the egg mixture is going to be poured right in the center of the pan.  And now, here’s the tricky part.  You need to shake the pan back and forth, and with the fork create a figure eight pattern. And what this does is it brings the cooked egg into the center of the pan. So, it pulls the cooked egg from the outside of the pan, and it brings it into the center, cooking the omelet nice and evenly. And this needs to happen for about 25 seconds, so the edges are set. Still a little wet in the middle, but it will cook through.

And just take a rubber spatula, a heat-proof spatula go around the edge, loosen it a little bit.  And starting with the omelet towards you, tilt the pan up slightly, and gently fold the omelet in on itself a few times, just like this. And then, the other side of the omelet.  Fold that in.  And this is a classic French omelet. It’s a folded omelet.

And so, once you have the two sides folded in like this.  You can invert it right onto your plate. Press down the seam a little bit, and gently flip the omelet right onto your plate.

Now, you can garnish this up with some herbs, or you can serve it with some toast.  But there you have it, a perfectly cooked French omelet that took two minutes to make.

If you have any kitchen conundrums, or if you have any breakfast conundrums that you need solved, write in the comments section below. Or reach out to us using the hashtag #kitchenconundrums, and we will solve whatever kitchen problems you throw our way.

NOTE:  Tackle/tackling – tackling is a football word.  In football, tackle means one player knocks another player to the ground.  In everyday language, when someone tackles something, it means they undertake (or do) something that might be difficult or a big job.