Classic Herb and Pea Omelette

A life skill to nourish yourself and your special person.

My son’s making dinner tonight. Like most young blokes of his age it’s a you tube recipe, something with chicken, garlic and honey. Sounds very Gen Z though, no doubt with his flourish it will be delicious. I’ll make a vegie side, because that’s what mums do right? Frankly he could cook us anything and I’d be excited, he leaves for three years in Europe next month so we’re soaking him up.

He took this initiative to give me a night off. Perhaps also he’s missing cooking for himself and perhaps he enjoys showing off his culinary skills. He has a good palette, knows what tastes good together and likes to experiment in the kitchen. Like his brother, who’s also a dab hand in the kitchen, he enjoys cooking and showing his love for his special people through food. I’m proud of them both, for many reasons, but this is perhaps one of my favourite things about them, unsurprisingly.

We all love to see ourselves reflected in our kids I think, well the things we like about ourselves at least. Importantly though, I think, we feel a little chuffed when our goals for our kids come to fruition. When they were a little a pal with a son told me her goal was that she’d raise a boy who could sew a button on a shirt, cook a meal for his love and slow dance with said love. In other words, she wanted him to be self-sufficient and able to show care and love for the one he loved. This resonated with me and guided me in many of the things I taught them about life. From an early age they ‘helped’ in the kitchen in the hope they’d naturally take an interest and be adventurous eaters. As you’d expect with kids sometimes it did and sometimes it didn’t work but, importantly in adulthood it seems we nailed it. So tonight I reap what I sowed, though let’s be honest 20 plus years ago I never imagined either of them watching a tiny screen as they cooked, but as usual I digress.

I don’t think I ever had much of a plan when I was teaching them to cook, rather I went with the immersion method, quite possibly otherwise known as the scatter method. They were asked to help, shown how to chop and dice, stir and beat. Thankfully they were curious and interested, asked lots of questions and most importantly were hungry, always the best motivator.

As they grew up I did start to think about what meals and skills I wanted to impress upon them. They asked to learn many faves guiding me but there were other basics I thought would be important. How to cook a steak properly, roast a chicken, cook vegies (in case they started eating them) and all the boy foods like toasties and schnitzels top priority.

But there really is nothing better than knowing how to whip up something tasty, simple and satisfying. A dish that can be prepared and served for breakfast lunch and dinner, without fuss. One you could make when the fridge is nearly bare and one you could make to use up leftovers bits and pieces, a big priority of mine.

An omelette is such a meal. Seemingly simple, a good omelette is actually quite a skill and one I recommend everyone master. As a young woman I steered clear of making my own considering them a far more complicated dish than they actually are. Chatting with a chef, early in my hospitality career, while he made me one early one morning he talked me through the process offering me many lessons over many weeks until he was happy I’d mastered the art.

Omelettes are now my lunch go to. I’ve become adept at the Chinese version, recently the Japanese version but most importantly my favourite, a classic with herbs and sweet baby peas and a shower of finely grated salty cheese. A good omelette is gently browned on the outside and slightly salted, goldilocks salting, not too much, nor too little just enough. It should be slightly oozy on the inside, almost creamy and feather light, fluffy and pillowy on the outside. I prefer mine with the freshness and brightness of emerald green herbs and best of all sweet peas flecked through. In my humble opinion last night’s left-over peas from whatever dinner you enjoyed makes the best punctuation to your omelette, balancing the salty and creamy with just the right amount of sugary sweetness.

My instructions are for one so just scale up as required. But here’s the thing, a well cooked omelette made with care and skill is a quick way of looking after the one you love or most importantly yourself. Plain and simple but delicious and exceptional.

Post Script: Dinner was delicious!

Ingredients:

1 tsp olive oil

1 generous tsp butter

1 spring onion/scallion/shallot/green onion, finely sliced both white and green part

2 whole eggs

1 good glug of thick cream, this translates to vague tablespoon. You can use whole milk if you don’t have cream. Sour cream is tasty too.

A pinch of salt flakes

A grind of pepper

2 heaped teaspoons of fresh finely chopped soft herbs. My favourites are dill and parsley but you do you.

¼ cup cooked peas, leftovers are perfect but if you don’t have any thaw frozen peas in a bowl of boiling water from a boiled kettle.

Hard flavourful cheese such as parmigiano or gruyere finely grated, to taste

Method:

Beat together the eggs and cream with the salt until well beaten, the salt added first will help break up the white so everything mixes well together. Beat in the herbs and pepper and stir through the peas, set aside a moment.

Place a small nonstick pan* over a medium-low heat and warm the olive. Pop the butter in the pan to melt. As soon as the butter bubbles up toss in the sliced spring onion and gently sauté briefly until just fragrant. Ensuring the spring onion is evenly spread across the pans surface gently pour over the egg mixture pouring all around the pan to cover the surface, if need you can lift the pan momentarily off the heat and swirl to move the mixture to spread across the pan. Reduce heat to low and leave untouched for a minute or two until the edges are only just starting to set. Using a silicone spatula gently nudge the edges back allowing the unset liquid egg mixture to run to the edges and fill the space, work your way around the full circle of the pan doing this. Leave the edges to set again then repeat the edge process a second time, you may need to swirl the pan to allow the remaining unset egg to run to the edge. The omelette will be done when the underside is golden brown and the upside will appear to still be slightly undercooked with a creamy puddle of egg mixture in the middle. You can slip spatula under the edge of the omelette to check the underside colour, when you do this it will remain well intact as you lift and should be a lovely golden burnished colour. The creamy part will continue to set after removing from the pan. If you’re happy with the underside of the omelette, gently lift one side of the omelette and fold over onto the other half. Gently tip pan over plate allowing the omelette to slip onto the plate. Using a microplane or fine grater held over the omelette, grate the cheese over the surface showering it in clouds of salty cheese. Serve with a side salad, crusty bread and, as Elizabeth David suggests, a lovely glass of cold crisp white wine.

*Mine is 20cm, this is a perfect size for a two egg omelette.

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Cooking:

~ Boy 2’s delicious dinner was a big success. He served it with sushi rice mixed with a spoonful mirin and sesame seeds and pickled onion. I did indeed make ginger stir fried mixed veg. Use your instinct for the ingredients or as he says use the ‘vibe.’ Trust your cooking gut.

~ Going to try this bread recipe because hello! Cheese and jalapeno!!

Reading:

~ Emily Henry’s new book. Not exactly highly literary but definitely is highly entertaining.

~ The final instalment of The Maid series by Nita Prose. Dear Molly is a delightful heroine, it’s proving to be a fab book.

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We’re off to Japan for a quick holiday next week then home to help Boy 2 prepare for his big move, so I’ll be taking a little break here. I’ll return and update you on our adventure in a few weeks. Meanwhile you can see what I’m up to on instagram while I’m away if you’re intereseted.

Meanwhile, stay well my friends.

S x