Souffle omelette

Souffle omelette
Originally uploaded by framboise.

It seems too me that I've been eating chicken for most of my lunches and dinners (probably because I freeze the excess dinners for lunch...). And although I found a decent source of beef at Whole Foods, I can't bring my stingy self to pay for it regularly. And I've yet to try the lamb. So, tonight, it's the old standby meat-less, tofu-less, pulse-less recipe: souffle omelette.

It's nothing special; the only difference is you beat the egg whites separately from everything else. Which isn't hard if you're only whisking the whites from two or three eggs. (Bulking up to the 6 eggs normally required for cakes takes a bit more time, and lazy git here tends to use an electric whisk for that.)

Ingredients required to feed two (or one greedy guts):

• 3 eggs, yolks and whites separated
• a handful of cheese, grated (I'd recommend parmesan, and whatever else you have in. In this instance, I was trying to use up some cheese left by friends, which consisted of fake mozarrella and plastic cheddar - not perfect, but adequate.)
• seasoning (salt/pepper; when I'm feeling chefy, I add chillies or Moroccan-stylee spices)

See here for a composite of ingredients.

Method:

1. (Turn the grill on... Whack it as high as it'll go)
2. Beat the egg whites with a super-clean whisk in a super-clean bowl. Needless to say, both bowl and whisk must be desert-dry too.
   When you get to the soft peak stage (you'll know, cos your triceps will start to complain), fold in the egg yolks, grated cheese and seasoning. (Again, this whole folding malarky must be done carefully so you don't collapse the air-inflated egg whites. The figure of eight action is my preferred method.) It's not necessary to mix it well.
3. Melt a knob of butter in a pan (non-stick if you believe in such things), and flop the mixture in.
4. Allow to cook until the base is firm enough to move about when you shuggle the pan, but not so long that the whole damn thing solidifies.
5. Stick the wobbly mixture under the grill and allow a minute (or two) for the mixture to JUST brown (more golden than brown, ok?).
6. Fold over and serve.

I committed the cardinal sin of letting my omelette cook for 30 seconds too long, and it was a bit more firm than I like... It should be a wee bit sloppy when it comes out of the whole process. (I also beat my egg whites a bit too much cos I was having so much fun...) But if you're worried about salmonella poisoning, I guess you'd be better off cooking it till it's rubbery and killed all the joy of eating a proper omelette.

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