Hindustan Times
Meet the Omlette King: Me
I am really quite reticent about my cooking.
No, really. I am.
My wife, friends and parents believe I’m more than a decent cook. “Oh, he’s a great cook,” they say with no great impartiality.
It’s quite embarrassing. Comments like these always startle me because I know what I am not—a great cook.
My cooking is much like the roadside mechanic’s fiddling and tinkering. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. A twist here, a turn there. Throw it together and hope the engine fires.
What I am is a jhatka cook. To north Indians, that would be a jugaad cook, that indefinable ability to somehow make things work using whatever’s available.
But there’s one thing I know how to make very, very well: An omlette.
Yes, I have no false modesty in saying it out loud: I’m the best; I’m the omlette king.
The little omlette room
An omlette was the first thing I actually ever cooked as a teen, and more than five years later, it was still all I knew. When I left home and lived in a tiny one-room home in Bangalore as a crime reporter on Rs 1,800 a month, all I cooked was omlettes. The onions and chillies shared shelf space (I had only three open, stone shelves) with underwear and banians.
It was a little irritating to pick onion peels from my clothes sometimes, but it was a small price to pay to have my own breakfast in my own little world.
The omlettes were made on a single hot-plate, which I kicked under the bed when it wasn’t in use. Every Sunday, my friends—all of whom lived in proper homes with proper kitchens producing proper meals—streamed in for omlettes and sausages off my floor.
I suppose it was all very romantic for them: Squeezing onto my bed, getting served tailor-made omlettes (without sausages, with chillies, no onions—whatever) and generally having a rip-roaring time. As you can guess, my little room always had a lingering aroma of eggs and onions.
When I went to the US for two years, I cooked omlettes of course. But by now I had learned of the world beyond onions, chillies and sausages. I discovered olives (and stuffed olives), anchovies, salami, tuna, spring onions, and even, umm, pig’s feet. Yes, I did stuff an omlette with pig’s hooves once, hoping somehow that it might bring back the taste of Gulbarga paaya (trotters in spicy broth) to Missouri, USA.
My Spanish friends taught me the Spanish omlette—which bakes inside an oven—but I was soon substituting those boring potatoes they use with pepperoni.
When I returned to India, I was much more than an omlette fixer. I had cooked biryanis, fish curries (I carried kokum with me), lots of roasts and grills and salads. Vegetables were still some years away, since I needed them only once I got married. My wife is a vegetarian, something my friends don’t let me ever forget since I had sworn never to marry one.
Shaken, not scrambled
But omlettes remain closest to my heart, my USP.
I am never anxious with an omlette, and I think I know all there is to know.
I know what I am doing. I know I never go wrong. I just know an omlette.
Here are the broad omlette varieties I make:
1. The posh omlette: Beat the eggs really well. Instead of a fork, use an egg-beater and use it well. The mixture becomes really smooth. When you pour it into a medium-hot pan, throw in your stuffings (including the standard onions/tomatoes/chilles garnishes) and cover it. Reduce heat to low, and the omlette will rise wonderfully. No need to shake and scramble the eggs around as they do on the road or at five-star cooking stations. A simple fold, and you will have the fattest, smoothest omlette ever. Two eggs will seem like three.
2. The rasta omlette: As they do on the road. Beat the eggs with a fork, with the standard garnishes thrown in. You need to fluff it artificially. Pour it into a hot pan and scramble and mess it up. Stuff it with whatever you wish. Fold it in half when half done or flip from two sides to make it a wedge.
3. The desi omlette: First fry onion in oil, then ginger/garlic. Then pour in the egg and make it as you would the rasta omlette. Only, ensure you add lots of chopped chillies (with the seeds), coriander, tomatoes and onions. Options: a bit of cheese.
4. The Spanish omlette: The conventional Spanish omlette involves frying sliced potatoes and onions, then the egg, then moving it to the oven to bake. You can make your own modifications by adding a variety of fresh or dried spices.
Suggested stuffings: Ah, I love this part.
Thin slices of cheddar, or gouda or even good old Amul. Strips of ham. Bits of sausage. Leftover bits of chicken or meat. Kheema. Spring onions. Chopped olives. Dhania (coriander) of course for a good desi omlette. Oregano. Rosemary. Thyme. Super-thin garlic flakes. Small bits of ginger. Or galangal.
Try anything, really, anything.
If you have more ideas, let’s hear them.
(8 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)
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This is so cool Samar. Can’t wait till I get home and try out the first. Mine always tear.
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Haha, bet you never ate the ‘lowkey’ omelette that once fell to my lot, trekking to Pindari Glacier in my early 20s. We were damn hungry and ordered up omelettes at a dhabha. They turned out to be lovingly stuffed with fat slices of ‘lauki’ (bottlegourd). Talk about yuck. Even dousing them in kaddu sauce didn’t redeem them.
An omelette I love needs those tender, thinskinned and superjuicy desi tomatoes, used to grow them once. Puree them thickly, drop them in butter and pour in egg beaten with a mountain of (mild) grated cheese and minimal salt and pepper. If you cover it while on low heat it fluffs up like really fat. Best with toasted wholewheat bread.
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Samar Halarnkar Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
lauki, yuck.
never thought to pureeing tomatoes. will do.
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meghashankar Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
This blog doesn’t taste as nice as it should after reading the post on agoris..
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loved ur article and could relate to it cos i m an egg specialist too
the all time favourite egg pakoda and egg bhurji ( hw cld u miss out on tht one )
try this parsi egg dish….
cut onions tomatoes garlic ginger and saute it in a pan till cooked, u can add some dry masalas too like garam masala or corriander powder and a dash of red chilli powder as per your chilli quotient :). spread the mixture into the pan, like u wld spread a pancake and then break the eggs on the cooked masala ( as per the size of the dish ). cover it and let it cook. once done in abt 7 mins or so. serve hot with a garnishing of green corriander. tastes awesome with bread or roti
try and lemme knw hw u liked it !!! Cheers
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Samar Halarnkar Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Shalini, wow, this is great. Will try it and let you know. Thanks
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Samar Halarnkar Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
waitaminit. I know what you’re talking about. I just realised, I make this quite often! Only, I have abandoned the onions/tomatoes base over the last few years and substituted it with kheema. I will go back to basics one day.
There is also a version that my mother taught me called “Pudina anda”. As the name suggests, the base is onions (at least 2 for 5/6 eggs), then pudina (mint) chopped (lots and lots of it, at least 5-6 bunches I would imagine because it shrinks fast) and 3-4 green chillies. Cover and cook, as you say. No need for spices. Teekha and heavenly.
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Shalini Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
yeah kheema can b a great substitute as well…..i have eaten it and tastes divine……but unfortunately am married in a veg household so kinda stuck !!!
the pudina anda too sounds yummy thou never heard or tried it but wld surely do so one day !!!
u knw its a lot of fun to see foodies around and talk and share stuff here…… love it !!!
keep them coming samar
this a is a good breakfast egg recipe
dab oil in a circle on tawa. place 3 slices of tomato in each corner like a triangle. break the egg carefully in the middle so that the whites slither under the tomatoes and takes them in. place an amul cheese on top of it. doesn’t matter if it wobbles just when the heat starts melting it take this whole block off the tawa. sprinkle ruffly grated pepper. eat with toast.
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Shalini Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 4:14 pm
Fascinating !!!!
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Wonderful ideas……….
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Is baking some shortcut for a spanish omlette? I always thought it is made on a pan, and with the difficulty of turning over such a thick, heavy omlette, I learn it the hard way myself.
Will give this oven thing a try, but I am sure the Spanish colleagues in my office will consider it a ‘cheat’ trick!
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samar halarnkar Reply:
February 14th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Siddhartha, baking is indeed a short cut. I shove the whole pan into the oven, so need to turn it over. BTW, I learned this from Spaniards about 14 years ago, so maybe your colleagues already know of this technique.
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Samar, reading the Omlette King is a wonderful start to my weekend. Certainly revealing to me that i have had a limited repertoire (only the ‘rasta’)…waiting for the kids to stir out of bed so i can expose them to either the ‘posh’ or maybe the ;desi’…..And maybe i will go back to eating some myself.
If u ever get down to Singapore, do give us a shout….
Take care
Amit
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samar halarnkar Reply:
February 14th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Amit! Great to hear from you after all these years. And glad to know you are trying out the omlettes. Let me know how they turned out. Certainly will give you a call when I get to Singapore. Cheers
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Oh God. You’re married to a vegetarian.
Ever tried an apple and cheese omelet? Sounds bizarre but tastes really, really good, especially if you use good cheese. Slice an apple (not a sour variety), and some brie (or any other soft, melty cheese). Fry the apple lightly in butter, say for a minute, with a sprinkle of cinnamon. Add a drop of vanilla essence to the ggs before you beat ‘em. No sugar, but salt to taste. Pour your eggs into frying pan. When omelet just sets, transfer to plate/pan, place apples on top in single layer, sprinkle finely sliced spring onions on top, put sliced cheese on top, stick in an oven till cheese melts.
Other fillings I love: chicken liver, smoked salmon-n-cream cheese, big fat prawns, just-sweated mushrooms… mmmm m’hungry!
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samar halarnkar Reply:
February 14th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Yes, but a vegetarian who gets stressed if I eat vegetarian and even cooks dried fish for me.
Chicken liver is an excellent omlette filling, thank you for that. Prawns have never really worked for me though…
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Oh and BTW, for details on exactly how and when to use eggs, see my post here: http://foodtravelbangalore.wordpress.com/2008/10/12/ande-ke-funde-eggs/
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There is one particular egg pakoda I find particularly interesting. It’s done by streetside vendor in Pandeypur in Benaras (Varanasi) who does wraps the boiled egg in ‘aloo tikki’ kind of potato mix and deep fries. Along with his special chutney, this ensures that people make a beeline for this place - I am surprised, though, that even in a chat-pakoda heaven like Benaras and more specifically Pandeypur, no one else other than this guy sell such pakodas.
Anyone visiting Benaras check this guy out.
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What finger-lickin wonderful ideas for glorious omlettes. I always maintain an egg a day, keeps hunger at bay-at least at breakfast time. Glad to hear mention of my Pudina Anda. It is a family receipe
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Samar Halarnkar Reply:
February 16th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
That’s my mother, definitely. As you can tell from her egg-a-day prescription, I acquired all my non-vegetarian instincts from her.
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Check out Hafeez Inayatullah’s omlette recipes at: http://pakistaniat.com/2009/01/22/omelet-recipe-pakistan-pakistani-food/
Tips included: how to make your omlette ‘beautiful’ and also, how to make it look like a fish.
Really quite charming
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Samar Halarnkar Reply:
February 16th, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Just checked it out. It really is nice. Read it people. Thanks Namita.
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more stuffing options
a few shallots sliced, some curry leaves, a couple of spoons of grated coconut, fried (slowly) brown, a pinch of chilli powder added last…
a variation of this (similar taste) is the “chammandi podi” (dark brown coloured dry grated coconut chutney) - sprinkle some into the still-soft innards of the omelette as it cooks.
any leftover thoran (though cabbage and carrot mixed tastes best) is another alternative.
i once tried a few spoons of leftover tomato rice ( though i made it spicier by stirring it around with a bit of butter and sliced green chillies in the same nonstick pan i which i made the omelette later) and it tastes great. this needs to be eaten by itself, though, not with bread or rotis.
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samar halarnkar Reply:
February 19th, 2009 at 8:50 am
Elsa, the tomato rice is a great idea. Will try. Thoran, er, hmm, will need to think about that. But these are great suggestions.
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Omlettes are like parathas. There can be as many variations as can be imagined. Egg tikki was one of our favourite dish (during our student days at MAMC in early seventies). It was available with a street vendour, about 100 meters away from Turkman Gate in the walled city. Two varieties were available. One with boiled egg and the other with an omlette as stuffing. Used to be served as such or with a slice of bread. The vendour and the place was lost in time and space after the demolitions during emergency. The dish is not difficult to make. This blog refreshed my memories.
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The recipies suggested r good. Let me add a new and interesting recipie. Take any number of eggs. ( Four is a good number) Beat the eggs using a Mixie (hand blender or a proper mixie) till most of the mixture turns into foam. now pour this foam into a greezed nonstick pan and let it cook on slow heat. Add all stuffing and masalas of your choice and roll it like a dosa. enjoy a really fluffy omellete.
Dr.Veena Gupta
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Samar Halarnkar Reply:
February 17th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Dr Gupta, that’s what I call a posh omlette. It really gets very fluffy that way, doesn’t it?
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Another person I know who can literally survive on Omlettes is my dearest wifey….
we have tried out the chicken variety where we throw in minced pieces into the pan…
Omlette curry, which is no different than egg curry…just the Omlette replaces the egg…
and shredded Omlette in chicken curry…which, she argues, enchances the taste…
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Samar Halarnkar Reply:
February 19th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
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This is my favourite post of the blog so far. There’s no end to what you can add to an omelette of course. But sometimes the dry masalas tend to clump together in the beaten eggs and don’t mix in readily with the other stuffings and I don’t like that in my omelette.
My aunt taught me a great way to get around that. Instead of throwing in the masalas and stuffings straight into the eggs, mix them really well first. If you have the time, set aside the stuffing-garnish mixture for 5-10 mins and then beat the whole lot with the eggs. It brings all the flavours together so wonderfully.
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Suman Bolar Reply:
February 18th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Agree completely. Refrained from suggesting this lest Samar, aka quick-can murugan bash me over the head with a cast iron skillet for being too finicky a cook.
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samar halarnkar Reply:
February 19th, 2009 at 8:48 am
Just whipped out my cast-iron skillet. Frying some fish, will finish and do the bashing
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Stein, in the Autobiography of Alice B Toklas, writes about their cook:
Helene had her opinions, she did not for instance like Matisse. She said a frenchman should not stay unexpectedly to a meal particularly if he asked the servant beforehand what there was for dinner. She said foreigners had a perfect right to do these things but not a frenchman and Matisse had once done it. So when Miss Stein said to her, Monsieur Matisse is staying for dinner this evening, she would say, in that case I will not make an omelette but fry the eggs. It takes the same number of eggs and the same amount of butter but it shows less respect, and he will understand.
Elizabeth David’s French Provincial Cooking discusses the famous omelettes of La Mere Poulard who, when asked for her recipe, responded - “Monsieur, I get some good eggs, I put them in a bowl and beat vigorously. Then I put them into a pan with good butter and stir constantly. I will be very happy if this recipe gives you pleasure”.
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Samar Halarnkar Reply:
February 20th, 2009 at 11:30 am
Rachel, wonderful stuff. Thanks
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Do you never separate the egg whites and yolks, Samar? In many Parsi homes the omelette is made fluffy by beating the egg white separately and mixing the yolk in just before pouring into the pan. Ditto with many of the parsi xyz per eedu dishes (tamatar, salli, kheema per eedu and so on). Extra effort of course, but it does change both the texture and flavour.
Great blog!
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Samar Halarnkar Reply:
February 25th, 2009 at 9:40 am
Well, no, I never separate the whites and yolks. You can still get the fluffiness by using a beater or a mixie. But maybe I should, maybe I will
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[...] secret we’ve evolved over the years: the jhatka or quick, improvised dinner (Readers of this blog may recall my unique kitchen qualification: I am a jhatka [...]
awesome samar….love ur love for omelettes. I dont think anything makes for a better sunday morning breakfast. Also, one of my most endearing memories of my initial days of working are those of the hot rasta omelettes we enjoyed after a big drinking session on the weekends. I now think we ate it more because it was so yummy and not just because it was so affordable.
And the egg cooked over kheema number is definitely my dinner tonight!!
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Samar Halarnkar Reply:
March 7th, 2009 at 9:20 pm
Sigh. You’re making me hungry all over again Smriti. And I just had dinner
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i tried omelet with dried basil elaves,..for the first time,..i am publishing the post today,…::-) enjoyed readin ur post,..remembered my hostel days,.:-)
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Samar Halarnkar Reply:
March 9th, 2009 at 11:08 am
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I guess practice makes a man perfect… Kudos!!!
Can’t wait to try the Spanish one…
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Samar,
Those omlette varieties are omesome. Egg dishes are my favorite especially the desi gujarati - not technically an omlette - scrambled eggs or ‘bhurji’ that you get at the food carts in Ahmedabad and Vadodra. I have added frittatas - technically an omlette - to my repertoire because of my time here in the US. Check out a tried and tested recipe for a frittata at my website.
Krina Patel
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Samar Halarnkar Reply:
April 10th, 2009 at 11:54 am
will do!
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[...] I suspect you did too - if you were raised non-vegetarian (though of course many vegetarians list themselves as egg eaters too). To this day, the omlette to me is a sign of kitchen confidence, as I’ve said in a previous blog. [...]