Omelets

It seems like yesterday, I was a student in Paris!  I was fresh out of high school and it was a summer to remember.  I grew to love Paris as home. I loved it so much that 4 years later, I studied there for a year.  During the year stint, I lived with another family and again with the lady I lived with the first time.  I missed my then boyfriend and family, but I couldn't allow anything to interfere with my once in a lifetime dream.  If  love was meant to last, surely it would.... and it did (for 16 years). I took every opportunity to visit every museum that was in the city, eat at "hole in the wall" places ("hole in the wall" in Paris?  NO!), shop the local markets, and enjoy the adventure.   

Mme... lived in the 16th Arrondissement, which is quite the oh la la place to live. Looking at the old address, I see that her 5 story, 7 bedroom town house had been converted to separate apartments.  Anyway, it was a single residence when I was there and my room was on the top floor!  Oh how I loved my view out the high window overlooking the rooftops of Paris.

Mme. was a wonderful cook and she took every opportunity to tell me the correct (French) way to eat foods.  Never cut the lettuce with a knife and don't cut off le nez (nose) of the cheese triangle!  She made wonderful lamb (which I ate at home about once a month anyway), cakes, fish, vegetables, etc. If it was classic French, she made it (and I ate tripe but not too fond of it). She had an old crock in her kitchen where the last bits of wine from the bottle were poured.  This was for making vinegar.  

Her meals usually had an appetizer, entree, salad, cheese, bread and sometimes a small dessert. She knew that I had a sweet tooth. Even if it was fruit, that would suit me fine.  Many times, I was able to watch her prepare food right before serving.  This is where I learned to emulsify the salad dressing (my Greek family never emulsified it), and make an omelet.  It's difficult to write down the process, but there is one that she used.  It's quite an arm workout to do it properly.  

One of my secrets is to have one pan that is totally designated to making eggs.  Nothing else gets cooked in that pan.  Start with 4 eggs and beat them well, adding herbs if desired.  Put a pat of butter in the bottom of a hot pan, not so hot that the butter browns though.  Add the eggs all at once, and with the flat part of the fork against the bottom of the pan, shake the pan as you mix the eggs.  This will make it where there are no large chunks of egg in the omelet (that would be a country style omelet... which is good too), but it is velvety smooth.  After mixing the egg, tilt the pan so that the egg goes to one side of the pan, add extra cheese, and invert onto a plate.  

A more rustic way to cook an omelet, which is easier in my opinion, is to add the eggs into the hot butter (yes, use butter not oil or bacon fat), pour in the eggs and as it starts cooking, gently slide the outside portion towards the center of the pan, keep doing this until most of the egg is cooked, yet still runny in the middle, if that makes sense.  Add cheese, veggies, and meats if desired, and tilt out onto a plate.  In either case, I remember that she did not brown the omelet as is sometimes done. I think the key is not to fully cook the egg before you plate it, let it be just a little "soft" in the center.  I think browning the omelet toughens it somewhat.  This may not be the "Classic Method" taught at cooking schools, but it was classic at her house.  

Croutons

A day doesn't go by where I don't eat a salad. Some days, I will eat salad for lunch and one for dinner. Green salad, grilled shrimp salad, old fashioned lettuce wedge, grilled chicken salad, taco salad, and many others too numerous to mention. We had salad every night for dinner when I was a child and the tradition continues.  How one of my sons doesn't like salad, I don't understand, but that's ok!  Salad is a comfort food for me, especially with olive oil, vinegar, and lemon as a dressing. I had to acquire a taste for creamy Italian and Ranch style dressings over the years.  It was Greek salad dressing every night without fail when I was a child.  That's still my favorite.   Hot summers in Georgia are just made for the enjoyment of salad.  We have the local farmers market to purchase home grown tomatoes and cucumbers which really make the salad extra delicious.  It's amazing how a garden tomato can taste so differently from those purchased in the grocery store.  Salad and bread are a great combo.  Being of Greek heritage, one naturally doesn't want the lovely olive oil dressing to sit in the bottom of the bowl.  Yes, I'm heavy handed with the dressing as I like to dip hearty bread into it after finishing my salad.  That's called rustic eating at its finest!  I love any kind of bread, but especially hearty bread like a chewy ciabatta , French, or Italian bread when I have salad.  I have no less than 4 kinds of bread at my house at any given moment (right now it's pumpernickel, pumpernickel rye, croissants, ciabatta, and whole grain wheat... in case you were wondering). Since there are usually only two of us here, and I eat more bread than anyone, it sometimes gets a little stale.  When I made my salad the other day, I saw some ciabatta  bread that was one day past prime for eating without heating.  I cut off some of the crust, (who doesn't like crust? ... apparently most children I see as a table monitor during lunch at an elementary school), cut the bread into cubes, and gently saute until golden brown.  I like to cut the bread into substantial size cubes so they can be individual bites, not a minuscule cube.  A lot of packages of ready made croutons can be purchased at the store.  Seriously, how difficult can it be to cut bread and saute it in some oil or butter? The homemade ones are so much better.  I'm not going to post a recipe for croutons because YOU CAN DO THIS WITHOUT ONE! Even people who don't think they can cook without a recipe can make toast! Right? That's what it is basically... just toast.  Put a little olive oil, butter, or a mixture of both in a frying pan (my preferred method) and saute over low heat until golden brown.  Cut the bread into cubes, drizzle with olive oil and gently saute.  I'm sure you could bake the pieces in the oven too... I just like frying things. You can put a fresh garlic clove in the butter after it has melted and stir it around until the flavor is infused, or chop it and add it at the last minute.  I've also been known to add lemon pepper seasoning too.  Plenty of sea salt and freshly ground pepper finish off the croutons.  It makes an every day green salad just jump for joy!  Once you make them yourself, you will never (yes- never) purchase them at the store.