Truffled Omelet(te) – The Real Breakfast of Champions

Amy and Jonny — Sun, 03 May 2009 16:06:16 +0000

In several of his well-known paeans to Provence, Peter Mayle describes, both lyrically and at great length, his love affair with the black truffles of that region. Sometimes couched as a cloak-and-dagger chase involving bizarre and nervy rendez-vous’ along dimly-lit back roads, or illicit dealings with “men with dirt under their fingernails and yesterday’s garlic on their breath” in the shady recesses of the village cafe, Mayle often puts himself on the wrong side of the law in search of the prize he calls “the black gold of Provence”. All this is necessary, he maintains, because the price of “rabasses”, as they’re known in Provencale, is so astronomical – an assessment borne out by even the most casual google search (one ounce of black French winter truffles = $106). Thankfully, we were able to pick up some cheaper, black summer truffles (£10 or $16 for two) in a London grocery store the last time we were there.

Once he’s managed to obtain said lucre though, Mayle is remarkably restrained in his descriptions of how best to prepare them. Of course, he says, you can stuff a pigeon with them, or combine them with cream and mushrooms as a sauce over beef or veal medallions, but the way to enjoy them at their best, most pungent, earthy and flavorful, is to do as little to them as possible. His preferred recipe is to grate a generous amount of black truffle into and over a simple, loose, French-style omelette, and enjoy with a glass of champagne, for breakfast.

Well, since our good friend Nuria at Spanish Recipes challenged us to submit our favorite omelette recipe to her Blog Your Omelet contest, we felt that we had to produce something pretty grand if we were to compete with her amazing range of eggy treats. So, here it is, both simple and sophisticated at the same time, not to mention being about the best breakfast imaginable, especially with the champagne!

The key to a good omelet, the great Jacques Pepin reminds us, is to keep it a bit “wet” or “loose” by not overcooking it (which Americans seem to hate, for some reason) and to never complicate the flavor of what should be the star of the show – the egg. Americans know how to do this best – kind of similar to how we can complicate the simplicity of a pizza by weighing it down with a million toppings. Look at the average diner omelet in America – it’s often stuffed with a lot of veggies and/or meat and oozing with cheese – perhaps the only way of saving the old diet “egg white omelet” from being boring and tasteless, however.

Regardless of how you usually make your omelet, and whether or not you have truffles, we urge you to try a simple and loose one next time. For ours we simply added butter to the warm pan and poured in our whisked egg and dash of cream, salt and pepper mixture. Stir or whisk the egg while it’s cooking in the warm pan until it begins to come together. Then, stop stirring and let it sit and cook. When it looks mostly cooked but still nicely moist and with a bit of looseness on the top layer, you’re done. (Remember, eggs continue to cook in their own heat, so you can undercook it and it should still be good within a minute or so.) If you so choose to, add some chopped chives and sliced mushrooms sauteed in some truffle oil (if you’ve got it) to the middle and then slice some black truffle (again, if you’ve got it) on top. No ketchup or hot sauce necessary, we promise.

Asparagus, Cremini and Tomato Tart: Lighter Than Quiche (Unless You Eat 5 Pieces)

Amy — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:36:25 +0000

In recent years, I’ve become a food magazine junkie. I’ve pretty much ordered every single one over the past 10 years (no Rachael Ray & Martha Stewart mags don’t count in my world) and found that only a small handful are worth reordering (ahem, Saveur, Gourmet, Cucina Italiana, Food & Wine). One that I keep reordering but often question why is Bon Appetit. When they relaunched the magazine about a year ago with a new look I had a few opinions because I felt like the direction of the mag was changing – and not for the better. Regardless, I decided to give it a shot and, just like I do with my favorite food mags every month, I read the whole magazine – every page, cover to cover. I’ve continued to do this month after month, and month after month I feel the same way – uninspired. But one lovely and delicious-looking dish in the April 2008 issue struck me – an asparagus and ricotta tart made with puff pastry. I loved the idea of using ricotta along with the traditional quiche ingredients to make a tart. I imagined the flavor, texture and smell – I was inspired!

I tweaked the original Bon Appetit recipe a bit and only had a piece of puff pastry in the freezer and some pie crusts. I will write the recipe asking you to use only puff pastry, but feel free to do what we did and roll out defrosted pie crusts, shape into a rectangle and line the outside of the tart with strips of puff pastry. It works just as well!

The taste of this tart was light and chewy. Using various different veggies and ricotta over all eggs helped me convince myself that I was eating healthy. Even after a few helpings, I knew I was kidding myself but I’ve never been one of those fools that really believed that “a moment on the lips is a lifetime on the hips”. If I did I’d be much thinner and this blog would not exist, clearly!

Btw… thanks to our friend at Serious Eats who featured this post in their “Blogwatch” section recently. Gracias!

ASPARAGUS, CREMINI AND TOMATO TART WITH RICOTTA AND PETITE JURASSIC CHEESE

Ingredients:

2 sheet of thawed puff pastry (1/2 of a 17.3 oz. package)
1 egg, beaten
about 10 to 12 asparagus spears
6-8 grape tomatoes, sliced in half
6-8 cremini mushrooms (or white/brown mushrooms), sliced in half
1/2 cup whole-milk ricotta cheese
4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
pinch of salt
6 slices of thinly-sliced genoa salami, soppressata or other sliced cured meat of your choice
2/3 cup grated Petite Jurassic cheese (or Gruyere, Swiss or Comte cheese)

What to do:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out puff pastry on floured surface and roll into a large rectangle (about the size of a long baking sheet). Cut 1/2 inch of puff pastry from each side and brush the sides with a bit of the beaten egg. Place 1/2 inch pieces all along the edges of the puff pastry tart so that the egg is the binding ingredient. Transfer to a baking sheet.
Steam asparagus until so it’s crisp-tender – about 2 to 3 minutes. Shock in an ice bath to keep color and texture. Chop the bottom 2 inches of the asparagus off and puree these in a food processor along with the rest of the beaten egg, ricotta, the olive oil and pinch of salt. Transfer to bowl.
Spread the asparagus puree on the bottom of your tart, reserving a few tablespoons. It will fill up to about 1/8 of an inch high. Make sure it is coated evenly. Nestle the pieces of salami into the puree in random places around the tart. Sprinkle your cheese around the tart as well and put your remaining tablespoons of asparagus puree over the pieces of salami (so to cover them).
Add your sliced grape tomatoes, asparagus spears and mushrooms to the top of the tart – make it look pretty, why not.
Drizzle some olive oil over the top and bake about 25 to 30 minutes or until the filling is set. Serve warm or cold along with a salad or for breakfast with a runny egg.

Check out some other posts you may enjoy:

We Are Never Full » crimini

Truffled Omelet(te) – The Real Breakfast of Champions

Asparagus, Cremini and Tomato Tart: Lighter Than Quiche (Unless You Eat 5 Pieces)