Tasty: How to | Omelettes

My dad taught me a lot of things, and among them was how to cook eggs. Every weekend we spent with him, he would cook us breakfast: "dipping eggs" (which were eggs over easy with bagels and cream cheese that we could dip into the runny yolks). I remember watching him make perfect eggs every weekend and wondering how he did it. Part of my wonder and amazement came from the fact that he didn't bother with a spatula but rather flipped the eggs with one swift motion of the pan (I guess that's what years in the restaurant business will do for you!). So, when he taught me how to make eggs, he taught me this way. You can imagine the mess that followed. He let me break as many eggs as I needed to get it right (however, none went to waste as he didn't mind eating all of the ones that I ruined!).

Avocado, Tomato & Goat Cheese Omelette

For a while after that, I was intimidated by eggs because out of all the eggs we cooked that day, I think I only flipped one successfully. Therefore, I stuck to what I knew - scrambled eggs. Every now and then I would try an egg over easy, this time with a spatula, and still be unsuccessful. Omelettes were the same story. I would make an absolute mess and/or end up with an undercooked runny "scramble" of random ingredients.

But, alas, after a lot of practice and a lot of poorly cooked eggs, I am finally comfortable cooking eggs, any style (I have even started poaching them). I still stick to a spatula because I realize that, these days, in order to perfect that pan flip it will be ME cleaning up the mess and not my parents. No thank you!

Once I got the method down, I realized that omelettes in particular are not that hard to make, if you have the right stuff. Here is a quick how-to:

What you will need:

A small non-stick pan

Oil or non-stick spray (be generous, this won't work if the eggs are allowed to stick to the pan)

Eggs - 3 is usually a good number (for a healthier omelette, I use 2 egg whites and one whole egg)

Cheese!

Misc meat and/or veggies that suit your fancy. (For this, I used avocado, tomato and goat cheese)

Simple Steps:

Whisk the eggs.

Add enough oil to coat a small pan.

At medium high heat, add the eggs and don't touch them until the bottom layer has been allowed to cook a bit, then gently pull all of the sides away from the edge with a spatula, allowing the remainder of the runny eggs to coat the pan. You may need to do this 2-3 times.

When the top is only a little runny, yet stable, you can flip.

Using a small pan, and not allowing the egg to stick, makes this do-able. Get the spatula as far under the eggs as you can, and flip er' over. If you want to try the pan flip, be my guest, but I hope you have a clean up crew :)

Quickly add cheese and any other fillers you want to one side of the omelette. The egg is pretty much done at this point, so you won't be cooking your ingredients beyond letting the cheese melt a bit. Any veggies, meat, etc. should already be cooked before adding to the omelette.

With your spatula, fold the egg in half over the ingredients.

You can give it a second to heat up before plating, but not too long or you will burn the eggs.