French Omelets Gone Wild!

I've been in somewhat of an eating slump the past few weeks. When Meghan isn't cooking for me, I've been eating my way through my nonperishables. Lots of pasta. Anyway, eating became much more of a chore than it's ever been. Eating and shopping for food were tiresome. I'm glad that's over.

Last night, I left work at five and sallied forth into the Lower East Side to negotiate the vending of some cheesy commestibles (that is, I went to buy some cheese) from the East Village Cheese Shop. One day I'll be able to get cheese that costs $12 or $15 per pound, but for now I work with the $1 wedges of Brie, Camembert, and whatever else happens to be on sale (Dutch, or Danish, Fontina, as was the case yesterday). With my fontina and herbed Brie, I took advantage of the wonderful weather and walked back to Christopher Square to take the 1 uptown.

On the way, I continued to fret about what the hell I was going to eat for dinner. At this point, I had very little that was in any way appealing: frozen ham steaks from Bill's 14 lb. Smithfield ham, a little pasta, easy mac [it was a gift], bread, peanut butter, and yogurt. Considering I had about 10 ham steaks, I have been somewhat desperate to find interesting ways of preparing them. The difficult part with them, though, is that they're extremely salty. Salty.

Then I flashed back to Meg saying that she loved ham and eggs. I wanted to get eggs for egg salad, so it was perfect. After a quick trip to the Associated, I decided on a french omelet (no milk, just scrambled eggs) with my herbed brie, scallions (also for the egg salad), and the ham. Recipe below:

French Omelet with Herbed Brie, Scallions, and Ham
Serves 1

1 tablespoon butter
2 eggs
4 oz herbed brie, or any soft, creamy cheese, rind removed
1 tablespoon chopped scallions (see Cook's note, below)
4 tablespoons chopped ham (prepared according to package instructions, of course...)

• Scramble eggs and season with salt and pepper. Even if you don't like salt and pepper, it really does make the eggs taste better. Trust me.
• Melt butter on small skillet on medium heat until foam subsides.
• Pour eggs into skillet and pick up edges as they cook to spread out liquid egg mixture. (See Cooks' note, below)
• Add cheese off center when the omelet begins to look dry.
• Add ham and scallions on top of the cheese.
• Fold omelet in half (not really french style, but whatever), and serve on a plate.

Cooks' Notes: The scallions added a nice element to the meal, but would have tasted better caramelized. If you choose to do that, use an additional 1/2 tablespoon of butter and do it before you cook the eggs.
Keep a close watch on the eggs; I've found that milkless french omelets tend to burn more quickly than their milked counterparts.

Oh, and for anyone keeping track, this meal cost about $1.25. $1.50 with salad. Again, no pictures because they turned out gruesome.

Technorati Tags: Food, Eggs, Omelet, Cooking