We ran out of bread on the weekend (that is, bread without mould), and I had a quick look through the fridge to see if I could whip something together fairly quickly.  Otherwise, I would take our dog Chilli with me for a car ride to our local McDonald’s drive-through.  And to really add pressure to the situation, the time was about 10:15 so if I didn’t decide quickly, I would miss the 10:30 cut-off for breakfast at McDonald’s.

As it turns out, I had some eggs and some leftover salami sticks so poor Chilli didn’t get to ride in the car.  That was enough to form the base for an Omelette and I was thinking about ways in which I could make it interesting.

In the end, I decided to go with a Mexican-style omelette.  For me, there is something festive and fun about Mexican food.  In fact, there was a stage of my life when I would go out to Taco Bill’s (not to be confused with Taco Bell) in the Melbourne CBD every Friday night with a friend of mine (and sometimes others) and rack up a $100-150 bill between us – mostly from drinking margaritas.  We would usually sit there drinking until the restaurant was truly closed and the staff were busy cleaning the floors and tables around us.  Then we would stumble out, and occasionally drink some more. 

Anyhow, I came up with a reasonably simple omelette.  That is, although the omelette had a few different ingredients, it was pretty simple to make. 

I had the following ingredients ready to go:

·        Three eggs beaten with 2-3 tablespoons of whole milk.

·        Hot salami sticks lengthways into thin slices.

·        Grated Mexican cheese blend (cheddar, Colby Jack and Queso Quesadilla).

·        A wedge of red onion, finely diced.

·        One small tomato, finely diced and with the seeds removed.

·        Small handful of chopped coriander leaves.

·        Pink Himalayan salt to taste.

·        Tabasco sauce to taste.

1.      Prepare the ingredients.

2.      Fry the thin salami slices in a small frying pan on medium heat in oil until golden – roughly 2-3 minutes.  Spread the salami slices around so each piece is touching the frying pan surface.

3.      Pour in the egg mixture until it covers the surface of the frying pan and then a little extra. 

4.      Quickly sprinkle in the diced tomatoes, diced onions, cheese mixture and coriander in an even layer.  If anything is piled up, spread it around and push it into the egg mixture so it is mostly covered by the liquid.

5.      Add a pinch of salt and some Tabasco sauce. 

6.      After around 2 minutes, the omelette should be cooked on the bottom but still runny at the top. 

7.      Fold the omelette with a pancake-type spatula by sticking the spatula under one half of the omelette and folding it over the other half.  If the mixture starts to fall apart when you try to dig underneath with the spatula, wait another 30 seconds or so for the mixture to cook a bit more. 

8.      Cook for another minute or two, then flip the omelette over to cook for another minute or two.  Both sides should be nice and golden by the end.

9.      Remove and serve with some fresh coriander as a garnish and some diced tomatoes on the side drizzled with olive oil.

1.      Beating eggs with milk will help make the mixture lighter and fluffier.  However, you have to remember not to add too much milk or else the mixture won’t come together because there is too much liquid for the egg mixture to absorb.  One tablespoon of milk per egg is a good rule of thumb.

2.      You do not want too little egg mixture or it will cook through too quickly and you will have a dry omelette by the time you fold it over.  If you put too much, then the outside will overcook while the centre is still under-done.  The key to a nice omelette is a nice golden layer on the outside with a moist, just-cooked centre.

3.      You can either cook the onions before adding the egg mixture or add it in after.  The flavour is stronger if you add them in raw, but some people might find it to be a bit pungent and overpowering.  The alternative is to cook beforehand with the salami slices so it is starting to caramelize. 

4.      Folding the omelette is a bit of an art.  You want to use a small frying pan to start with so that your omelette is small.  A large omelette is very difficult to flip and you risk tearing it in half if your spatula is not big enough to support the area of the omelette.  You then risk having to overcook the omelette before you can flip it. 

5.      The ease of folding will also depend on how much egg mixture you have added.  If you add too little egg, it will be easy to flip but the omelette will be dry on the inside.  If you add too much egg, the raw egg mixture will run onto the pan as you are flipping it over.  This is not disastrous, but it makes your omelette a bit messier.

In the end, the omelette did not make me feel particularly festive (probably due to the lack of tequilas and margaritas to go with it), but I thought the flavours worked well and you could identify the dish as being Mexican in its influence.

As you can see the outside of the omelette is golden, with a contrasting centre that is moist and gooey with the melted cheese.  With the cheese blend, you can be pretty creative.  I managed to get my hands on a Mexican cheese blend, which I think was only called that because it came with Queso Quesadilla – a beautiful melting cheese which I understand are ideal for use in quesadillas.  The cheddar probably comprised the majority of the mixture and was the filler (kind of like how apple juice usually forms 80%+ of mixed fruit juice flavours).  However, the Queso Quesadilla has a distinctive flavour that you can taste and makes the whole thing more Mexican, so to speak.

The tomatoes, red onion and coriander adds some contrasting sweetness, tang and freshness to the omelette which helps lift the omelette from being a basic cheese omelette to something much more special.  Finally, the Tabasco sauce adds heat and acidity and kicks the omelette into a higher gear.

All in all, aside from Chilli not being able to ride in the car with me to go to McDonald’s, the omelette was a nice way to start the morning!