Dirty Dozen Wholesome Omelette

One Saturday morning, my friend, X, came to my house to pick up her four garden chairs I borrowed from her for our housewarming.  I was in the kitchen about to prepare lunch when our door bell rang at 11 am.

By the way, X also came to my house on my invitation for the purpose of sampling my chicken steamed buns (chicken pao’s) I made a week earlier (see post here).  I froze a few and re-steamed some for her to try out.  She enjoyed the pao’s and doggy bagged (tapau) 3 buns for her boys. While we were eating pao’s and chatting in my kitchen, she asked me what I was preparing for lunch.  I placed a filled carton of twelve eggs on the table.  These!  I told her I was going to make an omelette.

I could see the frown on X’s face.  Huh?  A dozen eggs?  You got to be kidding, right?

Nope!

A 12-egg omelette may sound rather mundane, and uninteresting or unhealthy, even. It’s like a highway to cardiac arrest if consumed by one person on a single serving; however, there’re 4 of us, hence, mathematically it’s a 3-egg omelette per person, which is about the right portion per consumption for a main meal.  Yeah, I’m consoling myself on this case to liberate my guilty conscience 😉

Well, X, my dear friend, here’s the result of my omelette, which I dubbed the “Dirty Dozen Wholesome Omelette”.  Good, eh?  😀

Jeroen to the rescue – Again!

As with my previous posts here, and here, this omelette recipe is from the Belgian chef, Jeroen Meus (adapted from his 4^th book, Dagelijkse Kost, with some modifications).  Jeroen used bacon, cheese, mushrooms, potatoes and fresh herbs to create that wholesome touch. You could make a vegetarian version by omitting the bacon. As Jeroen would say, “pimp up your omelette!” 

I added an extra ingredient, chicken sausages to sooth the tummies of my boys 😉

Ingredients (I tried my best to translate the recipe from Dutch to English…)

• 10 eggs (I used my “dirty” dozen)
• 200g smoked bacon slices (I used the ready cut smoked bacon pieces)
• 4 chicken sausages, pre-fried and cut on the bias (this was not on the recipe)
• 150g grated cheese (I used a mix of Feta and Emmentaler cheeses)
• 150g button mushrooms, sliced thinly
• Boiled potatoes (diced and left to cool down)
• 1 large onion, chopped finely
• ½ clove of garlic (I used 1 whole clove of garlic, minced with some coarse sea salt)
• A few sprigs of fresh parsley
• A few sprigs of fresh chervil
• A knob of butter (I did not use butter)
• A dash of olive oil
• Freshly milled black pepper
• Salt to taste

Method –

• Assemble all the cut, sliced, chopped, minced and diced ingredients
• Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan over a medium high heat and fry the bacon pieces (Note: I used olive oil in lieu of butter). Let them sizzle in the pan for a few minutes until slightly crisp.
• Sauté the chopped onion with the bacon
• Add the minced garlic, sliced mushrooms and the cut chicken sausages. Stir preferably with a wooden spoon.
• Taste for seasoning, and bearing in mind that the smoked bacon is quite salty.
• Rinse the fresh herbs, drain and chop them finely.
• Add the chopped chervil and parsley to the sautéed mixture.
• Remove the pan from the heat.
• Preheat the oven to 180° C
• Take a large bowl and break all the eggs. Whisk well.
• Pour the beaten eggs in a greased oven dish (or round baking pan)
• Assemble the diced (or cubed) cold, cooked potatoes in the beaten egg, making sure they are spaced evenly.
• Assemble the sautéed ingredients of bacon, sausage, mushrooms and herbs evenly into the egg mixture
• Sprinkle a generous helping of grated cheeses over the omelette
• Bake the omelette for 30 minutes, until the centre is cooked through
• Serve the omelette in wedges

Stir fried onion. garlic, bacon, chicken sausages, mushrooms, chervil and parsley

1st Layer ->> Pour the beaten eggs in a greased oven dish and assemble the cooked potatoes evenly

2nd Layer ->> Assemble the stir fried ingredients

3rd Layer ->> Sprinkle your favourite cheese(s). I used Feta and Emmentaler

A cross-section of the omelette

Slice the omelette in wedges before serving

My wholesome slice of omelette with some salads for a balanced diet 😉

It was YUMMY… I had a piece the next day for lunch at work 😀

The omelette was not called “wholesome” for nothing.  I had that one slice with some salads, and that’s all my tummy could take.  It was really filling and wholesome.  The dirty dozen omelette lasted for at least 3 days!  Well, that’s the idea.  No further cooking for the next 2 days 😉

This dish is good for buffets and picnics and can be taken either cold or warm.

Oh by the way, X, what do you think of the omelette?  

I am submitting this post to the the following –

1. Little Thumbs up event with the August theme “EGGS”, hosted by Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out , organised by Doreen from my little favourite DIY and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids

2. Cook-Your-Books #3  organized by Joyce from Kitchen Flavours

And …

3. I’m thrilled to link up this super eggy recipe to the May 2015 theme for “savoury egg” dish hosted by  Dom of Belleau Kitchen‘s monthly blog hop challenge Simply Eggcellent #3 !

  

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Cheers!

 

Related posts –

• Steamed bun/ pao chicken filling with a twist (Aspiring Bakers #31)
• Nostalgic Tau Sar Pao – Red Bean Paste Steamed Bun (Aspiring Bakers #31)
• Homemade baked Little Bird’s Nest in sambal, mushroom and porto sauce
• Asperges à la Flamande (Flemish-style Asparagus)