The following is a souffled omelette recipe inspired by the one made famous by Madame Poulard at Mont St. Michel France. Traditionally the omelette is cooked over an open wood fire but it can also be made at home on a stove top, oven, or even a BBQ.
Note: Though it is referred to as an omelette the accompanying meat and vegetables are traditionally served on the side, making it more of a souffled egg with accompaniments.
Ingredients
2 egg whites
1 egg yolk
Cream (not shown in picture)
Butter
Salt and pepper to taste
Optional Ingredients
Herbs (basil, chives and thyme work well)
Garlic
Shallots
Meat and vegetables of your choice to serve on the side.
Directions
Start by separating the egg whites from the yolks and whisking the yolks with some cream or creme fraiche. You don't have to add the cream if you don't want to but it really makes the omelette more creamy overall.
While you are doing this begin heating up a pan on the stove. I prefer to use a cast iron pan but you can use whatever you are comfortable with.
Next whisk the egg whites together until you achieve soft peaks. This takes roughly 3-5 minutes depending on how fast you are able to whisk them. Try not to let the finished egg whites sit for too long before cooking them as they will begin to deflate after only a few minutes.
Gently fold the egg yolk mixture into the whites being careful not to deflate the whites. Try not to over mix them, a few folds will work fine.
On medium to low heat, melt some butter in your frying pan. The more butter the more flavor, so if you want the omelette to be decadent - use a lot of butter.
Pour the egg mixture into the pan. Normally I use a much smaller pan then the one seen in the photo. The egg mixture usually fills it entirely and bubbles up above the rim. Unfortunately I realized my mistake after I had already poured it into the pan and couldn't correct my mistake. It wasn't a big deal but the omelette cooks a little nicer when more of it is exposed to the pan. In this case I had to cook it with the lid on for a bit to ensure that the top of the egg was cooked all the way through.
After a few minutes, when the bottom is starting to brown, fold the egg in half onto itself and let it cook another minute or so.
When the omelette is cooked all the way through remove it from the heat and melt some more butter in the pan to pour over top. This is the trick to making restaurant quality food. A lot of times it really just comes down to more butter and more salt.
Garnish with course salt and pepper and anything else that you enjoy. I served mine with a sprig of basil and some shallots.
As you can see the insides of the omelette is quite fluffy. Despite the cream and copious amounts of butter the omelette comes across as a fairly light dish. I don't think it is a light dish, but it certainly eats that way.
Looks very tasty. I can see that France is excerting a major influence over you. Watch out, if you ever return to Canada, you might end up in Québec :-)
Welk maybe, I am starting to see the appeal of Quebec lol.
So did you eat the omelette at Madame Poulards on any of your visits to Mont St. Michel?
Never. Wouldn't if I was rich, I'd rather buy a bottle of the finest Calvados. It's an egg, for cryin' out loud. That bitch crazy!
Hahahaha thats basically what we thought as well. We were like - "38 euro for the plain egg with no accompaniments! No thank you."
Its strange because a lot of the reviews online are really hit or miss as well. Some people loved it and others said it was too expensive for what it is. It was like a 50/50 split almost between the two sides. I suspect the ones who loved it have a sort of sunk cost bias. They don't want to feel as though they made a bad decision, overpaid, or were ripped off so they play along with the hype.