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Asparagus Omelet
To a plain omelet add young asparagus tips that have been cooked until tender and seasoned with salt and pepper. Have them hot, and when the omelet is ready to serve, place them across it and fold them in. Serve quickly.
A filled omelet built on a technique the book assumes you already have. The only real work is getting the asparagus cooked, seasoned and still hot at the moment the eggs set.
- The hingeEverything must be ready before the eggs go in the pan. A three-egg omelet is done in under two minutes, and cold or wet asparagus dropped into it will pull the temperature down and weep into the eggs.
- QuantitiesNone are given. Figure three eggs and about 6 to 8 asparagus tips per omelet, which serves one generously or two modestly.
- Cooking the tipsTwo to four minutes in salted boiling water for slender spears, depending on thickness. They should bend but not droop; older cookbooks' "until tender" generally meant softer than we would cook them now.
- Drying themDrain the tips well and blot them. Surface water can leave a filled omelet loose at the fold.
- TrimmingUse only the tips and an inch or two of the tender stalk. Snap a spear where it wants to break and keep the upper portion; the lower half is fibrous no matter how long it cooks.
- The panAn 8-inch nonstick or well-seasoned pan over medium-high heat, with butter foaming but not browning. "Plain omelet" here most likely means beaten whole eggs with salt rather than a separated, souffle-style omelet, though only the book's own plain omelet entry would settle it.
- FoldingLay the tips in a line slightly off center so the omelet folds cleanly over them, then turn it out onto a warm plate. A cold plate undoes the whole point of "serve quickly."