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Heiblein Omelet
To three slightly beaten egg yolks add 2 tablespoons milk, 2 chopped red peppers, 2 cups diced cold boiled potatoes. Season well. Beat three egg whites stiff and fold into mixture. Pour into greased frying pan, cook slowly on top of stove till well browned without stirring. Slip omelet away from bottom of pan occasionally to see how it is browning. Then place omelet in oven under broiler to brown top part slowly. Turn onto platter, folding omelet in center.
This is a potato omelet closer to a Spanish tortilla or an Italian frittata than to a folded French omelet, and the two cups of potato to three eggs tells you so. The whole thing hinges on cooking it slowly enough that the bottom browns before the egg above sets into rubber.
- Use an oven-safe panThe recipe moves the omelet from stovetop to broiler in the same vessel, so a cast-iron or all-metal skillet is required. An 8- or 9-inch pan suits this quantity; anything wider gives a thin, dry cake.
- "Red peppers" means sweet"Red peppers" probably means sweet -- in this context it is most likely sweet red bell pepper or drained canned pimiento rather than chile, though the recipe does not say. Two chopped bell peppers can come to a cup and a half or more, which is a lot of moisture -- soften them in a little butter first and let the pan dry before the eggs go in.
- Cook slowly means lowLow heat, uncovered, 10 to 15 minutes for the bottom to brown and the center to set most of the way through. If you hear active sizzling, the underside is browning faster than the interior is cooking.
- Broilers have changedOlder broilers were generally less fierce than a modern one, which can run very hot. Set the pan on a lower rack and watch it -- one to three minutes is enough to color the top, and any longer will overcook the eggs the beaten whites are meant to keep light.
- Fold the whites gentlyThe stiff whites are the only lift in the dish. Fold until just combined and get the mixture into the pan immediately; overworking it or letting it stand collapses the foam and you end up with a hash bound in egg.
- Season properly"Season well" here means salt, pepper, and a fair hand with both, since two cups of boiled potato absorb a great deal. Season the yolk mixture before folding in the whites, not after.
- YieldServes two generously or three as part of a larger meal. Fold it in the center as directed and cut across the fold to serve.
Potato omelets of this kind travel under many names -- Spanish tortilla, German Bauernfrühstück, farmer's omelet -- and all of them exist because cold boiled potatoes are what a kitchen has left over and eggs are what stretches them. Many American menu books of the interwar decades carried a meatless section, for Fridays, for Lent, and for economy, and a dish with two cups of potato in it was doing the work that meat would otherwise do. The separated and folded whites are what lift it above a plain fried hash, so that it arrives at the table puffed and browned rather than flat.