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Small Omelette Celestine
Mix by beating 6 eggs with 2 ounces of pounded macaroons, 1 tablespoonful of sugar, and a pinch of salt. Make of this 4 small omelettes, and fill one with orange marmalade, one with green gages, one with currant jelly, and one with apricot jam. Dust with sugar, glaze them brown, and serve hot.
A sweet omelette in the French style, made in four small pans-full and finished under direct heat. The whole thing takes ten minutes, so have the four preserves spooned out and waiting before the eggs go near the pan.
- MacaroonsThese are crisp almond macaroons of the amaretti type, not the soft coconut macaroon or the French macaron. Two ounces is about 1/2 cup of crumbs once crushed; roll them in a bag or pulse briefly, leaving a little texture rather than flour.
- Green gagesGreengage plums, here as preserve or jam. If you cannot find greengage, any tart plum jam or damson stands in; the point of the four fillings is a range from sharp (currant) to sweet (apricot).
- Fat for the panThe original assumes it. Use about a teaspoon of butter per omelette in a 6- or 7-inch pan, hot enough to foam but not brown.
- Divide the mixtureSix eggs across four omelettes is roughly a scant 1/2 cup of mixture each. Measure rather than eyeball, or the last one comes out thin and overcooks before it can be folded.
- Cook softThe macaroon crumbs and sugar make the eggs set faster and catch more readily than a plain omelette. Pull the pan off while the surface is still glossy, spoon a tablespoon of preserve down the centre, and fold; residual heat finishes it.
- "Glaze them brown"In a kitchen of this period this meant a salamander, an iron disc heated red and held over the sugared surface. A broiler at its highest setting for 30 to 60 seconds does the same, as does a kitchen torch. Watch it: the dusting sugar goes from caramel to burnt quickly.
- ServingFour small omelettes serve four as a dessert or two generously. A filled sweet omelette is at its best straight from the heat and will soften and leak as it stands, so glaze and send them out one at a time.
Sweet omelettes were a standard dessert course in the French repertoire of the late nineteenth century, and cookbooks of the period list them by the dozen: omelette au rhum, aux confitures, soufflee. The garnish name Celestine attaches to several dishes in that repertoire, usually indicating shredded or filled pancakes and omelettes. What is distinctive here is the pounded macaroon beaten into the eggs, an old trick that both sweetens and gives body, so the omelette holds its fold under the salamander: four small omelettes, four different preserves, served hot and browned on top for effect.