Indian Bread Omelette

"Omelette" is often spelled "omelet" in the U.S., and it is one of those words I have to think about the spelling before I write it. This is one of the common food items sold by street vendors in India. It is easy to make, although it is certainly helpful if you have a 10 to 12 inch diameter nonstick skillet, so that the bread slices easily fit, but if you don't have that large a skillet, you can press the bread in, or better yet, cut the bread so that it fits into your skillet. I'm not aware of any "Indian bread omelette law," so improvise, as the main idea is, the Indians cook the eggs, seasonings and bread all together, and I've seen recipes that call for the bread to be chopped into various sizes. Further, you can just use 1 slice of bread for a smaller serving, if you'd prefer. Chop the onion, chili pepper and tomato into small pieces, as they will then naturally cook faster. Serve with szechwan sauce,* green chutney,** or plain.

 

Ingredients (per serving):

 

2 slices sandwich bread (white or whole wheat)

2 to 3 extra large eggs

1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper (like cayenne)

1/4 teaspoon salt

pinch black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander

1 tablespoon finely chopped green chili (jalapeño or serrano are great)

1 heaping tablespoon finely chopped onion

2 tablespoons chopped tomato, small chop

2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander/cilantro

2 to 3 tablespoons oil or ghee (clarified butter)

 

Have the chopped ingredients ready. Preheat the skillet and oil/clarified butter over medium high heat, reduce the heat a little if the oil starts smoking (Can't you read the sign? NO SMOKING!). In a bowl, beat the eggs well with the ground red pepper, salt, ground coriander and ground black pepper; set aside temporarily. If you've ever cooked something in butter, you know that regular butter burns easily. Clarified butter, known as ghee in India, has a better tolerance for higher heat and longer cooking times, as it is butterfat without the milk solids, but it is just as easy to use vegetable oil if you don't have clarified butter. Add some oil or clarified butter to the skillet over medium high heat. When the oil is hot, add the onion, chili pepper and tomato and saute for about two minutes, stirring the ingredients around. Add the beaten egg mixture, tilting the skillet to let the egg spread out and cover the softened vegetables and the bottom of the skillet. Dip the bread slices into the still uncooked egg (the bread doesn't have to be saturated with egg), then turn the bread slices over, sprinkle on about half of the chopped coriander (cilantro) and let the omelette cook until the egg mixture is pretty well set, then carefully turn the omelette over to cook on the other side to finish cooking. (Some people are super good at being able to turn the omelettes over, but I'm not one of them, although the bread slices provide support. I turn the omelette out onto a large plate to get the omelette turned over in the skillet.) Let the omelette cook for about another 60 to 90 seconds, then fold half of the omelette, with one of the bread slices, over onto the other half, and onto the other bread slice (kind of like a sandwich), sprinkle the remaining chopped coriander/cilantro over it.       

* The link to "szechwan sauce": https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/04/sichuan-sauce.html

** The link to "green chutney":  https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2020/10/indian-green-chutney.html

 

I put some green chutney on one part and szechwan sauce on the other ...

  

Plain ...

WORD HISTORY:

Magma-This word is related to "mass" (the noun meaning "lump, body of matter"), a word derived from Greek, borrowed by Latin and borrowed by English via (Anglo-Norman) French; and it is distantly related to "among," "mingle" and "make," all words from the Germanic roots of English. It goes back to Indo European "meg/mag," which had the notion, "to knead, to work into, to fashion, to make." This gave transliterated Ancient Greek "massein," meaning, "to knead, to work with the hands." This produced the transliterated noun "mágma," meaning, "thick ointment," which was borrowed by Latin as "magma," meaning, "the sediment in oinment." English borrowed the word in the mid 1400s, but it wasn't until the mid 1800s that it took on its modern meaning and entered somewhat more common usage as "molten rock under the Earth's surface."