Everyone should know how to make a 2-egg omelette. It’s great for breakfast, lunch or dinner, you can customize it to the fillings you like, and you can cook it just the way you like it.
Omelettes are fast and simple to make — you just need a few key pieces of information.
Ingredients:
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon water
- 1 pinch salt (kosher or table salt)
- Fillings
- 1 teaspoon butter or margarine, or nonstick spray
Crack the eggs into a small bowl; add the water and salt. Beat 45-60 seconds with a fork or small whisk until the texture is even — lift the fork/whisk straight up out of the eggs; if the egg falls off the fork in lumps, keep beating.
Put the butter or margarine in a small skillet, or spray the bottom of the skillet. Preheat the pan over low heat — the butter will bubble when ready.
Pour the egg mixture into the skillet, and give it a quick stir with a spatula. Let the eggs cook undisturbed for 1-2 minutes until it solidifies on the bottom enough to be able to stick a spatula underneath it without falling apart. Using the spatula, lift up one side of the eggs and tilt the pan so that the uncooked egg on top runs underneath the part you have lifted up. Place it back down on the burner.
Add fillings by sprinkling them on one half of the eggs. Let sit for 30 seconds, then using the spatula fold over the side with no fillings on top of the side with fillings.
When the eggs are cooked to your level of dryness/brownness, slide the omelette out of the pan and onto a plate, season to taste, and serve.
Notes and tips:
- Bring the eggs up to room temperature before making the omelette, if you can. This is a good general rule when cooking. If you use cold eggs, then you will change the amount of time your recipe needs to cook — and the other ingredients might not like being cooked for longer. Store-bought eggs in the United States are good for at least a day or two at room temperature, and certainly for the 30 minutes it takes to bring them up to room temperature. If you forget to plan ahead, then stick your eggs in a bowl of room-temperature water for 5 minutes.
- Cook eggs over low heat! Different kinds of protein require different temperatures for optimal cooking. Eggs are a delicate protein, and should be cooked over low heat whenever possible.
- Use non-stick spray or margarine if you must, but omelettes are so much better when cooked in butter. You get some really nice flavor from the milk proteins browning.
- There is almost no limit to the kinds of fillings you can add to an omelette. Cheese is a favorite, as are sausage and bacon. Chopped onion, or green onion, works well. Herbs, tomato, other garden vegetables like zucchini. Root around in your fridge to see what you have handy, and go crazy.
- Some people use milk for making omelettes; I prefer water. Milk is really great for scrambled eggs because it adds an extra creaminess, and if you like that in your omelette too, go for it. But I find it’s overkill in omelettes, and it competes with the fillings. Water provides steam that will help your omelette to cook thicker and fluffier.
- The hard part about making an omelette is having the self-control not to over-handle it while it’s cooking. Step away from the pan, and just let it cook.