I love the Delaware State Fair mainly because I love the folks I work with there. My local “partners” are Anne Fitzgerald, the Chief of Community Relations for the Delaware Department of Agriculture and her colleague, Judith Leith. Together – like a well-oiled machine – we have a terrific time shopping, prepping and presenting at the fair, always using fresh Delaware products for the omelets that I demonstrate.
Anne recently informed me Delaware was once the largest producer of peaches in the U.S. So much so, that the peach blossom is the state flower! Though peach production has diminished over the years, Delaware’s love for peaches has not. So, on July 30, at the state fairgrounds, peach pie was declared Delaware’s official state dessert. No kidding.
To celebrate Delaware’s love for peaches, we set out to create a peach omelet dessert of our own. We filled a 3-egg omelet with two fresh peaches that we sliced and sautéed in butter with sugar, sour cream and pecans. We folded the omelet then dusted it with confectioner’s sugar and flamed it with peach flavored brandy. When the fire finally burned itself out, there was a thick, syrupy peach brandy-flavored puddle in the pan that I spooned over the omelet before topping it with sour cream. The result was one of the most fabulous tasting omelets I’ve ever made. We passed out samples to the audience and they swooned – it was that delicious. The recipe is below….enjoy!
DELAWARE PEACHES N’ CREAM OMELET FLAMBE
For the omelet
• 3 eggs
• 3 tablespoons water
• 1 tablespoon butter
For the filling and topping - have these ingredients at the serving table
• 2 fresh peaches, sliced and sautéed in 1 tablespoon of butter and two tablespoons of sugar ½ cup plus ¼ cup of sour cream
• ½ cup chopped pecans
• 2 tablespoons confectioners sugar
• 1/3 cup peach (or apricot) flavored brandy (must be 70-proof to flame)
Make the omelet in the kitchen – Beat together eggs and water. In a pre-heated 10-inch omelet pan, heat butter until it sizzles. Pour in egg mixture. With an inverted spatula, pull cooked portions of egg from the perimeter of the pan towards the center so the uncooked egg can reach the hot pan surface, tilting the pan and moving it as necessary. Always keep the bottom of the pan covered with egg so you end up with an egg “pancake”. Continue until the egg is set and will not flow.
Filling and flaming the omelet at the serving table – Move fast so that the pan retains enough heat to warm the brandy when you pour it in. Take the hot pan with the omelet to the table and place it on a trivet. Moving quickly, spoon the peaches, ½ cup of the sour cream and ½ cup of the pecans onto the left side of the omelet (left-handed people fill the right side). Fold the unfilled side of the omelet over the filling. Dust the omelet with the confectioners sugar, pour the brandy into the pan and let it sizzle a bit, then set it ablaze with a match. Baste the omelet with the burning brandy using a long-handled spoon until the fire goes out. Spoon the thickened brandy from the pan all over the omelet, then top it with the remaining sour cream and pecans. Makes 4 generous servings.
A couple weeks ago I personally visited the test kitchen staffs of three women’s magazines: Woman’s Day, Family Circle and Everyday with Rachael Ray. The reason was because the magazines are already thinking about their January issues and that means diets and/or breakfast. Diets are a January consideration in an attempt by the magazines to sustain America’s favorite New Year’s resolution, losing weight. Breakfast is a consideration for no particular reason other than the fact that historically, January has been breakfast month on magazine food pages even though no “Official Breakfast Month” exists.
One of the most pleasant aspects of my job with the American Egg Board is keeping eggs top-of-mind with the press in New York. That’s because women’s and food magazines are where many families go for new recipe ideas. The three magazines I chose to visit have the highest circulations, though I stay in constant touch with more than 30 editors to make certain that they never forget to include eggs in their recipe plans! What makes it so pleasant is that these people — and those who man their test kitchens — are so food savvy that there’s never a lull in any conversation with them.
The conversation I was bent on having during my recent meetings was about a recent body of research showing that eggs have such a high satiety (i.e. fullness) value that people who eat them for breakfast end up eating less during the rest of the day, helping them stay energized and lose weight. “Eureka!” I thought. This covers both January food page considerations at one time: breakfast and weight loss!
Everyone knows that eggs are so rich in nutrients that they can help ward off things like macular degeneration in older folks (thanks to their lutein and zeaxanthin) and help brain development in infants during pregnancy (thanks to choline), never mind they contain such high-quality protein, are so very versatile and so economical to boot. Whew.
And if that’s not enough, we know that their satiety value (how much they satisfy the appetite) is great enough to allow for less food consumption throughout the day. That translates to eggs having all of the right things going for it and helping you keep your New Years resolution to eat right and eat less. It’s America’s favorite New Years resolution, you know.
Here’s one of my favorite quick and easy egg breakfast recipes from the American Egg Board’s new recipe section. In fact, there are a ton of delicious new recipes there – please check it out!
What You Need
½ cup shredded Mexican cheese blend
2 whole wheat OR flour tortillas (7-inch)
4 slices Canadian-style bacon
4 EGGS, beaten
Salsa
Here’s How SPRINKLE 1/4 cup cheese on one side of each tortilla. TOP each with 2 bacon slices.
COAT large nonstick skillet with cooking spray; heat over medium heat until hot.
POUR IN eggs. As eggs begin to set, GENTLY PULL the eggs across the pan with an inverted turner, forming large soft curds. CONTINUE cooking - pulling, lifting and folding eggs - until thickened and no visible liquid egg remains. Do not stir constantly.
SPOON eggs on top of bacon, dividing evenly. FOLD tortillas over filling to cover, pressing gently.
CLEAN skillet. COAT with cooking spray; heat over medium-low heat until hot. TOAST quesadillas just until cheese is melted, about 1 to 2 minutes per side. CUT into wedges; serve with salsa.
A friend and colleague of mine, Allison Madell, recently wrote a blog post about putting an egg on top of food for her family to give it a different (and nutritious) spin. That reminded me that in the January issue of Bon Appetit magazine, their annually proclaimed “Food of the Year” for 2008 was “Anything with an egg on top”! Remembering this prompted me to search through other culinary and women’s magazines for eggs-on-top recipes in their food pages. Because I scan all magazines with food pages (about 30 of them) for the different ways eggs are being used as part of my job with the American Egg Board, it was easy enough to pull all these recipes. I limited my search to a 4-month period – November 2008 thru February 2009. I found that an egg-on-top-of-something turned-up 14 times in that short period! Those “somethings” included:
o Pizza with an egg on top
o Pasta Carbonara
o Cold frisse salads, a beef salad, and an Asian mushroom salad, all with an egg on top
o An egg on top of hashes including beef hash, salmon hash, turkey hash, sausage and potato hash, and kale hash
o Biscuits with ham and sausage with an egg on top
o Sausage gravy with an egg on top
o Everything “Benedict” had an egg on top, including traditional ham and less traditional smoked salmon
o A bowl of Japanese buckwheat noodles with an egg on top
Of course, these were only a few of the many dishes from around the world that place an egg on top. The Japanese sukiyaki (a stew) dish is served with a raw egg on top and the Korean Bimbimbop is a rice dish served with a raw egg on top. Eggs on top of dishes in France are called ala chervil, and in central Europe, ala Holstein, both terms meaning “on horseback.” A croque madame is an egg-batter-dipped grilled ham and gruyere cheese sandwich served with an egg on top and the traditional steak tartare is served with a raw egg broken on top and mixed into the meat. Warning: for food safety reasons the American Egg Board discourages eating raw eggs in any way.
Did I forget anything? Oops…yes I did! The Italians serve a spinach soup topped with Parmesan cheese and a poached egg on top. I make that myself. The recipe is oh so easy and the dish –when you serve it – is oh so glamorous. Here’s my own recipe for it:
Spinach Soup with a Poached Egg On Top (4 servings)
2 14-1/2-oz. can of chicken broth (low-sodium is okay)
1 9-oz. package of frozen chopped spinach, microwaved per package directions
4 poached eggs
4 heaping tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese
Heat the chicken broth until it simmers gently
Meanwhile, be poaching 4 eggs making certain you stop the poaching while the yolks are still runny
Stir the chopped spinach into the broth.
Ladle the broth with spinach into bowls and top each with a poached egg
Sprinkle a generous tablespoon of Parmesan cheese over all of it and serve
(What could be easier for something so delicious?)
At Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine it took 120 of them! I recently visited the magazine to do a photo-shoot for an article that the magazine is running about me and my love for eggs. For the shoot, the test kitchen set aside 10 dozen eggs (120 eggs) to capture a total of 3 photos: one of me making an omelet, one of me flipping an omelet into the air, and one of me simply cracking eggs into a bowl.
Before I arrived, the food department at the magazine asked me for my favorite “go-to” recipe. Rather than a formal recipe, they were looking for more of a “concoction” of ingredients that you have on-hand at the moment you need to feed people. I guess you’d call it a formula more than a recipe. You’d think that in my case it’d be an omelet, but it’s not. It’s a quiche! I call it – appropriately – “sudden quiche” because it comes together so quickly and no two are ever the same! You may remember this favorite recipe of mine as I have written about it here before!
The “formula” uses a combination of 6 eggs, a cup of milk or half & half, a cup of any kind of shredded cheese and up to two cups of anything in the fridge or freezer mixed together. The whole thing is poured into and baked in a frozen deep dish pie shell, which I always keep in the freezer for a main dish in a pinch. This weekend I made one with leftover chicken ala king. I also always keep a package of frozen creamed spinach in my freezer in case I need it suddenly for a “sudden quiche” occasion.
Back to my photo shoot… most of the eggs were used for a photo of me cracking eggs into a bowl (one-handedly, of course). The photographer was determined to catch one of the yolks as gravity grabbed it mid-air. Not an easy thing to do. Not easy for me, either. But you think that’s hard? Try flipping an omelet into the air with an eye on the camera, one on the fry pan it’s supposed to land in, and smile all the while. It took hours before the photographer finally said “that’s a wrap!” but I had the best time!
My “sudden quiche” will appear in the May issue of Everyday with Rachael Ray magazine. How appropriate because May is officially national Egg Month. Be sure to check out the May issue, but until then…here’s the recipe!
SUDDEN QUICHE
6 Eggs, salted and peppered
1 Frozen deep-dish pie shell (or a sheet of refrigerated pie crust in a 9-in pie shell)
1 Cup of half & half or whole milk (or 2% milk, which is lower in fat but of course not as good)
2 Cups of anything in your fridge that seems like it’ll work
1 Cup of shredded any kind of cheese
Preheat oven to 425-F. Pierce the pie crust all over with a fork. Bake, unfilled, for about 8-minutes. Meanwhile, mix together the eggs, half & half or milk, cheese and anything else and empty it all into the pre-baked pie shell. Reduce the oven to 325-F and bake for 35 or 40 minutes. Let it rest for 5-minutes before serving.
Last week I attended the International Poultry & Egg Association convention in Atlanta, home of Mary Mac’s Tea Room. When it comes to southern food, there’s no place like it! It’s a 63-year-old institution that enjoys landmark status. I try to eat there every time I visit Atlanta. During my recent visit, I was able to eat there twice! Good for my appetite…not so good for my heart.
In my opinion, the best selections on the menu are all fried. Even better, they’re coated with a heavy and eggy “chicken-fried” sort of batter before being drowned in sizzling cooking oil. So, except for a side of mac n’ cheese and collard greens, everything I ate there on my first visit was fried. I was accompanied by 3 friends from South Dakota, Amish country in Pennsylvania and the easternmost tip of Long Island. Clearly, none of us are aficionados of southern fare. In fact, we all consider it positively foreign. But, we all love fried chicken livers so much it was difficult to eat the many, many other dishes in front of us! Those included fried green tomatoes, fried oysters, shrimp and crawfish, the obligatory fried chicken, fried okra and a whole array of other fried foods, all as delicious as you can imagine.
A day later, I returned to Mary Mac’s for lunch, this time with 10 other friends from different places across the country. If you can imagine, we ended up with an even bigger array of southern specialties this time around. So much food was passed around our big round table that I lost track of what I was putting on my plate. There were plenty of the aforementioned battered and fried selections (especially the chicken livers) but because we had a professional nutritionist with us we ordered less caloric dishes, too. The “healthy” dishes included: “Hoppin’ John” (black-eye peas and rice), stewed okra and tomatoes, Brunswick stew (happily, the customary squirrel replaced by chicken), pork chops, spareribs and even a broccoli soufflé. Forget about light and airy where this soufflé was concerned. It was thick and rich and wonderful. I love going to southern food restaurants because it seems there’s always something different to try and new things about food to learn, all of it deeeelicious!
By the way, except for the “soufflé” there wasn’t a single egg-centric dish on the menu that I could find. When I asked the waitress about that she said to me, “Honey…we go through more eggs in our batters than Denny’s does at breakfast.” That made me smile.
Anyway, here’s a recipe for chicken-fried chicken livers. It was a favorite among all of us Yankees. Also, I included a recipe for fried chicken livers with eggs, essentially, a chicken liver frittata.
CHICKEN-FRIED CHICKEN LIVERS
1-1/2 lbs. washed chicken livers
3 tbsp. lemon juice
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. pepper
1/3 cup light cream
¼ cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
2 well beaten eggs
Cracker crumbs
Sprinkle lemon juice on livers. Dip livers into mixture of flour, salt and pepper and then into mixture of cream, onion, eggs and garlic. Re-dip into flour mixture so that they’re generously coated. Allow to set in refrigerator for ½ hour to set the coating. Deep fry.
FRIED CHICKEN LIVERS WITH EGGS
(Like a chicken liver frittata)
½ lb. washed chicken livers
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
4 well beaten eggs
Fry chicken livers in garlic and butter. Mix remaining ingredients together and pour over chicken livers. Stir. Cover and cook on very low heat until eggs are set.
On January 12th, I attended the 2009 Mid-Atlantic Innkeepers and Trade Show Conference at “The Homestead”, a historic resort established in 1766 outside of Roanoke, Virginia. What a beautiful place. It’s nestled in the spectacular Blue Ridge Mountains. Though the exterior of the resort is still its original, the inside has been brought up to the most modern hospitality standards and is absolutely luxurious.
I was invited by the Virginia Egg Council to give an omelet workshop to the Innkeepers and Bed and Breakfast owners who attended the conference. An omelet workshop is a way of permitting guests to make their own omelets. I ship tabletop burners, ladles, spatulas, etc. to the venue where the event will occur, and the venue supplies the omelet filling ingredients. Though the logistics sound unwieldy, it’s actually quite simple (as you can see in the pictures below). I allow one “cooking station” (burner and pan and omelet ingredients) for every 10 guests, so, if there are 100 guests, 10 stations are set up. At the start of every event, I demonstrate the easy 40-second omelet making technique to the group. If each guest actually prepares their omelet in the 40-second to 1-minute time frame, all of the cooking is accomplished in 10 or 15-minutes total. Really! Because I have given the omelet workshop to this Virginia group in the past, I decided to raise the bar this time. Rather than filling one side of the omelet and folding it, I had them sprinkle their ingredients all over the top of it. They slid the whole omelet out of the pan and onto a warm flour tortilla already waiting on the dinner plate. Then, the tortilla is rolled with the omelet inside and cut in half making a perfect omelet wrap.
It was an experiment. Could a hundred people cook an omelet, fill it, slide it onto a tortilla, roll it and walk away with it in a minute or so’s time? The answer is YES! Well, most took about 90-seconds or slightly longer, but it didn’t matter. Our guests were so pleased to learn this new spin on breakfast that the event was a huge success. It all couldn’t have happened without Cecilia Glembocki and Mary Rapoport from the Virginia Egg Council who not only coordinated this opportunity with the group, but plunged right into every aspect of the event’s planning and execution. Tip o’ the hat to them!
Here is the recipe for an omelet wrap.
TEX-MEX OMELET WRAP
For the omelet
2 eggs
2 tablespoons of water
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
1 burrito size flour tortilla (at least 10” dia.)
For the filling
¼-cup diced red & green peppers, combined
¼-cup diced red onion
½-cup diced pre-cooked bacon, chicken, shrimp and/or ham
¼-cup diced fresh tomato
¾-cup shredded cheddar and/or jack cheese
3 or 4 tablespoons salsa
Heat a 10-inch omelet pan. Heat the tortilla in the hot pan for about 15-seconds on each side. Place the tortilla on a serving plate.
To make the omelet:
Beat together eggs and water until blended. In the same omelet pan, heat butter or margarine until it sizzles. Pour in egg mixture. With an inverted spatula pull cooked portions of egg from the perimeter of the pan to the center so uncooked egg can reach the hot pan surface, tilting the pan and moving it as necessary. Continue until the egg is set and will not flow, but is still moist on top.
Sprinkle all of the filling all around the top of the omelet. Holding the plate with the tortilla in one hand and the omelet pan in the other, slide the omelet on top of the tortilla. Roll the tortilla (don’t do it too tightly). Fold the sides inward first, then roll from the back forward.
To serve:
Slice the rolled tortilla in half. Place one half horizontally on the plate and lean the other half upright against it. Puddle some salsa, guacamole and/or sour cream on the plate. Makes 1 serving.
The Maryland Egg Council runs ads on one of Baltimore’s most popular radio stations, 101.9 Lite FM, and encourages listeners to visit the radio’s amazing recipe website for egg recipes and videos. Recently, I headed down to Maryland so the egg council could feature ME in these videos – they filmed me preparing my famous 40-second omelet, an omelet wrap and my flaming dessert omelet.
Taping these 8-minute “egg infomercials” was a lot of fun and a great opportunity for me to talk about the nutrition, versatility and value of eggs while also sharing some great recipe ideas with the host, Sharon! They’re available here: http://whatsfordinner.vertasource.com/.
That same day, the host, Sharon, also did a video for Land O’ Lakes, making a breakfast pizza in a skillet. I don’t have the exact recipe, but I wanted to share the basic outline since it looked so good! The great thing about this recipe is it doesn’t need specific quantities of certain ingredients because it’s kinda all up to whatever you have in your fridge and whatever you’re feelin’ like. Enjoy!
Breakfast Pizza
Lay a sheet of refrigerated pie crust into a 10-inch frypan and crimp the perimeter like it was going to be a pizza.
If the pan doesn’t have an ovenproof handle you’ll have to wrap it in foil because the pan is going into the oven.
Whisk together 6 eggs and a half-cup of half & half or milk. Season with salt and pepper, then pour it into the pie crust.
Sprinkle on any other topping that suits your fancy: bacon, diced onions, peppers, spinach or any other cooked veggie or meat.
Then cover the whole thing with about a cup of shredded cheddar or any other kind of cheese that suits you.
Bake it all in a pre-heated 350-degree oven for 40 to 45 minutes.
Take it out and let it stand for 2 or 3 minutes before slicing it into wedges and serving.
With everyone doing lots of baking during the holiday season, I thought I’d show you my trick for how to crack an egg using one hand – which will surely impress your guests! Check out this short video.
That’s what was cooked up on November 2nd in the town square of Abbeville, Louisiana, just a few miles up the road from Lafayette. It was served over a slice of French bread to about 2,500 townspeople and visitors! I was there and I helped cook it! Officially, I was invited to the two-day “Giant Omelette Festival” to give my omelet demonstration and be an “honored guest.” And I was.
The Festival’s history goes that according to legend, when Napoleon and his army were traveling through the south of France they decided to rest for the night near the town of Bessieres. Napoleon feasted on an omelet prepared by a local innkeeper that was such a culinary delight he ordered the townspeople to gather all the eggs in the village to prepare a huge omelet for his army. From this beginning came a world-wide “Giant Omelette” fraternity rich in friendship, tradition and cultural exchange known as the Confrerie. This year, members of the Confrerie, came to Abbeville from French-speaking areas of France, Belgium, Canada, New Caledonia and Argentina. Abbeville residents also speak to one another in French and enjoy a history rich in French influence. Giant Omelette Celebrations take place in each of the Confrerie’s six countries. It’s serious stuff.
But because it’s a fraternity, it’s all about having a good time, too. For two days the Abbeville townspeople literally danced in the streets to Cajun fiddlers, washboard scrapers, guitar and harmonica players and drummers. I’d say that the dancing was kinda’ like two-stepping, but there was no disciplined way. There were waltzes, though, and everyone seemed to do that beautifully together. And food galore…all of Louisiana’s wonderful traditional dishes, so many of them that I’m going to devote an entire blog post to what I ate there. Check back for that!
In the meantime, here’s the recipe for the GIANT omelet (though I don’t recommend trying this at home):
Abbeville’s Gigantic Omelet (serves 2,500!)
5,024 eggs
52 lbs butter
1-1/2 gal cooking oil
6-1/2 gal milk
3 lbs salt
2 lbs black pepper
4 buckets crawfish tails
2 gal diced scallion greens
50 lbs diced onions
75 diced green bell peppers
2 gal chopped parsley
Tabasco sauce to taste
Crack the eggs by hand into 5 or 6 mega-size stainless steel stock pots. Add the milk, salt and pepper. Stir these ingredients together with a small outboard boat motor.
Meanwhile, heat a 12-foot diameter skillet over a bonfire until it’s hot. Add the butter and oil, then empty the stock pots of egg into it and begin stirring the mixture with wooden oars. Add all the remaining ingredients by walking slowly around the pan and tossing them by handfuls into the egg. Continue to stir until done. Move the pan from over the bonfire and, using big serving spoons, spoon the omelet onto slices of French bread in bowls and serve hot.
Christine at the blog “From Dates to Diapers… And Beyond” is a mom to SIX kids, all of whom are 7 years old. Christine also looks for ways to keep herself and her family healthy, and to that end she has launched a Breakfast Challenge.That’s where we come in.
With the help of the American Egg Board, Christine’s Breakfast Challenge is underway.Every morning for a month, Christine will eat eggs, getting all of their nutritional, economical, versatile – and let’s not forget the tasty – benefits. She’ll begin each day with an egg breakfast, hoping to see a marked improvement in her mental and physical energy levels, and she’ll document the results. Supermom that she is, it sounds like she really needs the kind of fuel that a breakfast of eggs can provide!
Lots of Christine’s readers have been commenting Christine on her challenge and offering support. If you’re a supermom – or if you just want to start your day off right – go to Christine’s site and join her in the challenge! The Breakfast Challenge could change the way you rocket through your own busy days, supermom or not.
To help you start off with an egg breakfast, here’s one of the quickest and easiest ways to go, and it’s a real kid-pleaser. It’s microwaved scrambled eggs and it delivers an incredible and eeeeasy breakfast:
MICROWAVED SCRAMBLED EGGS
2 eggs
2 tablespoons low-fat or non-fat milk
Salt & pepper to taste
1 teaspoon butter (optional)
In a 10-oz. custard cup or similar small bowl, beat together the eggs and milk with seasoning. Add the butter, if you’d like.
Put the cup in the microwave and cook on full power for 1 minute. Open the door at 30 seconds and stir the eggs with a clean fork. At the end of the minute, stir again.
If the eggs are not yet cooked (microwaves vary!), cook the eggs for another 30 seconds. They should be done and ready for you to enjoy. If for some reason they are still not cooked, cover the cup with a piece of plastic wrap and let the eggs sit in the cup for about a minute. The steam will finish the cooking.
