Dinner on Wednesday

Well I got home latish--around 7--from cycling home. No real dinner plans. Thought we'd eat some Trader Joe's. Miriam suggested eggs, so I got started on omlets.

I had done a Spanish egg dish last week (Tortilla de Cebolla) with about 3 pounds of caramelized onions in it, and it was unbelievable wonderful. I wasn't going to spend an hour cooking onions, but I found 2 leeks in the fridge (left over from a carrot and ginger soup I made earlier in the week) so I washed and sliced the leeks small--whites and greens, first with a lengthwise cut (then cleaned in water), then across thinly-- and started them sautéing in about a tablespoon of olive oil.

Meanwhile I got some Swiss chard going as a side dish with red onions that needed to be used up. Sliced them thin in semicircles and started them softening in some oil in my Dutch oven, my favorite for slow cooking.

I turned down the heat on the onions and left them to simmer for a while on low heat. I looked in the fridge and found eight eggs. This was for three of us, but the Spanish dish I used six eggs, and we could have eaten more. I broke all 8 into a bowl and then (because I was out of milk completely), I added about a quarter cup of water. I put in some salt, black pepper, about six drops of Tabasco, and about a teaspoon of an herb mix--Bouquet Garni. Beat the eggs.

I also took out the Swiss chard, rinsed it (though not well enough because some of the diners later found a little grit in it), chopped off and threw away the very bottoms of the stems, then chopped the leaves in four cuts across all of them. Added them to the pot with the onions, turned down the heat, and covered.

Toward the end of this, I put on my 10 in. omelet sauté pan on the stove (with ovenproof handle) and got oil heating hot. Dumped out excess oil so it was just coated. I let the oil head and, meanwhile, added the cooked leeks to the beaten egg mixture. With the oil about smoking, I added the eggs and let them set a bit. Used my favorite heatproof rubber spatula to lift the edges and tip the pan to let uncooked egg get under. While I did this, I put the oven on broil to heat up a bit.

Turned down the heat and let it set. Kept the chard turning with a stir every few minutes through all of this. While the eggs were setting, I grated a small amount (maybe 3/8 cup grated) Morbier cheese I had left over. It needed to be used up--had to cut off some of the outside. I also found some fresh sage that was on its way out soon. Chopped up about a half dozen of its leaves. (What a great smell.)

By this time, the omelet was pretty well set but for the top part. I put the pan in the broiler for maybe two minutes--closer to one--and took it out when the top was fairly solid. Then I took the whole omelet, loosened it from the pan with my red spatula, and slid it onto a ten-inch plate. I then took the pan (with potholder since the handle had gotten quite hot) and held it face down over the plate. Holding the plate against the pan, I flipped both together so the omelet ended up reversed in the pan with what was the part facing the pan now facing up. (I probably could have left out the broiler part since I did this, but I just thought of it as I was going.) I put in on the burner with low heat for about a minute to really set the soft part.

Checked the chard and added a little chicken stock from the fridge (the kind in a box from Trader Joe's) since it was getting dry, and turned off its heat.

I had turned oven to 350 now, and sprinkled the cheese on the omelet. Put the pan in the oven to melt the cheese--maybe two minutes plus. Set the table.

Took out the omelet and slid it off the pan and onto the ten-inch dinner plate. Topped it with the chopped sage.

Put the chard in a serving dish, and all was on the table. Served the omelet in wedges, using a pie cutter.

Start to finish about 30 minutes, I'd say. The diners liked it and we ate every bit (in spite of the sand).

For dessert, we had some very ripe kiwi fruit and some dried cherries. Turned out to be a good paring, I think, and I was imagining a sort of fruit salad with kiwi and dried cherries or maybe a custard base (or better yet, kiwi custard) with the cherries chopped on top. We'll see. . .

No carb with this meal, but Miriam was cooking cheese bread, and we all loved it when it came out of the oven about an hour after dinner. . . . Not bad for a Wednesday.