Eggs on Fire!

A simple versatile less than 10-minute morning egg dish on repeat...

7:30 am today: The pitter patter of rain on the windows outside my house makes me want to curl up in bed with a good book, a simple breakfast and a cup of chai on the table next to me. The ginger in the steam rising and hitting my nostrils awakens me. While I have been up for a couple of hours doing my morning routines…it is finally time for breakfast. A quasi omelette of sorts in on my mind.

I was severely allergic to eggs until I turned 12. I still cannot eat eggy eggs, just the smell puts me off. Throughout my twenties and thirties, I did not eat eggs and even at Indika (my first restaurant), back in the day, we barely had any egg dishes except for our Sunday brunch.

Fast forward to after I opened Indika and remarried, my new husband Abel could literally eat eggs for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was his go-to food. I’d make eggs for him for breakfast but I would not touch them. Over time, I learnt that if I put a lot of ‘stuff’ in eggs, I could actually enjoy eggs. I started making eggs with all kinds of things from onions to ground lamb to spinach and herbs. Eggs as a binder, essentially..

Around that time, one of my best discoveries was to use up leftovers in eggs for breakfast. I’d make an omelette and stuff it with leftover lamb shank, saag or a shrimp stew from the night before. The Railway omelet at Pondicheri (one of our best selling breakfasts) has so many vegetables that the eggs just works as a binder mostly.

For home, today I bring you a simple omelette that I make over and over again. I am only using one egg, which is all I really want. Everything cooks in one pan. You can turn the omelette off when it is halfway done, take that time to make coffee, gather reading material or whatever…When you return 5 minutes later, the omelette will be perfect.

There are more vegetables than egg. The chickpea flour in the egg mixture makes the egg not taste so eggy and almost like a pancake. I can make it in under 10 minutes and with some practice, so can you. You may not want to add the serrano pepper and ginger to your eggs, I keep those minces ready in my fridge for this sort of quick cooking. You can use any vegetables you have like zucchini, asparagus or green beans….

Morning Omelette (for one)

4 tablespoons olive oil (yes, I like to use plenty of good fat)

1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds

1/2 red bell pepper, sliced

Few slices of onions

Scant salt and pepper

1 egg, whisked with 1 tablespoon chickpea flour, a touch of milk, some salt, pepper, minced ginger and Serrano.

Roughly a couple of tablespoons of sliced purple cabbage

4 to 5 small cherry tomatoes

A little bit of crumbled chèvre

Herbs as much or as little as you like

1. Over medium heat, warm a well seasoned pan. Add the olive oil and when hot, pop the mustard seeds. Immediately add the bell pepper, onions, salt and pepper.

2. Stir for a few seconds then lower the heat and cover the pan. The peppers will need to wilt and cook. This takes about 2 to 3 minutes.

3. Make sure the peppers and onions are distributed well over the pan before gently pouring the egg mixture over and around it. Add the sliced cabbage, tomatoes and goat cheese on top.

4. Cover the pan and within a minute or two, turn the pan off. Walk away for 4 to 5 minutes, then come back and take the lid off. Add herbs and slide onto a plate. Enjoy!

Have a wonderful weekend! See you next time…

Warmly,

Anita

Please excuse typos and such…