After sleeping in today and then checking my daily feeds/tweets/email, I saw Chris had made an omlette, I got the hankerin' for one too. Besides, since Sean turned me onto the lightbox concept, any excuse to play with the camera is a good one.

A quick glance into the fridge, and I quickly assessed that a Greek omlette was in order. Feta cheese, red onion, kalamata olives, and spinach ( I passed on tomato), 3 free range eggs, a pat of butter and I was set.

I prefer to give my vegetables a quick sauté before starting my omlette. I've seen omlette's made a million ways, and more turn out to be a frittata than an omlette in my opinion, where the "filling" is cooked in the pan, the eggs poured over and cooked until set, and then just folded over. Again, to me that's not an omlette. Once the filling is cooked, I remove it from the pan, add the pat of butter until it melts and bubbles (this is the water and impurities, think of it as a quick clarifying). The next secret to a great omlette is to whip the eggs as much as possible. Some people add a bit of milk or cream, I tend to skip that step, but it doesn't hurt anything, and may help smooth out the eggs when whipping. I've even seen people put the eggs in a blender before making the omlette. The more you whip the eggs, the more air you incorporate, and the fluffier the omlette.

Once the butter is melted and stops bubbling, pour the eggs into the pan, and let set for a minute or two. The eggs should start to firm up on the edges. This is where the next trick comes into play. As the edges set, gently lift up on an edge, and tilt your pan so that the still liquid egg setting on top drains under the set egg. You can do this on several edges. This also helps get that fluffy omlette-ty goodness, vs the flat, dense thing you often get in road house diners.I failed to pay attention to the utensil I was using, so the big black spatula I was using doesn't show up well in the picture, hopefully you get the idea of lifting a corner.)

Once you've tilted and drained the whipped eggs as much as possible, you can now add your filling just off to one side of the pan. You don't want to put it in the center, as you are going to fold over your omlette, and you don't want it to break. You also want an even coverage, as folding it over will help warm your filling, finish cooking the little bit of egg that didn't set, and if using cheese, melt that too.

I like to let it cook a couple of minutes on one side, then flip it over and cook the other side a few more minutes, depending on the amount of filling, the size of the omlette, etc. If you don't have a big spatula to flip your omlette, a secret is to put plate over your pan, put your hand on top of the plate and hold it firm against your pan. You can then invert the plate and pan together, in essence "flipping" the omlette over onto the plate. You can then slide the omlette back into the pan to finish cooking. It may take some practice, and works best with smaller pans, but it beats trying to do it with a tiny spatula or flipping it in mid air if you're not practiced, and watching the whole thing hit the floor for the dog to eat up. Pour your self a big glass of Florida OJ, (heck maybe even make a mimosa) and enjoy.