I made Ina Garten's Butternut Squash Risotto with Saffron on Friday night, which is, as always, absolutely delicious. Maybe not so photogenic, but the perfect stick-to-your-ribs kind of meal for a snowy evening. This was the first risotto recipe I ever made.
Saturday, there was no way I was going out until the snow stopped falling, and everybody needs a hardy breakfast before they shovel snow. Ambitiously, I attempted to make an omelet, maybe the 2nd or 3rd I'd ever made. I started with Basil Pesto Chicken & Turkey Sausages from Trader Joe's (love TJ), onion and red pepper. After I removed them from the pan and added some more butter, I started on the eggs. Unfortunately, the end result was more hot mess than omelette. I think I made (at least two) mistakes, 1) I cooked the eggs too long before tossing the filling inside. Then when I tried to flip it, the egg was too dry and rigid, causing it to break rather than fold, 2) I used too much filling for the size of the pan/amount of egg.But enough with the critique; it tasted really good! I tried it again on Sunday, but hadn't really learned my lesson, and cooked the egg a bit too long again.
Here's Saturday's hot mess:
Sunday: Please allow the oranges to distract you from the ugly plate, and the structurally unsound pile of eggs.
My omelet-making experience got me thinking about this habit of trying something without really having any good idea of how to do it. Obviously, one learns to cook through experimentation, but I'm sure even my first and second efforts could have been more successful had I done some kind of research beforehand. The sort of pathetic part is, I'd still like to learn how to make an omelet that doesn't fall apart, but haven't sought out the advice yet. Any ideas on where to start? A good-old cookbook, like Joy of Cooking? The web? Blogs?
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