The Essential James Beard Cookbook (41 page)

1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped

4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

A few gratings of fresh nutmeg

1¼ cups light cream or half-and-half

4 or 5 hard-boiled eggs, cut into ½-inch slices

Toast, for serving

Sauté the onion in butter in a large skillet over medium heat until soft and delicately golden, about 5 minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 or 3 minutes to remove the raw taste of the flour. Add the salt, pepper, and nutmeg, then gradually stir in the light cream, stirring until the sauce simmers and thickens. Let it simmer gently for 3 or 4 minutes to get a good flavor. Taste for seasoning, then carefully fold in the sliced eggs. Heat through quickly and serve on toast.

Soft-boiled Eggs

Plunge large eggs into a pan of boiling water and let boil for 3 minutes after the water returns to the boil. Give very large eggs 30 seconds more. Then remove from the water and serve. If the eggs are very cold, take the precaution of pricking the large end of the shell with a needle before putting them in the water, which will prevent them from cracking. There’s a little egg-pricking gadget on the market now, but the needle works just fine as well.

HARD-BOILED EGGS.
Put the eggs in a pan of boiling water (if they are cold, prick them first with a needle as directed above) and boil for 3 minutes. Then leave them in the water, with the heat turned off, for 9 minutes. Remove and run cold water over them, or plunge them into cold water. Let them cool completely before refrigerating or shelling.

A PERFECT OMELET

MAKES 1 INDIVIDUAL OMELET

Making an omelet requires deftness, speed, plenty of practice, and a pan 9 inches in diameter, with rounded sides and a heavy bottom that will hold the heat. If you use a cast-aluminum or cast-iron pan, it must be used only for omelets and never washed on the inside, merely wiped out with a damp cloth, or the omelet will stick. Should it stick, rub the pan with a sprinkling of kosher salt and a paper towel to remove the residue, then rub with a drop or two of oil and a clean paper towel.

However, after many years of omelet making I have come to the conclusion that the best pan to use is one with a nonstick coating, to which the egg will never stick, no matter how often you wash the pan or use it for other things.

My favorite omelet pan is made of nonstick-coated cast aluminum, 9 inches in diameter, sloping to a heavy bottom 6 inches across. Only the bottom is heavy, the pan itself is light enough to lift and shake with one hand. In this pan it is possible to make an omelet without using any kind of tool—all you need to do is shake the pan vigorously and the eggs will move around and start to set of their own accord.

Don’t worry if you can’t make a perfect omelet at first. This is a technique you acquire by constant practice and by learning to judge the point when the omelet has set just enough and can be rolled and tipped out. The whole process takes only about 30 seconds, so you can make as many omelets as you need in practically no time. Always make your omelets individually. It’s much more difficult, and not very satisfactory, to make a huge one in a big pan and divide it up.

2 extra-large eggs

Scant ½ teaspoon kosher salt

Pinch of freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon water

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Break the eggs into a bowl, add the seasonings and water, and beat lightly with a fork—don’t overbeat, only enough to blend yolks and whites.

Heat your omelet pan over high heat until a drop of water bounces when flicked onto the surface. Add the butter and swirl it around until it melts and foams, which will happen almost immediately if the pan is the right heat. If it browns or burns, the pan is too hot. Remove it from the heat, wipe out the butter with paper towels, swing the pan in the air a little to cool it, and start again.

When the butter stops foaming, quickly pour in the eggs and, shaking the pan with one hand so it moves over the heat, stir the eggs lightly with a fork as if you were making scrambled eggs. (If you use a nonstick pan, use a wooden spatula, not any sort of metal tool, or just shake the pan, which will move the eggs around enough.) When the eggs have set to the degree you like (I like mine French style, still creamy in the center, but you may prefer yours a little more set), start rolling the omelet with a fork or spatula, at the end of the pan near the handle. If you are adding a filling, do this before starting to roll. Tip the pan forward so the omelet rolls onto itself.

Now reverse your grip on the handle, holding it from underneath, hold a plate close to the pan with your other hand, and start to invert the pan, which will tip the omelet onto the plate in a neat roll, with the edges underneath and a lovely smooth surface on top. Serve immediately. Omelets can’t wait.

If you are making more than one omelet, wipe the pan with paper towels after each one, reheat, and add fresh butter to the pan.

Omelet Fillings

Grated cheese (2 to 3 tablespoons) should be added just before the eggs are set, so it can melt.

Herbs, such as finely chopped chives, parsley, and chervil for an omelet fines herbes, or finely chopped watercress, should be mixed into the eggs before they are cooked. Use 1 tablespoon fresh herbs.

One-third cup any of the following, freshly cooked, or reheated, may be added to the omelet just before it is rolled, and any excess spooned over the top just before serving:

Sliced mushrooms, sautéed or creamed

Creamed chicken or chicken hash

Creamed dried beef

Buttered green vegetables, such as pieces of asparagus, broccoli, spinach

Creamed fish

Crumbled crisp bacon

Thin strips of ham, frizzled in butter

Ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded, chopped, and sautéed

Sautéed lamb kidneys, cut into small pieces

Croutons of bread, fried in olive oil, with or without garlic

Sautéed sliced onions

PERUVIAN EGGS

MAKES 8 SERVINGS

A most unusual egg dish that makes a nice change from pasta as a first course or a light luncheon. Credit for this goes to a young Peruvian chef, Felipe Rojas-Lombardi, who at one point in his career helped me with my cooking classes.

Editor: Credited with bringing the concept of Spanish tapas to America at his restaurant-cabaret, The Ballroom, in New York, Felipe Rojas-Lombardi died at the untimely age of forty-six in 1991. Instead of the tomato sauce, Beard says that you can also sauté the egg strips in 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter.

12 large eggs

¼ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, plus more for serving

¼ cup whole milk

3 tablespoons crushed soda crackers or English water biscuits

½ teaspoon dried basil

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Dash of Tabasco

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, as needed

1 cup
Light Tomato Sauce with Garlic

Whisk the eggs lightly in a medium bowl. Add the cheese, milk, crushed crackers, basil, salt, pepper, and Tabasco, and mix well. Melt the butter in a medium nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spoon 2 tablespoons of the egg mixture into the skillet, spread to about ¼ inch thickness, and cook until lightly browned on one side. Flip and brown the other side. Transfer to a plate. Continue with the remaining egg mixture and stack the small omelets on the plate. Roll each one up and cut crosswise into ½-inch-thick strips. Add the tomato sauce to the skillet and bring to a simmer. Heat the egg strips in the sauce for about 2 minutes. Serve with additional grated cheese.

CLASSIC QUICHE LORRAINE

MAKES ONE 9-INCH QUICHE; 4 TO 6 SERVINGS

The French quiche is one of the most popular of American culinary adoptions—and small wonder. While it is essentially a simple dish, it is infinitely accommodating, for the basis is nothing more than a savory custard tart to which different ingredients have been added. A quiche can be served as a cocktail appetizer, a first course, a luncheon dish, or with an entrée as a substitute for both the starch and the vegetable: a pea quiche with chicken; onion quiche with steak, roast beef, or pork; spinach quiche with roast lamb.

Rich Tart Pastry
without the sugar (Pâte Brisée)

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

6 to 8 thick slices streaky (lean) bacon

4 large eggs

1½ cups light cream or 1 cup whole milk and ½ cup heavy cream

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Line a 9-inch pie pan with the pastry and crimp the edges. Line the pastry shell with aluminum foil, and fill with dried beans. Bake in a preheated 425°F oven for about 12 minutes, until the edges are slightly brown. Remove from the oven. Lift off the foil and beans. Brush the bottom of the pastry shell with the mustard. Return to the oven and bake 2 minutes, or until the mustard looks dry. Remove from the oven. Reduce the oven temperature to 375°F.

Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a skillet until it is cooked through but not crisp, about 7 minutes. Drain on paper towels. Cut the slices into small pieces. Spread evenly in the partially baked pastry shell. Beat the eggs lightly in a medium bowl and combine with cream, salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Pour the custard over the bacon. Bake in a 350°F oven for about 30 minutes, or until the custard is set, puffed, and lightly browned. Serve hot, cut into wedges.

NOTE.
Buy bacon that is not flavored with artificial smoke and over-sugared, as most brands are today. Genuine bacon can still be found in many farmers’ markets and good pork stores.

VARIATIONS

CREAM CHEESE OR COTTAGE CHEESE QUICHE:
Substitute 1 cup cream cheese or 1 cup cottage cheese for the milk. Beat the eggs with the remaining cream, combine with the cheese, and rub through a sieve or strainer before adding to the pastry shell. Add the custard and bake as directed.

HAM QUICHE:
Substitute 1½ cups Virginia or country ham of good flavor, cut into small strips and distributed in the shell, for the bacon. Add the custard and bake as directed.

SWISS TARTE À L’OIGNON

MAKES ONE 9-INCH TART; 4 TO 6 SERVINGS

Editor: A quiche by any other name, this early incarnation from 1965 is still quiche.

Rich Tart Pastry
, without the sugar (Pâte Brisée)

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 medium yellow onions, thinly sliced

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

1 cup shredded Gruyère or Emmenthaler cheese

1 cup heavy cream

5 large egg yolks

Line a 9-inch pie pan with pastry. Place aluminum foil over the pastry, and fill with dried beans. Bake in a preheated 425°F oven for about 12 minutes, until the edges are slightly brown. Remove from the oven. Lift off and remove the foil with the beans. (The beans can be reserved for future use as pastry weights.) Reduce the oven temperature to 375°F.