This is a very good way to make sweetbreads do double duty. Boil a pair of sweetbreads until they are tender. Remove the membrane, cut them into slices; make a cream sauce. Add the sweetbreads, and, if you like, a half can of chopped mushrooms. Make a six-egg omelet, arrange the slices of sweetbread around the omelet and pour over the cream sauce.
OMELET WITH TOMATOES
Beat six eggs. Add a half pint of rather thick stewed tomatoes, a level teaspoonful of salt and a saltspoonful of pepper. Beat the eggs and tomatoes together, and make precisely the same as a plain omelet.
Do not, however, add water, as the tomatoes answer the purpose.
OMELET WITH HAM
Mix a half cup of chopped ham with the eggs after they have been beaten with the water, and finish the same as a plain omelet.
OMELET WITH CHEESE
Beat six eggs until they are thoroughly mixed. Add a half cupful of thick cream, four tablespoonfuls of grated cheese, a saltspoonful of black pepper and a half teaspoonful of salt. Mix and finish the same as plain omelet.
OMELET WITH FINE HERBS
Beat six eggs until thoroughly mixed. Add a half cupful of cream, a tablespoonful of finely chopped parsley, a saltspoonful of pepper and a half teaspoonful of salt. Finish the same as a plain omelet. Serve on a heated platter and put over a little thin Spanish sauce.
SPANISH OMELET
Beat six eggs. Add six tablespoonfuls of water. Add a saltspoonful of pepper, a tablespoonful of finely chopped parsley, a teaspoonful of onion juice. Put six thin slices of bacon in the omelet pan. Cook slowly until all the fat is tried out. Remove the bacon, add a tablespoonful of chopped onion. Cook until the onion is slightly brown, turn in the eggs and finish the same as a plain omelet. Turn onto a heated platter, garnish with red and green peppers, and, if you like, put two tablespoonfuls of stewed tomatoes at each end of the omelet.
OMELET JARDINIERE
Chop sufficient chives to make a tablespoonful. Add a tablespoonful of parsley, a tablespoonful of finely chopped onion, and, if you have it, a little of the green tops of celery. Mix this with six eggs, add six tablespoonfuls of water and beat. Make the same as a plain omelet.
OMELET WITH FRESH MUSHROOMS
This is one of the most delicious of all the luncheon dishes. Put two tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter, a pound of mushrooms, sliced, a half cup of milk and a teaspoonful of salt into a saucepan. Cover and cook slowly for twenty minutes. Make two six-egg omelets. Turn them, side by side, on a large heated platter, pour over the fresh mushrooms and serve at once.
OMELET O"BRIEN
Put two tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter in a saucepan with four tablespoonfuls of chopped onion. Cook until the onion is tender. Then add four chopped Spanish peppers, two tablespoonfuls of thick tomato, or one whole raw tomato cut into bits, four sliced cooked okra, a teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper. Let these cook twenty minutes.
Make a six-egg plain omelet, using bacon fat instead of b.u.t.ter for the cooking. Remove the slices of bacon before they are too hard, as they must be used for a garnish. Turn the omelet onto a heated platter, pour around it the pepper mixture, garnish with the bacon, and send to the table. Canned mushrooms may be added, if desired.
OMELET WITH POTATOES
4 eggs 1 cupful of mashed potatoes 2 level tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter 1 tablespoonful of chopped parsley 1 level teaspoonful of salt 1 saltspoonful of pepper
Beat the eggs, without separating, until thoroughly mixed; add them gradually to the mashed potato, beating all the while; add the salt and pepper. Put the b.u.t.ter into a good-sized saute or omelet pan; when hot, turn the ingredients into the pan, and smooth it down with a pallet knife. Let this cook slowly until nicely browned; fold it over as you would a plain omelet, and turn onto a heated dish. The parsley may be sprinkled over the top, or added to the mixture.
SWEET OMELETS
OMELET A LA WASHINGTON
Put three eggs into a bowl, and three into another bowl. Add three tablespoonfuls of water to each, and beat. Have two omelet pans, in which you have melted b.u.t.ter. Grate an apple into one bowl, and into the other put a little salt and pepper. Stand two tablespoonfuls of jelly in a dish over hot water while you cook the omelets. Proceed as for plain omelet. The one to which you have added the apple, turn out on a plate. Before folding the other, put in the center the softened currant jelly, then fold it and turn it out by the side of the other omelet. Dust both with powdered sugar, and send at once to the table.
Serve a portion of each.
OMELET WITH RUM
Make a plain omelet with six eggs, turn it on a heated platter. Dust it with powdered sugar, and score it across the top with a red-hot poker. Dip four lumps of sugar into Jamaica rum and put them on the platter. Put over the omelet four tablespoonfuls of rum; touch a lighted match to the rum, and carry the omelet to the table, burning.
Baste it with the burning rum until the alcohol is entirely burned off.
SWISS SOUFFLE
Allow one egg to each person. Have everything in readiness. The maraschino cherries must be drained free from the liquor. Separate the eggs. Beat the whites until they are stiff. Add a level tablespoonful of powdered sugar to each white, and beat until dry and glossy. Add the yolks of three eggs. Mix quickly. Add the grated rind of one lemon and a tablespoonful of lemon juice. Heap this into individual dishes.
Make a tiny little hole in the center and put in a maraschino cherry, leaving the hole large enough to hold a tablespoonful of the liquor when the omelet is ready to serve; dust it with powdered sugar, bake in a quick oven about three minutes, take it from the oven, pour in the maraschino juice and send _at once_ to the table. These will fall if baked too much, but when well made and served quickly, is one of the daintiest of desserts.
OMELET A LA d.u.c.h.eSSE
This is a sweet baked omelet, and is served the same as one would serve an omelet souffle.
6 eggs 1/2 cupful of water 1/2 a lemon"s yellow rind, grated 1/2 cupful of thick cream 1/2 cupful of granulated sugar 1 teaspoonful of vanilla or orange flower water 1 small bit of cinnamon
Put the sugar, water, cinnamon and lemon rind over the fire, boil until it spins a thread and stand aside to cool. Separate the eggs; beat the yolks until creamy, and add the cream, then the strained syrup. Add the vanilla, and when cool fold in the well-beaten whites.
Turn at once into a shallow silver or granite dish, dust thickly with powdered sugar and bake in a quick oven until brown.
OMELET SOUFFLE
This is, perhaps, one of the most difficult of all dishes to make.
When, however, you have accomplished the art, you have one of the most satisfactory desserts. Like the preceding recipe, it must be made at the last moment and sent from the oven directly to the table. The eggs must be beaten to just the right point and the oven must be very hot.
Get everything in readiness before beginning to make the souffle.
Select a bowl, perfectly clean, and arrange the star tube and pastry bag, if you are going to use one. If not, get out a baking dish. Sift six tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar. Separate six eggs. Put three of the yolks aside (as you will only use three), and beat the other three until creamy. Beat the whites until they are very stiff but not dry or broken. Now add three tablespoonfuls of the sifted powdered sugar.
Beat for fully ten minutes. Then add the beaten yolks, the grated rind of a lemon and at the last a tablespoonful of lemon juice. Mix carefully and quickly, but thoroughly. Put four or five tablespoonfuls of this in the bottom of a platter, or baking dish. Put the remaining quant.i.ty quickly in the pastry bag, and press it out into roses. It is easier to make it in small rosettes all over the foundation. Dust quickly with the remaining three tablespoonfuls of sugar. Bake in a quick oven until golden brown. This will take about five minutes.
Serve immediately. To be just right, this must be hot to the very center, crisp on top, moist underneath. If baked too long, the moment the top is touched it will fall, becoming stringy and unpalatable.
Omelet souffles are frequently flavored with rum, which must be mixed with the sugar. Sometimes they are sprayed with sherry just as they are taken from the oven. They may be built up into different forms, and garnished with candied or maraschino cherries, or chopped nuts.