1Hello this is Chef John from foodwishes.com with...
2The French omelet.
3That's right! you might not think you need a video for how to make an omelette
4but unless you've already somehow mastered this magical technique, I really think you do
5and it won't be until you make one of these and try it yourself.
6when you'll realize just how badly you needed to know how to do this
7since, quite simply put, it's unlike any other omelette experience.
8So with that, let's go ahead and get started.
9And as you may have heard, to make an omelette you got to break a few eggs.
10Three large ones to be exact.
11And of course, farm fresh or at least the freshest highest quality eggs you can manage.
12Please do not buy your eggs at the same place you buy your motor oil.
13And then to our three large eggs, the only other things we're gonna add are a pinch of salt
14and a few drops of cold water, like a half a teaspoon
15and other than a ridiculous amount of butter, that's gonna be it for our ingredients.
16And then what we'll do at this point is grab a whisk and bust those eggs right in the yolks.
17And we're gonna whisk those for a minute or two or until they turn sort of liquidy.
18Right when you first start whisking, they're gonna be kind of thick and viscous.
19But you'll see after about a minute or so the mixture is gonna kind of thin out
20and you know you're done when the eggs drip off the whisk like this.
21Okay, so we want to make sure our eggs are well beaten.
22We want no visible egg whites at all.
23So those are looking good
24and once that's been accomplished we'll simply set that aside and head to the stove to prep our pan.
25And ideally we're gonna use about a 9 or 10 inch non-stick
26which we will place over medium-high heat and melt a tablespoon of butter.
27Except when a french chef is making an omelet and they tell you to put a tablespoon of butter in,
28they always mean more like two tablespoons.
29And what we'll do is let that melt over medium-high heat.
30As we stand by armed with hopefully a large flexible rubber spatula,
31one that's heat proof of course.
32And what we'll do as soon as that butter's melted but before it starts to sizzle,
33we will go ahead and quickly pour in our eggs.
34At which point we'll begin a three-stage process
35which is the scrambling the spreading and the folding.
36So we'll dump our eggs in and we'll start working them over with a circular motion with our spatula.
37And in culinary school, they taught us to do this in a figure eight
38but i never did master that.
39And I found it splashed eggs up the side of the pan
40so I prefer using more of the circular motion you see here.
41While at the same time sort of shaking the pan.
42And if you notice since these eggs are still very loose.
43when I shake the pan it kind of levels them out.
44Well, basically we're gonna continue this scrambling stage until that stops happening.
45Okay, when our eggs start firming up enough where we can't really do that
46and we sort of have to spread with a spatula even amount
47which is sort of where we're at right now.
48What we want to do is turn our heat down to low
49and we will go from scrambling to spreading.
50And all we're doing is sort of moving around the runny eggs to less runny spots
51and what we'll do is continue spreading that mixture around on low until our surface is wet but not runny,
52which is what I have right here.
53Okay, so we don't have pools of runny egg but the surface is still very wet, very moist.
54And once it reaches this point what we'll do is turn off our heat and fold it up.
55So we'll start at the handle and roll perpendicularly to the other side
56but not all the way.
57We want to stop a couple inches away from the edge
58because what we'll do is use our spatula to fold that edge towards the middle
59so that we somehow someway end up with the seam on the top.
60And because these eggs are nice and soft and custardy, they're very easy to shape
61and at this point you might think we're ready to serve but we're not.
62What we're gonna do is toss in a couple small chunks of butter.
63Not necessarily as much as I just did but a few chunks.
64And what we'll do is let that melt and kind of push that under the omelet to lubricate it
65or at least that's what the French chefs say.
66They say it's gonna be easier to get the omelet out of the pan if we do this.
67But I don't think that's the real reason.
68I really think it's because they want us to add more butter,
69plus I think the texture of your omelet is gonna be better if this sits for a minute in the pan
70but anyway we're gonna toss in a little extra butter and kind of spread it over and push it underneath.
71And what we'll do once that's melted is sort of push our omelette to the edge of the pan.
72At which point we can carefully flop it over onto a plate making sure the seam side goes down
73because the ultimate goal of a french omelet is a perfectly smooth glistening surface.
74And of course once it's on the plate you can shape it any way you want.
75Some people like to leave the ends open but I like to sort of taper them.
76Although maybe after this I will reconsider
77but anyway we're going to plate our omelette and finally it's time to eat.
78Just as soon as we add some more butter.
79No, i'm not kidding,
80the last official step for any real french omelet is to brush or spread a little bit of butter on the top to sort of give that surface a beautiful shine.
81But once that's done finally we can eat
82with a little bit of watercress and of course some toasted bread.
83And I was just about to say I could have made that a lot nicer if I wasn't filming it
84but you know what that's not actually true.
85This is probably one of the better French omelets I've ever made,
86which reminds me who cares what it looks like
87as people in the know know the true beauty of a french omelet lies within.
88So let me go ahead and cut in so you can see what I'm talking about.
89You know, I usually don't need a fork and knife for my omelet
90but I wanted to get a nice clean cut so you would be able to see this.
91Because of our three stages of scrambling spreading and the folding
92we basically created layers and layers of beautiful custardy eggs,
93this is like an entirely different food than your typical overcooked golden brown dry American omelet.
94I mean, look at that! It's just so insanely creamy and delicious.
95And by the way, if you want to add some of your favorite fillings before you fold this up go ahead.
96I mean you are the Suzanne Plichette of your French omelette
97but if you've never made one of these before, I highly suggest you make it as shown
98just so you can taste the magic that is the pure and true French omelet
99but of course a little bit of cayenne never hurt.
100Sorry, I couldn't resist.
101But anyway that's it my method for doing French omelets
102which by the way is the only omelet we're allowed to have wine with at breakfast
103like maybe a nice cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc.
104And i'm not sure if that's the best pairing but I do know how to pronounce it.
105But anyway, whether you're gonna make this to impress someone at some fancy breakfast
106or you just can't figure out what to eat on some rainy weeknight,
107I really do hope you give this a try soon.