Day dreams and a Spanish Omelet

Posted by Michael on Dec 9, 2008 in Recipes | 0 comments

By Mike Hawkins
www.foodfunk.ca

Today is the day we start dreaming.

Last night, it snowed.  It snowed and snowed and then the temperature plunged.  The thermometer isn’t going to get above minus nine Celsius today.

Whammo, it’s winter.

So we dream.  We dream of warmer air, of sunny heat, of green grass and a mellow breeze.   We long for vine-ripe tomatoes, crisp local lettuce and crunchy fresh vegetables.

But alas, it’s winter and the truck-ripened vegetables have come a very long distance to get to Atlantic Canada. But today’s shipping methods mean that the vegetable quality smack in the middle of December is actually pretty good.  The tomatoes are a little white in the middle but not really that bad.   The bell peppers hit our shelves up here when they’re in the midst of a mid-life crisis and starting to show some wrinkles, but they’re not too bad either.

It’s at this time of year I tend not to make too many fresh salads, but rather focus on stewing vegetables to bring out their best.   Stew, reduce, intensify and spice.

My Spanish omelet is a great example of how to make long-haul winter veggies really sing.   A simple mix of tomato, peppers and sweet onion is spiced with the Spanish standards of bay leaf and paprika, then stewed to intensify their flavour before being stuffed in a simple omelet.  I’ve had this for breakfast, lunch, supper and a late snack too.  The stew can be made ahead of time and simply heated through and served in a fresh-made omelet.  Fast food with flavour!

To get the full effect of bay leaf (and important flavour in Spanish cooking) I grind a few leaves in a spice grinder then add a good pinch of powder to the dish.   Just adding a couple of bay leaves to the dish won’t give nearly as much flavour.  You can grind a bit of pepper with the bay leaves as well and add paprika to make your own Spanish spice mix.

Like any stew, this one’s really versatile and all kinds of things can be added to this basic mix.   I’ve intensified the tomato component in the past by adding jarred or dried sundried tomatoes, for example.  Other elements that can be added to the mix are cooked potato, zucchini, celery, hot peppers, chorizo or other sausage, and anything else that you think might brighten your mid-winter blues!

Spanish Omelet

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 Spanish sweet onion, thinly sliced
1 small red bell pepper, diced
1 small green bell pepper, diced
1 small yellow bell pepper, diced
1 clove garlic, finely minced
2 medium tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/2 cup of water
good pinch of ground bay leaf
1 teaspoon sweet or hot paprika
salt and pepper to taste

For the omelet:
2 or 3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon each butter and olive oil
salt and pepper

Heat a saucepot over medium heat for a few minutes.  Add the olive oil, then the onion.   Saute for a couple of minutes then toss in all the peppers.   Saute and mix for several minutes to soften them.   Add the garlic and sauté for another minute.   Add the chopped tomatoes and the water and mix well.   Add the bay leaf powder and paprika   Let the mixture stew for at least 10 to 15 minutes, uncovered.  Add more water if it gets too thick.  Season well with salt and pepper.    Now prepare your omelet.  Heat a large, non-stick fry pan over medium high heat for a few minutes.   Add the butter and olive oil to the pan and swirl around.   Beat the eggs lightly in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.   Add the beaten eggs to the fry pan and swirl to coat.  For the first 30 seconds or so, use a fork or spoon to gather in eggs toward the middle as it cooks, swirling the pan to add more raw egg to fill in the gaps.   Once it’s nearly set, simply slide onto a pre-warmed plate.  Spoon a good amount of the pepper stew on to one half of the omelet and fold the other half of the omelet over top.  Add another dollop of stew on top of the omelet and serve.   I like it with some grated parmesan cheese as well.