Pedro started practicing this omelet last year, in the pursuit of culinary mastery of a few specific recipes. We learned the method from Serious Eats and have adapted from there. The key to this omelet style is to move quickly, and be careful not to overcook. So, you should prepare your ingredients and serving plate ahead of time so that it comes together smoothly.

How do I make a French Omelet?

To prepare, lightly beat or whisk your eggs in a bowl with a pinch of salt. Crumble some goat cheese and dill in a small bowl - this will make it easy to sprinkle into the omelet. Grab a plastic fork - you will use this to scramble the eggs as they cook and avoid scratching the pan. Finally, grab a plate and put it beside the pan. The preparation is critical since speed is key to avoid drying out the eggs and you don't want them sitting on the pan while you search for or prepare ingredients or a plate to serve.

Start by melting the butter over medium heat. A non stick pan is easiest to start. Once the butter is melted and coating the pan, add in the whisked eggs and immediately start shaking the pan back and forth (like if you were getting ready to flip a pancake) and scrambling with the plastic fork. The key is not to let the eggs sit to avoid overcooking them. The higher the heat, the faster you must move through the steps. We recommend starting between medium and low heat until you recognize the right consistency of the eggs.

Once they look just soft enough, but still a little jiggly, add in the cheese and dill. Remember, you must move quickly to avoid overcooking the eggs. Now you'll fold from the top of the pan downwards (the top being where you hold the pan), folding the eggs into a sort of roll. Gently tuck the final edge in to "glue" it together, and slip onto a plate. If you see liquid spilling it means that you could have stirred a little longer, but no worries, just leave the pan tilted and cook that corner a little longer until it is soft enough to seal the omelet. If it is not sticky enough to seal, then we have cooked it for too long.

Here's a visual summary:

The method is easier said than done - it took Pedro quite a few times to master the balance of softly scrambled (i.e., not overcooked), and not too soft such that the omelet leaked. Don't expect your first one to be perfect, but kudos if it is 🙂 You can keep practicing, and experimenting with new fillings, as well!

What are the best French omelet fillings?

We love just simple goat cheese in this omelet, and you can pair it with a variety of fresh herbs chopped finely - basil and parsley or a combination of all three would be great. You can try any other soft or meltable cheese (cheddar, parmesan), just make sure it's shredded so it melts easily in the last few minutes of cooking. The best part about this omelet is the softness of the inside, so you don't want to hide it with too many ingredients!

Print

Goat Cheese and Dill French Omelet

Author Andrea | French Pressed Kitchen

Equipment

• Nonstick pan
• Plastic fork

Ingredients

• ¾ oz goat cheese (21 g)
• ½ Tbsp good butter (7 g)
• 3 eggs
• few sprigs fresh dill (1 g)
• pinch salt
• pinch freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

• Beat eggs in a bowl with a pinch of salt.
• Measure goat cheese and herbs into a separate bowl; set aside.
• Melt butter in the nonstick pan over medium heat. Once melted and coating the pan, add in the beaten eggs. Quickly scramble the eggs in a circular motion, removing the pan from the heat (or reducing heat) if the eggs are cooking too quickly (you want them to look like a soft scramble). This should only take 1-2 minutes.
• Once the eggs are just set on the bottom of the pan, add the goat cheese and dill.
• Holding the skillet at an angle from the handle, start to fold the eggs towards the middle of the pan. This will look more like a roll, and finish towards the bottom of the pan with a sort of "lip" seal. Carefully slide onto a plate.
• Top with freshly cracked black pepper and more dill to serve.

Bon appétit!

The post Goat Cheese and Dill Omelet appeared first on French Pressed Kitchen.

I made this on Sunday after Pedro decided he wanted a HUGE smoked fish from Costco!! We had the fish by itself on Saturday but decided it would pair better mixed into an egg dish (to decrease the saltiness and mellow the taste) - hence the creation of this quiche! I made a little crust on the bottom because I was craving something starchy, but you could make even FASTER by going crustless and making just the egg mixture. We loved it so much we had it two days in a row - the second time for a quick weekday breakfast with arugula and pickled onions. This recipe uses smoked white fish but I think smoked salmon would work well too!

If you try it out, let me know!

Bon appétit!

Print

Paleo Smoked Fish and Spinach Quiche with Lemon

Easy recipe for a paleo and gluten free quiche with smoked white fish, spinach and lemon zest with an almond flour crust!

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 30 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings 4 -6 servings

Author Andrea @ French Pressed Kitchen

Ingredients

Crust (double for a thicker crust - this just covers the bottom)

• 2 Tablespoons tapioca flour
• 1 cup almond flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 3-4 Tablespoons coconut oil or butter or a mix
• 1-2 Tablespoons cold water if needed

Egg mixture

• 8 eggs
• ½ cup full fat coconut milk
• ¼ cup diced smoked fish
• 3-4 cups spinach sauteed until wilted
• 1 lemon zested
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste

Instructions

• Heat oven to 350F (175C) and grease the bottom of a pie dish with a little coconut oil.
• Mix the dry crust ingredients together in a medium bowl. Add in the coconut oil and/or butter with a fork and mix until crumbly and the dough starts to come together. If the mixture is too dry, add 1 Tablespoon of water at a time and mix until a soft dough forms (you may need more - I used about 2.5 Tablespoons). Once the dough forms a soft ball (you don't want it too wet), it's ready to go!
• Press the dough until flat in the pie dish until even.
• Bake for 5-7 minutes until barely set.
• While the crust cooks, in a large bowl beat the eggs with coconut milk until smooth. Carefully stir in the fish, spinach and lemon zest. Finally, add in salt and pepper to taste.
• Add the liquid egg mixture into the slightly cooled crust.
• Bake 30- 35 minutes or until set to desired firmness (if you leave it in longer the eggs will have more structure; less time and it will be a little softer like traditional quiche).

Notes

You can make this quiche crustless as well! Just grease the pie dish and add the egg mixture directly in.

The post Paleo Smoked Fish & Lemon Spinach Quiche appeared first on French Pressed Kitchen.

This hash was inspired by this great restaurant I visited Atlanta, Biltong Bar. It's in Ponce City Market - if you haven't visited this foodie haven, highly recommend! There were so many good restaurants and fun places to window shop. Biltong Bar had their meat to go, so of course I grabbed some! See our dish below:

What's biltong, you ask? It's meat seasoned with vinegar, salt and other spices and then air dried, hanging 3-7 days to create a nice aged taste. Sounds weird, but is delicious. Jerky, however, is usually dried without vinegar, sometimes smoked, and generally dehydrated instead of dried.

SO how you gonna make this. Start with potatoes - I roasted mine the night before as the base. You could also sautee them in the same pan but they may take a little while longer. To start the hash, I heated up the good old Lodge cast iron, added some olive oil, diced onions and peppers and cooked util soft. I threw in the roasted potatoes and biltong at the end, then last minute added in the KALE!! Can't skimp on the greens. This was not in Biltong Bar's dish but I thought it was a good addition :). I meant to cook the eggs first in the cast iron but forgot (ugh), so I made them in our non-stick pan on the side. Then scooped them on top!

Mmm yes dem eggs. Served on my most favorite of plates.

This was breakfast for two + lunch leftovers for me - it was great heated up, even without an egg! You could definitely make it your own with whatever peppers or potatoes (sweet!) you had on hand. Regular jerky (good quality ones of course) would work well here, too! I need to see if I can get more of the biltong shipped to me in the meantime...

Print

Spicy South African Biltong Hash

An easy breakfast or dinner hash featuring South African biltong (or jerky), potatoes and peppers. Leftovers keep great!

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 30 minutes

Servings 2 -3 servings

Author Andrea @ French Pressed Kitchen

Ingredients

• 1 russet potato
• 1 onion sliced thinly
• 2 cubanelle peppers sliced thinly
• 1 -2 handfuls of biltong or beef jerky
• 2 cups shredded kale or spinach
• 1 Tablespoon olive or canola oil
• ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
• Pinch of salt
• 2-3 eggs

Instructions

• Small dice the potato and roast in the oven until brown. This took about 30 minutes on 375 for me. You can do this ahead of time!
• Meanwhile, slice the peppers and onion thinly.
• Heat a skillet on medium. Add the oil, then the onion. Cook until soft and translucent.
• Add the sliced peppers and cook until desired softness (we like our cubanelle peppers a tad crunchy).
• Add the biltong, kale or other greens, salt and pepper. Stir to combine until the greens have just wilted. Turn off heat.
• In another pan, heat to medium and cook eggs to desired doneness. We like ours runny to combine with the veggies!
• Top the hash with eggs, serve and enjoy!!

Enjoy, and let me know if you've had biltong 🙂

The post Spicy South African Biltong Hash appeared first on French Pressed Kitchen.

I suspect this would also make a great breakfast for dinner, as well. You could make this sandwich slightly less intense by including some of the filling ingredients instead of all of them 🙂 but I was so hungry the morning I made this! Layered it all on. I've found that any combination of kale // avocado // egg // sausage // almond butter turns out well. I've tested just egg and almond butter (surprisingly good), as well as the kale // avocado // almond butter combo a few weeks ago (here!). This time around I put them ALL together. Because YOLO right?

Early morning workout meant I was hungrier than usual so I just added all the things...Starting with a toasted bagel, I made an avocado and almond butter base. Already looks great and you could even stop here, ha!

Then I cooked up the kale and sausage (frozen, so pre-cooked!) in the microwave. The microwave steam action has been working great lately. I can multi-task! Then, cooked up the runny egg on the side.

Smashed it all together, added toothpicks to keep it together and gingerly cut it in half, Not an easy feat, but worth it for the cross sectional. Also, there was no way I could bite into the sandwich whole. Close up because NOMS:

I was debating whether almond butter or avocado should go on the bottom. It's kind of a toss up / personal preference like peanut butter and jelly (I always do nut butter first) but I thought avocado seemed appropriate for the base, maybe because it's more savory.

Try out this protein packed green sammie and let me know what you think!!

Print

Almond Butter, Avocado + Egg Breakfast Sandwich

A power breakfast sandwich featuring kale, almond butter and avocado. Option to add in sausage and egg for a protein packed meal!

Course Breakfast

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes

Total Time 15 minutes

Servings 1 big sandwich

Author Andrea Shome

Ingredients

• 1 bagel or two slices toast
• 1 handful of kale baby or regular
• 1 sausage patty optional if you want to do vegetarian
• 1 egg
• 1 Tablespoon almond butter
• 2 Tablespoons avocado
• Sea salt

Instructions

• Cut the bagel in half and toast both sides. I like mine crunchy!
• Wait until it cools slightly, then spread one half with almond butter and the other with avocado. Sprinkle the avocado side with sea salt.
• Microwave the kale for about a minute with some water to steam it slightly. Let cool and drain if needed. If using frozen sausage, microwave that as well until thoroughly warmed (I did my kale and sausage together). If using fresh sausage, pan fry it in until thoroughly cooked.
• In the same pan, fry an egg until it reaches the consistency you like.
• Layer the sausage if using, kale and egg on top. of the sandwich base. You can also skip the sausage and egg and just just double down on kale, almond butter and avocado for a vegan option!
• Smoosh and enjoy!

Notes

You could make this with two pieces of your favorite bread or even try an open faced sandwich!

Bon appétit my friends!

The post Almond Butter, Avocado + Egg Breakfast Sandwich appeared first on French Pressed Kitchen.

During our first Whole30 the husband and I were eating a lot of eggs so we experimented with lots of ways of cooking them and figured out what our personal favorite egg types were. He likes his super runny, while I prefer mine with a little more structure – gooey!! Otherwise defined as slightly runny, but not all over your plate. That’s hard to clean up you know? This applies especially for egg sandwiches. Have you ever had one where the yolk just goes all over your hand? Yeah, messy. I try to combat this at home with the perfect cooking texture.

So how does once achieve such perfection?

Start with a pan on medium heat. We use a mix of our cast iron and a nonstick pan; here the nonstick is shown. Note that cooking time varies based on stoves and pan, but I’ve listed mine here for reference. Add a touch of oil to the pan, more if needed for your pan (our cast iron usually needs quite a bit more). Crack in the egg!

Don’t touch it! Let the egg whites cook. Once they start to get firm, we’re getting closer. I usually add in a second egg a bit later for Mr. P so the eggs are done around the same time.You can see in this picture below that the white of the egg up top is more firm. This is what we are aiming for.

After about 4 minutes turn down the heat to low to let the egg keep cooking a tad more. When you can move the pan without the yolk jiggling too much, you’re set. Sometimes I'll flip the egg, turn the heat off and let the egg(s) sit if I want it to cook a bit more, but sunny side up keeps the yolk looking nice and bright.

Top on your favorite savory dish and let the yolk soak in!

Bon appétit!

The post The Gooey Runny Egg appeared first on French Pressed Kitchen.